Duffers' Diaries: Transfer window - does it need a bit of tweaking?

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It’s Transfer Deadline Day today (Monday), which obviously means the usual fan excitement over who their mate’s mum’s plumber saw in a service station on their way to Wigan and which of the three helicopters that lands in Manchester is carrying a highly-paid striker who will be out of favour by March.

The transfer window as we know it has been a thing for a good while now, in fact it was 2002 when the first English top flight summer window shut in August and the next one opened the following January, although a few other countries had something similar beforehand until it was made compulsory worldwide by FIFA. It spread down to the Football League a few years later.

It took a little while for the hype to reach the kinds of levels it often does now, but before long certain TV networks were treating it like Christmas Day for football fans and the era of reporters hanging around outside training grounds to hijack a manager through their car window on their way home had truly begun.

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Despite its subsequent longevity there are still some who feel the window doesn’t have place in the game and that we should go back to the ‘good old days’ of buying a player pretty much when you need or want to, albeit prior to the old deadline of the last Thursday in March which is still adhered to from the National League downwards in this country now.

Manchester City's Omar Marmoush was one of the biggest signings of the January window. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)Manchester City's Omar Marmoush was one of the biggest signings of the January window. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)
Manchester City's Omar Marmoush was one of the biggest signings of the January window. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

That, of course, is necessary given lower level clubs don’t have the financial nor human resources to cope without being able to recruit as and when required, with the nature of many of the contracts also meaning players can sometimes come and go at short notice.

But higher up, it remains very much at the forefront of everyone’s mind throughout the summer and then in January as clubs everywhere look to see where they need to reinforce to achieve their aims – the extent to which a team spends often dictated by how their progress is faring.

So is it really a good thing? It is very much engrained in football culture now, so a shift back to how it was before wouldn’t be as easy to implement, but there’s much more to it than that nowadays too.

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Financial clout is everything and the fact is that were there no window, then come the beginning of March you could end up with a bit of a free-for-all as deals get done to try and ensure a final push in the right direction, which may help those who need it but could hamper those who don’t need it nor can afford to keep up.

With the window, lots of planning and foresight is needed to ascertain who will be coming and going and whilst you can’t legislate for things like injuries causing jeopardy when the window is shut, maybe that makes it all the better given the ‘haves’ can’t just go and recruit any time to replace someone who might only be out for a month.

It also means potentially having to ‘give youth a chance’ if the squad gets a bit threadbare, and more than a few diamonds have been unearthed when they’ve had to be thrown in due to options being so limited.

That in turn has led to investment in club’s youth systems improving greatly to cater for the fact that the players being brought through could very well have a first-team part to play so need to be ready to hit the ground running.

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On the negative side, players themselves can end up sat twiddling their thumbs waiting for a move. If a player becomes unhappy and either can’t get a move before one window shuts or until the next one opens, they’re left in a degree of limbo for a few months until they’re able to try and get a move again. Loan moves also can’t happen outside the window, with short-term deals no longer allowed at the higher levels unlike the one-month options available lower down.

Clubs struggling financially can be hampered too. Sometimes money troubles can come on quite quickly and in the past there was the option to try and sell fast to make some cash, but with the system as it is, there is again a wait until any deals can be done and even then there’s no guarantee the right moves will happen given the wider availability of players in the more restricted time frame.

The transfer window has long been seen as favouring those doing the buying rather than the selling, indeed the vast majority of those deals that involve a fee – especially in January – are purchases by the higher level clubs, with those lower down often doing season-long or half season loans (which also often include a fee) or even loans with a view to purchase at a later date, or until the player’s contract runs out and they’re then available for nothing at the end of it.

Either way, there’s no doubt lower level clubs must fear the windows given their best assets will be up for grabs, particularly the mid-season ones, as losing someone in January puts pressure on to get a quick ‘replacement’ in which isn’t always very easy.

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Those fears would of course still be there if there was no window given suitors could come calling any time, but there’s less time to negotiate when the window is open and the pressure exerted to get a deal done risks a player being undervalued by the buying club that may take advantage of the selling club’s financial vulnerability.

A limit to ‘domestic only’ transfers being allowed all year round is one possibility, likewise keeping the window to Premier League and Championship clubs only, but as with any potential changes the ‘can’t please everyone’ elements will come in and what will appease many clubs may also anger others.

If there are to be any changes in this country then some flexibility on dates could well be the answer. Many leagues around the world have ‘restricted’ windows, namely an extra week or two here and there where only domestic transfers can take place. Those can be decided upon and administered by the Football Association, and could be a help to those lower down the leagues.

In the meantime, the standard FIFA-bossed window will remain, and the bi-annual chaos of Transfer Deadline Day will keep the gossip-mongers happy until scarves are being held aloft at 11.05pm.

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