TRANSFER DEADLINE DAY
Yorkshire clubs set for frantic rush to ‘wheel and deal’ before window closes
‘DON’T GO to bed just yet...there is still work to do,’ is a tweet that Leeds United’s official account has never quite lived down.
Sent out just 10 minutes or so before the first summer transfer window under Massimo Cellino’s control was due to slam shut in 2014, the message referred to a late, late move for Sassuolo’s Leonardo Pavoletti.
Considering the Italian subsequently joined Genoa for £4m and then Napoli earlier this year for £15m, United’s attempts to bring the striker to England were suitably audacious to justify supporters staying up a few more minutes.
Leeds’s problem, however, is the deal never got done and noone outside the club hierarchy had any idea about the interest in Pavoletti – meaning when the club’s Twitter feed revealed shortly after the 11pm deadline that strikers Matt Smith and Dominic Poleon had been sold before adding ‘after a busy last hour, that is us done for the summer transfer window’, all manner of online abuse came their way.
One of the few replies that can be printed in a family newspaper such as The Yorkshire Post read simply, ‘You made me wait up for that?’ It was a fair point, teasing a group of supporters who had just endured Dave Hockaday’s mercilessly brief reign seemed akin to kicking someone already on the floor.
Three years on, however, and fans across Yorkshire might be hoping for just such a message from their own clubs later tonight as the clock ticks down towards the end of this summer’s window.
Our clubs have been busy, extremely in some cases, since the market opened in June but few managers – or supporters, for that matter – can ever resist that one last signing. David Wagner as much a week ago, his lunchtime utterance to the media that Huddersfield Town’s business was “done” being followed, within 24 hours, by Rob Green undergoing a medical at the John Smith’s Stadium.
More of the same is expected in these final few hours as clubs scramble to get those late, late deals over the line. As for which of our clubs might be urging their fans not to head up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire early tonight, recent history suggests Hull City will be among them.
The Tigers might have secured Jackson Irvine in a £2.1m switch from Burton Albion yesterday, less than 24 hours after Nouha Dicko joined from Wolverhampton Wanderers for £3.5m.
But few clubs buy into the last minute drama of deadline day like the Tigers, with each of the past half dozen windows seeing at least one signing – and usually more – completed during the final 24 hours.
A year ago, James Weir, Markus Henriksen and Dieumerci Mbokani winged their way to the East Riding on deadline day, the latter two with just minutes to spare. Following on from the capture of Ryan Mason, Will Keane and David Marshall the previous day, even by Hull’s standards this was a frantic finale. It was a similar story last January, Kamil Grosicki’s £7m switch from Rennes only going through beyond midnight after special dispensation had been received.
Leonid Slutsky, a bundle of nervous energy on the touchline even when his side are on top, could be in for another night of pacing up and down the corridors at the club’s Cottingham training base as deals such as the one to bring in Ahmed Musa from Leicester City on loan go the distance.
Thomas Christiansen, fresh from adding Hamburg striker Pierre-Michel Lassoga on loan, wants one more signing at Leeds before the window slams shut with target Pawel Cibicki yesterday understood to be in West Yorkshire to finalise a deal from his club Malmo.
Elsewhere in the county, Middlesbrough, who have already spent more in this window than any other in the club’s history, remain keen to strengthen with a bid in for Oxford United’s Marvin Johnson, while former Bradford City striker Ollie McBurnie, now at Swansea, continues to interest Barnsley.
Sheffield Wednesday have left it late in each of the last two windows to sign Adam Reach for £5m a year ago and Jordan Rhodes in January, initially on loan before the striker made the switch permanent in the summer for £8m. At least one more addition is expected at Hillsborough today.
It is a similar story across the city at Sheffield United. Chris Wilder is without Caolan Lavery for eight weeks due to a fractured eye socket and Watford’s Jerome Sinclair is one of several potential targets on the club’s radar.
In League One, meanwhile, Stuart McCall needs goalkeeping cover after Rouven Sattelmaier suffered a hamstring injury in midweek.
Colin Doyle, Bradford’s first choice ‘keeper, is on standby to join the Republic of Ireland squad – leaving McCall potentially without a senior ‘keeper for Bristol Rovers weekend visit in front of the live Sky cameras.
Plenty reason, therefore, for the county’s fans to put off heading for bed until much later tonight.