It’s only my opinion, and others have jumped onto the band wagon in the last week, but shouldn’t the transfer window be closed before the season starts?
I heard Premier League managers such as Everton’s Roberto Martinez calling for the same, but I’ve long wondered why the window should go on until late August and now early September.
I hesitate to say it, but I’m in my 40s and remember the days when there wasn’t a window. Teams bought players throughout the season and having grown up with that, I still like that idea. Why not? When you need a player, buy one. The present system stretches as far back as the 2002/03 season and if you look up the reasons for the window, you will find the following:
“Windows were introduced as part of a compromise agreement with the European Commission about how the whole transfer system worked and how it could best preserve contractual stability for both the player and the club while allowing movement at prescribed times during the year – the summer and winter transfer windows in effect.
“The alternative was to bring football in line with most other industries where contracts were not enforceable or liable for appropriate compensation, i.e. notice periods being served and players moving at will. The football authorities across Europe felt this would fatally undermine the footballing economy and remove the incentive for clubs to invest in developing players.”
Despite the reasoning for a window, it doesn’t explain why it needs to carry over into the season.
I have become somewhat bored with the window as time has gone on. Each day, faithfully, as a Hammers supporter, rightly or wrongly, I have read the articles that suggest that West Ham are linked with just about every imaginable player in the game.
Most I’ve never heard of, but that’s OK, I’d never heard of Sakho and I don’t recall hearing of McAvennie before he came to Upton Park. However, if they have two legs and can run, we are linked with them. Now I look half- heartedly at the reports.
Headlines such as we are “close” or “interested” or a “bid was made” seem to prevail, which never materialise and can only be press speculation on a quiet news day. Then we get headlines that we’ve offered millions and agreed terms and the manager or a West Ham source say that’s not true.
It must be the same for every team, but having spent the summer glued to the internet watching our transfer targets, I am now tired of looking.
Now I’m at the point where I just wish the board would buy who they need and then shut up shop so that I stop wasting my time reading pointless headlines, getting a sense of optimism about a player that just seems to vanish, scratch my head, shout at my laptop “No, not him!” and go back to being a normal, football watching human being.
There’s no reason why teams cannot buy who they want and be ready for the season. For one thing it would speed up the process that seems to take forever in some cases. Or it does with West Ham at least.
Still, I don’t want to deny Sky’s Jim White and his yellow tie the drama and the excitement of the last few hours of the window – just do it sooner!
Therefore, I put it to the footballing world – sign who you need before the season and let’s get on. And before I go, who thought it was a good idea to play England games a few weeks into the new season and stop the momentum?
Don’t get me started.
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