Transfer window has always been controversial
Premier League clubs have voted to close the 2018 summer window for buying players on the Thursday before the first game of that season, which will be on August 9.
However, players can still be sold abroad up until the standard August 31 deadline, which puts English top-flight teams at the mercy of predatory clubs in Europe’s other big leagues. And next year dealing time will be restricted as the World Cup does not end until July 15.
The concept of transfer windows has always been controversial in the English game.
An earlier control was the spring deadline, around the end of March, after which new signings could not play in games with relevance to promotion or relegation. These were the days of 22-team divisions and “two up, two down”, when half of the clubs were playing the last weeks without ambition or fear.
Arsenal once signed Mel Charles after the spring deadline simply to foil the advances of Tottenham Hotspur. Charles had to sit out the last weeks of the 1958-59 season after his then-record £42,750 arrival from Swansea, playing in just a handful of friendly matches.