Premier League transfer deadline madness
I’ve been F5-ing my day away on The Guardian minute-by-minute report of the Premier League football transfer deadline day. There may be some exciting stories to emerge by the end of the evening, which isn’t often the case with these last-day shenanigans as managers and journalists alike scramble around trying to make something of the day, as the hours evaporate, generally with little success. But today Manchester City have been in the thick of some potentially huge stories, looking to gazump Chelsea to Robinho and steal Dimitar Berbatov from under neighbours Manchester United’s noses. The sheer audacity of it, plus the huge fees that are likely to be involved makes this a newsworthy deadline day amid the panic buying and other underwhelming transfer news.
I am not a big fan of the transfer deadline/windows in their current form. They seem to encourage these bursts of transfer activity that are often all hype and little action and seem to create a false market where clubs desperately throw money around on deals that may not be that wonderful. And the inflationary aspect of the window clearly benefits the bigger clubs, widening the gap there already is between rich and poor clubs.
While in the modern media age I’m pleased we don’t have the dull Gareth Barry and Cristiano Ronaldo sagas we had to endure this Summer all year long, I could live without the false parameters for sealing transfers. But, if we are to have transfer windows I wish they didn’t infringe on the season itself. This season so far already feels like a “phoney war”, yet to fully ignite. Transfers still going on, only to be cut off a few weeks into the season, just makes this worse. We should at least see the squads settled before the season starts if there is a time-limit on when transfers can take place.
Still, at least this window might not be an absolute dissapointment in the end, and at least the endless speculation will be over too, and we can get on with the important stuff. And for all my complaining, I’m still F5-ing…
Wait until next year 