PL clubs regret early closure of window

PREMIER LEAGUE clubs are understood to regret voting to bring forward the end of the transfer window in a World Cup year.

The summer window will close on Thursday August 9 ahead of the first round of top-flight fixtures two days later.

But clubs are finding that the early deadline is working against them, since the fees being quoted for players remain sky-high and there is less time to negotiate more realistic prices.

The later closure of the window in Europe means foreign clubs will wait until after August 9 in the hope of picking up PL players on the cheap, when selling abroad is the only option.

And with the England squad granted at least a two-week break after a tournament they are still very much involved in, they will not return to their clubs until near the end of the window.

That leaves little or no time for the new Chelsea manager, for example, to decide whether he wants to sell Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who was on loan at Crystal Palace last season.

The early deadline may also reduce Tottenham’s chances of selling England wing-back Danny Rose, especially with hard-bargaining chairman Daniel Levy wanting as much as £40m for him.

THE astonishing ITV peak audience of 24.4m when Eric Dier scored England’s decisive spot-kick on Tuesday will be the biggest network rating of the tournament in the UK unless England reach the semi-final. The 3pm scheduling of the quarter-final against Sweden on Saturday on the BBC will not attract so many armchair watchers. But a semi-final, on ITV at 7pm on a Wednesday night, would challenge this century’s landmark audience — the 26.9m who tuned into BBC coverage of the London 2012 opening ceremony. JOINING England players and backroom staff on the pitch to applaud the fans after the penalty shootout victory against Colombia was Dr Pippa Grange (right), the FA head of people and team development.

As the psychologist was hired to help end the hoodoo of England losing on penalties in major tournaments, she had every right to be out there. Her profiles of the players were part of the information which helped manager Gareth Southgate choose his penalty-takers.

ANOTHER England World Cup match and yet another obscene comment on Twitter to his 7.1m followers from BBC’s lead sports presenter Gary Lineker, who posted the comment: ‘F*** me, I’m crying. Yes, yes, yes’, after Eric Dier’s winning penalty. The BBC keep saying Lineker has a private account . . . and he keeps swearing.