As @philgibson1 wrote on twitter, “…they used to have a transfer window in American football too, but they closed it because of the draft.”
A tremendous pun, but in all seriousness, the whole Deadline Day circus has become a bit of a bore and it’s now time to reconsider its purpose.
Until FIFA introduced the restriction on the registration period that a club could sign a player currently registered with another club (during the 2002-2003 season)—now more commonly known as the ‘Transfer Window’—a club was free to sign a player almost throughout the whole year. The hope from FIFA was that it would bring a stability and order to the game—even in the days before the ‘super agent’ phenomenon—when agents would perennially search for a new club for their clients.
Although there is definite merit in restricting when a club may or may not sign players, the unintended outcome is that it creates a huge rush and the football equivalent of the Boxing Day sales. You can almost imagine the scene; managers and owners cueing around the block, camping out all night, readying themselves to rush in and snap up the best deals from the bargain bins of the agents’ stores.
The hype that is generated by one particular subscription broadcast media outlet has meant that there have been (some) calls from the public to make the two Deadline Days into national holidays. They have even got an official colour from the broadcaster—yellow and black—and a countdown clock (knowing those seconds is important) to keep everyone abreast of whether their club is going to make a last minute dash for some player that not even the most ardent follower of the Russian first division has ever heard of.
There is a mass media debate for days afterwards about ‘Who had the best window?’. With analysis and criticism facing any managers who dared to not make signings on deadline day; complete with speculation on what a terrible risk it is to a club should their star player who has been fit all season suddenly succumb to a career-threatening injury on the 1st February.
The poor reporters who work for these media outlets are sent to stand outside in the car parks of training grounds across the country. Many secretly hope there is no business done so that they may depart before the fans of the club in question arrive to stand behind the presenter broadcasting live to camera, making highly amusing rude gestures and generally making their families ashamed of them. At least recently, it’s nice of the clubs to invite the reporters to stand in their empty stadium, with only the light of the grass-growing machines and the occasional fox to keep them company.
The other question is why do clubs leave it so late? One theory is so that under-performing teams can generate some interest amongst fans by exciting them with a late signing, spun as being the player to turn their season around.
The biggest surprise to many is that these huge clubs, mainly run by rich and wealthy businesspeople, choose to make multi-million pound investments seemingly on a whim. In which other industries would a company director choose to invest a large portion of their wage budget on a senior member of staff whom they have not interviewed, thoroughly researched or completed due diligence upon?
Harry Redknapp, famous for his Deadline Day car window interviews, told BBC’s Radio 5Live about the time he almost signed Charlie Adam, when the manager of Tottenham Hotspur.
“I was at dinner in a restaurant around the corner from the training ground and the Chairman rang me and said did I want to sign Charlie Adam. I said ‘I like Charlie, he’d be a good player for us.’ This is 10 o’clock at night, I said,’ where are you going to find him?’. He says, ‘I don’t know, probably a night club or something or he’s out with his mates’, he was chasing but just couldn’t get it over the line.”
This is just one example of many where a club suddenly finds out a player is available and without having gone through any kind of process, decides to potentially invest millions of pounds on that player.
There are heavyweight figures in the game who also oppose the January transfer window. One such advocate of scrapping it is the Arsenal Manager, Arsène Wenger.
In January 2013, Wenger in a pre-match press conference expressed his opinion that: “It is unfair some teams have played, for example, Newcastle already and then some still have to face a side with six or eight new players. I think it should be completely cut out or limited to two players.”
NB: Newcastle had signed four players during that window.
A year later he continued to voice his displeasure when asked about Juan Mata’s impending departure from Chelsea to Manchester United: “Chelsea have already played twice against Man United, they could have sold him last week (before playing Manchester United). I think if you want to respect the fairness for everybody, this should not happen. I can understand completely what Chelsea are doing, and they do not make the rules, but maybe the rules should be a bit more adapted for fairness.”
A good adjustment to the current arrangement could be incorporated alongside a winter break. After the nineteenth game, where everyone has faced everyone once, you could introduce a two week window with clubs free to make any emergency signings they need. Loans should be restricted only for players under the age of 23 and only to lower league clubs or clubs abroad. That way, there would be no games played, no unfair advantage to any club and officials would have the time to make sensible decisions without matches preventing them to speak with a player.
Failing that, all the Transfer Window Deadline Day is good for is to create sensationalist hype and fill column inches; Football does that well enough as it is.
