Why we should shut the transfer window now

So, who’s going to win the Premier League? Who’s going down? That’s the question being asked in pubs, offices and TV pundits’ studios. It is, however, an unfair interrogation. Until the transfer window closes we will not know who’s playing for whom. If Arsenal suddenly sign a top-class goalkeeper and top quality centre-half their title chances improve dramatically. If West Brom finally receive an offer they cannot refuse for Graham Dorrans their prospects decline sharply. The playing season begins this weekend, but the purchasing season continues merrily on until the end of the month. Teams could be significantly changed by then.

It is not just the tipsters who could do with closing the window. Managers are starting the season with their sides unfinished. New signings may disrupt a team that is already finding its groove while departures are destabilising. Two seasons ago James Milner played in Newcastle United’s first two matches, a draw at Old Trafford, a win against Bolton. Then he was sold to Aston Villa, Kevin Keegan quit within the week and the Magpies were relegated. Last year the drawn-out Jolean Lescott saga undercut David Moyes’ preparation for the season and contributed to Everton’s poor start, which ultimately cost them a place in Europe. To judge from his form at Manchester City it did Lescott no favours either.

Closing the window also protects managers. Chairmen are less likely to react hastily to a couple of bad opening results when they know a new manager has no scope to bring in his own players until January.

The solution is simple. Close the transfer window, in and out, on the day the season starts. That La Liga and Serie A do not begin for a fortnight, and the French league began last weekend (the Bundesliga opened tonight) complicates matters, but not impossibly so. If a Spanish club wanted to buy from England, they would have had to do it by this weekend (as Real Madrid have with Ricardo Carvalho).

Mind you, the shrewd managers completed their transfer dealings long ago, for last minute buying is fraught with risk. Two seasons ago the Manchester clubs, Tottenham, Liverpool and Hull spent a cumulative £90m on Robinho, Dimitar Berbatov, Roman Pavyluchencko, Albert Riera and Daniel Cousin. Could any of them be said to have been remotely value for money? Shop in haste, repent at leisure.

(Photo: Getty Images)

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• NiceChappie

  Correction: Bundesliga opens next Friday.

• leigh_vernier7

  It’s not that simple.
  Sky high wage levels are causing even bigger problems.
  The megabucks clubs happily sign players by offering the 90,000
  a week or even higher wages.
  Terry is reputedly, on 160,000 a week.
  Spurs missed out partly because of high wage demands
  on Fabbiano, Forlan, Joe Cole and a few others.

  I agree that squads must be limited to max 25 but would go further.
  Clubs should not pay high wages if they have sustained debts.
  Example: Man U is nearly 700 million in debt – yet chasing high wage
  superstars.
  Meantime, Blackpool are trying to buy players at 2 million or less.
  Their squad wage bill amounts to about the same as a couple
  of Chelsea megastars.

  I hope Blackpool survive.
  They probably won’t
  High wages are dividing the Premier between the haves and
  the have nots.
  And even top clubs like Spurs and Arsenal who try to impose
  lower wage levels are beginning to suffer.

• tedthedog

  The transfer window ? Close it and remove the rule which introduced it.
  Then limit all English clubs to two foreign players per squad. 2. TWO.

  To accommodate the historic idea of the UK, Scottish. Welsh and N Irish will have to count as ‘English’ for the sake of this rule.

  Thus we restore the game to the people.

  Howls of anguish from the top clubs. Globalisation they will shout until they’re hoarse. But globalisation is one of the confidence tricks of big business. It sets out to make the rich even richer, the very rich …well obscene.

  Football. A game setting the sporting skill in this area, one town against another. Just what does it matter whether Man U win the European Cup? Except to Man U fans, that is.

  The majority of fans in this country – yes the majority – would prefer that England did well, or even won, the World Cup rather than Chelsea, Arsenal et. al. ever win the E Cup. And it’s the flood of money which prevents an English victory in the World Cup.

  Do you really understand what £90,000 per week is? And that YOU are paying for it via a monopoly – that of Sky who underwrite the obscenity of the wage structure of the Premier League.

  (Yes, I know about ESPN and the failed Irish channel, but they were and are no more than a sop. No real competition. Competition is when TWO or more channels show, say, Liverpool v Arsenal…and compete on price.)

  And finally. I watched, on a friends TV, the opening match this year. Spurs v Man C.
  It was fast, furious and almost completely lacking in guile. And most of them were foreigners, certainly in the Manchester side.

  And I know that some of the players could just about buy out my entire street for little more than one months wages.
  If you don’t think that’s completely crazy, then you need help.

• ZabaZabaHey

  You may have watched the game, but you completely missed that it was the ever so English Spurs who were intent on playing at the frantic pace the game was played at, whereas City tried to keep hold of the ball and create openings in a more measured way.
  Try again.

• tedthedog

  Not really. I did not miss the point which you make.

  Spurs couldn’t score using pace and Man C couldn’t score using what you describe as a ‘measured pace’.

  I merely observe that the football itself was not of very high calibre, but played generally at a pace rarely achieved by lower league sides.

  I don’t believe that sheer pace allied to physical strength is what football is all about…but Chelsea do. (and I DO recognise that one or two of their better players have highly developed skills)

• sleachy

  the rules are the same for everyone, and yet only Wolves had completed their transfer dealings by the start of the season. this is due to the fact that we are the best run club in the league and probably the world. let all the other, idiotic clubs scramble around at the last minute for second rate players at inflated prices, it is their wont.
  bring on the toffees