The window can be a real pane at times!

AS I drove into London on Wednesday morning, I heard Ian Holloway talking passionately about the negative impact the transfer windows have on English football.

It is a very important point that he was making, a point that not enough is made of.

Our game grew strong without transfer windows for a very long time and there are some grave consequences caused by the windows to both clubs and to players that really ought to be thought about.

They have particular resonance down in Leagues One and Two where funds are much tighter. Let me share some examples of how the window can be negative:

1. Player circumstances can change:

Sometimes an illness, a relationship breakdown, a career development (eg education opportunity for an older player) or other factor means that a player is forced to live in a new geography. That player should not be forced to miss half a season of football nor should the club be forced to employ a ‘redundant’ player.

2. New managers will not always want the profile of player they inherit:

Nor will players necessarily want to play under the direction of a new manager. It makes no sense to the mental or emotional health of individuals to force them to remain in an unhealthy situation; that is manager, player or team member. However professional people are, there is often human difficulty in transitional situations. Football is a short career - being at the wrong club for six months is not fair on a player. It’s a big percentage of time in a short career.

3. Clubs do find themselves in difficult financial positions:

Sometimes a sponsor drops out, form and crowd revenues fall, a cup run doesn’t materialise; clubs do need to adjust expenditure. With player wages generally being the most significant cost in a club, it almost feels irresponsible to have a transfer window that prevents a club from transacting essential business.

4. There is a thing in life called ‘force majeure’.

These unplanned/unforeseeable circumstances happen in football too; so, a club may have four professional centre-forwards and they all get injured in unavoidable situations. It’s easy to shout out that ‘that’s where you use your youth system’, but that might not be realistic. The players at youth level might simply not be ready to jump up to the required level. It could even be damaging or dangerous to throw them into a situation like that. Do we really want to force clubs to play without the correct balance of players and deny possible loanees from elsewhere the chance of some first-team football? I say we shouldn’t. In the end, financial difficulties could emerge as a consequence of this type of restriction and that cannot be what anybody wants.

5. Players build opportunities for themselves which come at moments in time just as people in all walks of life do the same in their normal employments:

It seems unfair to me that a player should be prevented from completing a deserved move from, say, Accrington to Everton just because the window is shut. If the player’s form is right, Everton’s need is there, and the clubs can agree a fee, then the benefits of working with ambition should be available to all. Restricting promotional opportunities is hardly equitable. I’ve had a player who became the subject of a discussion around a seven-figure January transfer due to his form who subsequently lost the move due to injury. Who can say if the injury happened because the player was beginning to think about staying fit for the move and stopped playing as he normally would? If the move is there, let the parties decide, not the punitive transfer window.

There are counter arguments to everything, but I have vast experience in lower league football and these points have a big impact, particularly on smaller clubs.

I’m not saying that Bury would have found financial answers to their problems if they had been able to sell key players in February or March last season, or if they had been able to reduce ongoing liabilities and expenditure. But who knows? They had plenty of talented footballers and although they may not have been promoted they may still be a Football League club.

Ian Holloway, pictured, is right. We ought to review the benefits of the transfer window and think about the negative consequences in a much more appropriate way.