Transfer windows 20 years ago

Klopper76

"Did you see Fabinho against Red Star & Cardiff?"
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What’s your memory of them pre social media? Nowadays everyone has easy access to “ITK’s” and information at their fingertips 24/7.

Before this, how did you track what clubs were doing? How did you hear about who or what positions your club was targeting? Sky Sports News? Newspapers? Someone you knew who had insider information (real life ITK’s)?

I remember when Liverpool signed Kewell. I seem to recall he announced it on Australian television. He was linked to a few clubs. I didn’t know we were getting him until that moment. No “Liverpool open talks with Leeds” or “make bid” stuff like you see today.

Curious to know what signing someone like Ferdinand was like at United. Were there links or did it just happen? Chelsea’s signing spree in 2003/04, were there links or did it all just happen and you’d wake up to the news that day that Drogba had signed?
 
20 years ago I think I probably just looked at BBC on and off during the day , especially at the end of the window.

But ten years prior to that it was papers. The big shock was coming into school one day and a kid had bought a copy of the Sun with a front page talking about how we'd just signed Cole from Newcastle. Nobody saw it coming at all, we couldn't believe it.
 
Used to read the transfer insider page in the news of the world, and watch sky sports news. That was about it. Or my dad would tell me we'd signed so and so.

A lot of the time you'd be more bewildered when deals didn't happen than when they did. Players like Ronaldinho or Kluivert who looked nailed on, then didn't happen, and nothing was said. Or someone like Hatem Trabelsi who we'd get linked to every summer and you'd wonder why it never happened.
 
The rag tops used to be full of the same crap that's on twitter now. I probably just checked ceefax or the gossip page on it, it was 338 or something.

Now, for Utd I only pay attention when a deal is done. The rest, I don't care so much, I could be watching a game in November and only realise that someone moved from Everton, Forest or Villa to someone else for 30m.
 
Red tops and sky sports news, transfers hadn't quite become the cottage industry they are today, back then you didn't have transfer specific journalists or not to my recollection and now you have loads, I'm not sure the betting markets had it as much as they do now either
 
I still used to get most of my stuff the same way which was from here.

When I was young I used to read the BBC gossip column every morning.

I remember finding out that we signed Hargreaves watching an interview Gabby Logan did with Sven when she suddenly mentioned it.
 
Sky Sports, BBC and their newspaper gossip column pages.

Internet forums like this one had a once in a blue moon ITK come round who’d get something right once and then never again because it was just coincidental that they knew someone who knew someone who also knew someone close to that one transfer. There used to be trawling through foreign media too.

In 2007 when we signed Nani and Anderson at the same time, that was literally loading up Sky Sports main page one day and there it was as the main breaking story. Nani had some articles linking us before that and Anderson was out of nowhere.
 
20 years ago I'm sure was the sky sports news era...there was a transfer forum already I'm sure as I remember 2007 it was basically like United just looked at the top 5 threads and decided "lets sign all of them"

Go back a bit further and I remember I used to check ceefax or the dreaded tabloids. We'd quite frequently sign players who we hadn't actually signed. E.g. Ronaldinho, Robben, Hatem Trabelsi (who even made it into our squad on one of the FIFA/PES games).
 
20 years ago was all the newspaper websites and SSN which felt like the near enough official source. 5 years before that people were still looking on Ceefax and 5 years after that it was all Twitter like it is now. Things changed very quickly.

I do remember the Nani and Anderson transfers just appearing as I was watching SSN. Amazing buzz.
 
Oranges038 said:
The rag tops used to be full of the same crap that's on twitter now. I probably just checked ceefax or the gossip page on it, it was 338 or something.

Now, for Utd I only pay attention when a deal is done. The rest, I don't care so much, I could be watching a game in November and only realise that someone moved from Everton, Forest or Villa to someone else for 30m.
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Teletext was so good way back then. I remember seeing Sheringham signed on Teletext and thinking awesome that was.
I think 338 was probably right as I think 300 was the sports front page.

God I'm old.
 
Not so much 20 years ago, but I beh around 25 years ago it was, we used to have dial up and I was told it was 10p a minute before 6 and 1p after that, so I used to sneak on the netz, load teamtalk up, open all the relevant United articles and turn the internet off. Used to think I was so sneaky.

All that to be told we were signing every player under the sun
 
I was on the Manchester United MySpace group 20 years ago learning about transfers of players I knew nothing about.
 
To be fair, the only social media I see about transfers is the transfer tweets on here
 
The caf, bbc and strangely enough, Arsenal.com used to do a transfer rumours section iirc.

The caf was a hoot then, I remember when an ITK insisted he had the inside line on Robben to United and it was beyond done.
 
There was a transfer rumours section on the club website I think, thats where I looked for any info regarding United
 
Klopper76 said:
Before this, how did you track what clubs were doing? How did you hear about who or what positions your club was targeting? Sky Sports News? Newspapers? Someone you knew who had insider information (real life ITK’s)?
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Pretty much, yeah. I remember the Shearer saga in 96, Rio in 2002, Ronaldnho in 2003. It was mostly things coming up on Sky or waiting until late in the evening when you could start seeing tomorrow's articles in the newspapers websites.
 
IncyWincySpider said:
20 years ago I think I probably just looked at BBC on and off during the day , especially at the end of the window.

But ten years prior to that it was papers. The big shock was coming into school one day and a kid had bought a copy of the Sun with a front page talking about how we'd just signed Cole from Newcastle. Nobody saw it coming at all, we couldn't believe it.
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I remember the Cole one.
We'd finished playing hockey (probably the only time ever I can remember us playing this as we weren't any sort of hockey team school) at the sports centre across the road.
Teacher walked in, said Cole had gone to United to mass disbelief.
But no-one had any way to check until getting home.. no mobiles, fewer TV shows and radio etc.
 
The 1990s in general, pre mobiles and internet being mainstream at the end of the decade was sifting through ceefax/teletext and not being tempted to ring the high cost phone lines on the last page

United in Batistuta link and suchlike at 50p a minute.
Or wait for the tabloid morning papers filled with such wild links
 
Offside said:
20 years ago was all the newspaper websites and SSN which felt like the near enough official source. 5 years before that people were still looking on Ceefax and 5 years after that it was all Twitter like it is now. Things changed very quickly.

I do remember the Nani and Anderson transfers just appearing as I was watching SSN. Amazing buzz.
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Sky sports news used to be the gold standard. Somewhere around 2010-12 they started getting a bit shit.

It's around the same time their newsreaders stopped wearing suits and started wearing chinos and Turkey teeth white trainers. Coincidence? Probably not.
 
I just remember reading different articles in different websites. There was this website I think called newsnow which basically would have all articles for different clubs and topics (all sorts of topics) and you could onto Manchester United section and see all the different webpages with "news"

If you guys remember tribalfootball...
 
Donaldo said:
The caf, bbc and strangely enough, Arsenal.com used to do a transfer rumours section iirc.

The caf was a hoot then, I remember when an ITK insisted he had the inside line on Robben to United and it was beyond done.
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It was and Kenyon fecked us over iirc.
 
I am pretty sure it was:

- Newspaper websites
- Physical newspapers (primarily The Guardian and The Times, occasionally The Sun if i was desperate)
- Sky Sports News
- BBC Gossip Column

This summer has been fairly reminiscent of those days, with virtually no gossip or rumours prior to a deal being very advanced. For me, at least, this has been a breath of fresh air. Much preferred it. But for many it has led to them becoming rabid and desperate, with a ton of finger pointing and vitriol. The transfer window is an unhealthy time for many.
 
MissKatie said:
Teletext was so good way back then. I remember seeing Sheringham signed on Teletext and thinking awesome that was.
I think 338 was probably right as I think 300 was the sports front page.

God I'm old.
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Technological advancement was getting a remote with the hold button to refresh the page, didn't have to wait for it randomly change then and miss something.

Was great for checking scores on Saturday.
 
I saw we signed Carrick on holiday by way of the sky sports news sidebar of transfers in and out, when it rolled round to united. I also got my first shirt with solskjaer on the back and the next day my dad showed me the back page of the paper saying he was going spurs.
 
MissKatie said:
Teletext was so good way back then. I remember seeing Sheringham signed on Teletext and thinking awesome that was.
I think 338 was probably right as I think 300 was the sports front page.

God I'm old.
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I remember Stapleton signing - the day I became a United-fan :) He was my hero - from the Panini football cards. When he joined United, I joined United with Stapleton. So thank you Big Ron.

I really feel old (even if I was really young in 1981)
 
Nevermind transfers I remember the time when I had to wait 1 or 2 days to see our weekly results in the newspapers. :lol:
 
My most residing memory was actually before the transfer window, when clubs could sign players at any time. I remember the day Utd signed Cantona from Leeds, it was such an out the blue deal, it was on the news and Ceefax, I remember running down the road to my mates with excitement!

I hate the rumour mill and endless click bait links of transfer news today, so much of it is nonsense, either from journalists who are desperate to say they broke the news first, or generally agents pushing players to get a better deal. Its ruined the game, I'd much prefer to go back to the old days where there wasn't a window as such, I think the whole transfer window period has only helped elevate prices and wages.
 
My mom always bought me a footy magazine so I could see what had happened in the last week. It's mostly about Dutch football though. I still remember being on holiday in Spain and reading in the Dutch papers that Van der Sar had moved to United.
 
Great thread! Haha, yeah fond memories of the Cole transfer coming up on Ceefax and I was going crazy! Has to be the most exciting transfer I recall because it was so unexpected and a big part of that rivalry that developed with Newcastle in the mid-90s.

Seem to remember pulling up Ceefax obsessively over the summer of 1996, waiting for news on players we were signing from the Euros. Poborsky and Jordi Cruyff were a big deal in that tournament. And it was really exciting when we signed them, but they fell flat. And I think the 3 other signings that summer were Ronny Johnsen, Solskjaer and Van Der Gouw. They were complete unknowns and then did great things for the club!

Nowadays I come here a lot to check on transfer news and of course Sky and BBC websites. SSN replaced Ceefax for me but my setup at home has changed a bit and so it's not as easy for me to easily switch on SSN now!
 
Klopper76 said:
What’s your memory of them pre social media? Nowadays everyone has easy access to “ITK’s” and information at their fingertips 24/7.

Before this, how did you track what clubs were doing? How did you hear about who or what positions your club was targeting? Sky Sports News? Newspapers? Someone you knew who had insider information (real life ITK’s)?

I remember when Liverpool signed Kewell. I seem to recall he announced it on Australian television. He was linked to a few clubs. I didn’t know we were getting him until that moment. No “Liverpool open talks with Leeds” or “make bid” stuff like you see today.

Curious to know what signing someone like Ferdinand was like at United. Were there links or did it just happen? Chelsea’s signing spree in 2003/04, were there links or did it all just happen and you’d wake up to the news that day that Drogba had signed?
Click to expand...

Teletext was a big one for me. And yes Sky Sports News. That was their real forte in those times with Jim White salivating about mediocre signings for bottom half teams. And reporters at training grounds with fans holding up dildos or something in the background. :lol:

There was just as much hype around in those times. Difference now is you have endless social media debate and people claiming they're ITK compared to back then when it was just the odd poster on a message board.
 
Klopper76 said:
What’s your memory of them pre social media? Nowadays everyone has easy access to “ITK’s” and information at their fingertips 24/7.

Before this, how did you track what clubs were doing? How did you hear about who or what positions your club was targeting? Sky Sports News? Newspapers? Someone you knew who had insider information (real life ITK’s)?

I remember when Liverpool signed Kewell. I seem to recall he announced it on Australian television. He was linked to a few clubs. I didn’t know we were getting him until that moment. No “Liverpool open talks with Leeds” or “make bid” stuff like you see today.

Curious to know what signing someone like Ferdinand was like at United. Were there links or did it just happen? Chelsea’s signing spree in 2003/04, were there links or did it all just happen and you’d wake up to the news that day that Drogba had signed?
Click to expand...

Pre social media here was basically posters posting articles from various footy websites. It was much more enjoyable before the twitter virus infected the world.
 
maximus419 said:
My most residing memory was actually before the transfer window, when clubs could sign players at any time. I remember the day Utd signed Cantona from Leeds, it was such an out the blue deal, it was on the news and Ceefax, I remember running down the road to my mates with excitement!

I hate the rumour mill and endless click bait links of transfer news today, so much of it is nonsense, either from journalists who are desperate to say they broke the news first, or generally agents pushing players to get a better deal. Its ruined the game, I'd much prefer to go back to the old days where there wasn't a window as such, I think the whole transfer window period has only helped elevate prices and wages.
Click to expand...
I agree but I think that may be us thinking what it used to be like rather than coupling it with modern context. Personally, I reckon having esstentially unlimited transfers going all the way to March in this day and age would also be very different to how it used to be and I reckon there is a good chance it would essentially be a bit like an incessant Summer window as players/agents try and twerk a transfer at any given moment. Additionally, I reckon some clubs would also clearly use such an open amount of transfers/timeframe to try and destabilise other clubs.

This said. The Jan window is a bit of an odd one and I think it doesn't really work as it is hard to the clubs to negotiate in such a tight time frame. Personally, I think it would be better to have a hybrid system with the Summer window as now and then say a club can make 1-2 transfers from Sept-March.
 
IncyWincySpider said:
20 years ago I think I probably just looked at BBC on and off during the day , especially at the end of the window.

But ten years prior to that it was papers. The big shock was coming into school one day and a kid had bought a copy of the Sun with a front page talking about how we'd just signed Cole from Newcastle. Nobody saw it coming at all, we couldn't believe it.
Click to expand...

I remember precisely this moment too. Out of the blue.
 
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