It bothers me none. And I'm not sure we have enough evidence to make an informed opinion either way.
The transfer window closing early in England.
- Thread starter kouroux
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
What was the reasoning behind this? Genuinely curious. There's an obvious disadvantage at play here because foreign clubs can still buy players from PL clubs.
Clubs wanted to begin the season with more certainty over their squad & retain the integrity of the competition between each other.
Richard Scudamore said “When the 20 are playing each other [it was wrong] you could have a person in your team one week and be playing against him the next, or worse the player not playing because of speculation about him going to another Premier League team so he’s not available for a week or two of the season while the window is open.
Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin is in favour - I think the hope is that more leagues will eventually follow suit.
Most clubs felt the window should end just before the season kicks off. They didn't want to start the season and lose players to other EPL clubs or have speculation surrounding them while the season is underway. It can be distracting.
It can also ward off other European teams as more than likely if a EPL player bound for another European league is not sold within the EPL window there's much less chance the EPL club will sell later as they can't buy replacements, so depending on the player it can help. A good example might be Pogba, we can still sell to another league but it's highly unlikely. Imagine being 2-3 games into the season with speculation still on overdrive about him. Players missing games while a big money move goes through or doesn't and the player is distracted.
It should have been a Premier League only transfer window, that way clubs could still sign players from other countries until september.
Pogba stays!
We always have to be different dont we.. Drive on the left, be the only ones to close our transfer window earlier etc.. annoying.
We can still sell..
Then the press is lying.
https://www.premierleague.com/this-is-pl/the-football/466516
Clubs will still have the ability to sell players to other leagues in which the transfer window is open, as they can now to leagues that have different transfer window dates, such as Major League Soccer.
They may have to tweak it somehow where either when our window ends there are are rules that state premier league clubs can not only not buy players but cant sell them either if premier league clubs can still lose their players after the window shuts continue to allow loan deals to be made up until the 1st of September.
That means Zidane and Floren will keep knocking on Utd's door for Pogba? Yikes.
Yep!
Feck 'em!
This seems like a solid compromise. Best of both worlds, kind of.
I don't mind it. No team will allow their best players to leave after the window closes anyway, so in a way it's nice to have another couple of weeks to let Rojo and Darmian feck off.
It really doesn't.
Yeah feck em. Ed will sell him next summer to use half the money on transfers..
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Think it's a load of bollux and gives an unfair advantage to the European teams, as what happens with Lukaku could happen with Pogba then we would be really fecked.
Why I never!
Like it in principle, but definitely makes it harder for teams with lots of work to be done.
Especially during windows when there are international tournaments.
Especially during windows when there are international tournaments.
It's like the winter break issue. FA is nearsighted
Really hoping we don't sell him this summer but if we do sell him next summer I hope it's when our window is open so the fee can get fully reinvested in the squad. I don't want this same worrying Pogba might leave scenario and we can't get replacement as soon our window closes again
Don't understand all the concern about Premier League clubs "losing" players - unless there are release clause or contract expiration issues then the selling club can just refuse. Of course someone will tell me about the worst case scenario being the player going on strike, but this happened before the early deadline anyway, and is far less likely now given players and their foreign suitors know the prohibitive situation of English clubs outside of the English window. To illustrate, how much harassment did we see of English clubs after the expiry of their window last summer?
The reaĺly damaging issues are the inflated prices due to reduced negotiating position, genuine lack of time to complete such high-stakes negotiations and - worst of all in my opinion - inability to take advantage of transfer "domino effects". For example, if Neymar goes to Barcelona or Real Madrid before September there could be all manner of top quality player made available for reasonable purchase by the Spanish so that they can balance their books, but English clubs will now be paralysed against taking advantage of this.
It's difficult to see how this situation can be resolved, as given the insecurities foreign leagues have over the strength of the Premier League and the advantages these leagues have suddenly been gifted by this, nothing is likely to change unless UEFA steps in.
But has there ever been a political climate where they are less likely to fight our corner?
The reaĺly damaging issues are the inflated prices due to reduced negotiating position, genuine lack of time to complete such high-stakes negotiations and - worst of all in my opinion - inability to take advantage of transfer "domino effects". For example, if Neymar goes to Barcelona or Real Madrid before September there could be all manner of top quality player made available for reasonable purchase by the Spanish so that they can balance their books, but English clubs will now be paralysed against taking advantage of this.
It's difficult to see how this situation can be resolved, as given the insecurities foreign leagues have over the strength of the Premier League and the advantages these leagues have suddenly been gifted by this, nothing is likely to change unless UEFA steps in.
But has there ever been a political climate where they are less likely to fight our corner?
The league should just make an unofficial stance (because I assume an official one would be illegal) that PL clubs will only trade with clubs from leagues that follow the same window as them. Every league in Europe would switch to this early closure quicker than you could blink because it's the PL money that makes the transfer game go round.
You wish.. Pogba will be sold for well over 130m, no way we will reinvest that amount. Half of that maybe yeah.Really hoping we don't sell him this summer but if we do sell him next summer I hope it's when our window is open so the fee can get fully reinvested in the squad. I don't want this same worrying Pogba might leave scenario and we can't get replacement as soon our window closes again
I do wish and I am of a very similar opinion to you and that really p!sses me off. That's why I would have preferred to take players in exchange because at least then I know the money is not going back in the Glazer's pockets
It should be limited to players from the PL only, clubs should be able to buy players from elsewhere. This will prevent team getting their best players moved to a competitor if they start the season really well
It’s incredibly stupid if we’re the only league adhering to it. Said it at the time this rule was made, and my opinion hasn’t changed since.
I remember reading how every league would follow the all mighty premier league with this policy when it was first introduced, how has that gone? Changing the PL season to start after September 1st makes more sense than trying to force foreign leagues to follow a bad idea.
It's a good idea though, the only downfall is the rest of Europe not being in line with it. They were never going to follow it on their own will because they have a massive advantage of scooping up the inflated prices that PL teams pay and then they get a few weeks of doing deals at a fraction of the price amongst each other. If the PL cut off the gravy train they will fall in line with the deadline immediately.
So basically you want others to handicap themselves so you can have your way? Eerily reminiscent of another current topic. The PL should sort itself out and think things through before implementing stuff like this, or just live with the consequences. They aren't going to force the rest of Europe to do anything and they'll still pay massively for players that they want.
While it can allow clubs and players to concentrate on the start of the season, the bad side of it is not enough time to sort problems out, find alternatives, pulling the plug on deals becomes more likely, going for simple deals. It could be counter productive, instead of clubs getting things done they just dawdle, go for safe bets.
Then there's the mainland European clubs perhaps waiting sometimes for us to close to get cheaper buys and get those we missed out due to running out of time. If you can't avoid selling to another league after the window shuts you're stuck unable to buy from anywhere.
We should maybe look at our timetable and start the season late August.
There was some hope when the EPL clubs voted for this the other leagues would follow suit but I don't see any sign of it happening and you have players holidays and tournaments going on, I do feel England loses out somewhat.
Zaha will be a bit miffed and Palace relieved although I'm not saying Zaha would've gone to another EPL team had the window stayed open for 3 more weeks. Still less time for for things to happen and take shape.
EPL bosses would be keen for the league to start before the others I bet and get that exposure.
Then there's the mainland European clubs perhaps waiting sometimes for us to close to get cheaper buys and get those we missed out due to running out of time. If you can't avoid selling to another league after the window shuts you're stuck unable to buy from anywhere.
We should maybe look at our timetable and start the season late August.
There was some hope when the EPL clubs voted for this the other leagues would follow suit but I don't see any sign of it happening and you have players holidays and tournaments going on, I do feel England loses out somewhat.
Zaha will be a bit miffed and Palace relieved although I'm not saying Zaha would've gone to another EPL team had the window stayed open for 3 more weeks. Still less time for for things to happen and take shape.
EPL bosses would be keen for the league to start before the others I bet and get that exposure.
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Sounds like the Brexit negotiations to me; "stare em down and they'll blink"... except if they didn't the Premier League product would go down the can faster than a chilli milkshake, a far greater prize for European leagues.
Will be interesting to see how many Premier League players head off to Europe during August (hopefully Pogba isnt one of them)
I agree fully....
Transfer windows are a 365 days a year job.
9 months of planning and 3 months of negotiating deals.
There is no handicap if everyone is on the same windows. Deals don't get left late because there isn't enough time to get them done early, they get left late as a bargaining stand-off.
And when someone else snags your first, second and third choice targets, each taking weeks at a time to negotiate?
When you need to move players on before signing new ones, but your players are only the third or fourth choice of clubs going through the above process?
Transfer dealings are very sequential.
Of course there is a handicap of a shorter window. While the top of the food chain may be able to plan ahead they are only a small part of the football universe. Players injure themselves, seek moves etc. Most clubs can only afford replacing a key player once he has actually moved on, and they might not even know he's on a larger clubs shopping list at the start of the summer. Smaller clubs can also loan or buy players (from bigger clubs) who might have had a chance with a new coach at the start of august but were deemed unnecessary by the end of it.
Even a club as huge as United may well have benefited from having another 3 weeks to do it's business this summer.
It sounds like you're more against there being a transfer window at all than a transfer window universally closing earlier than August 31st.
For the last few years before this move was made the first few fixture weeks in the PL were a joke with speculation about players moving, players ending up playing for two different clubs inside a handful of league games, players sitting out games because they might be wanting a move. It distorted the league and people were more bothered about the potential transfers than the actual football. It had become ridiculous and the move had to come. Again, the only downfall and therefore correction that needs to be made is for the rest of Europe to fall in line but even if they don't as a football fan who detests the transfer sagas and surrounding bullshit I much prefer it being as it is now to how it was a couple of years ago.