RevSportz Comment
It was Sky’s wall-to-wall coverage of English football, which started with the advent of the Premier League in 1992, that gave it access to unparalleled riches. One of the spin-offs of that infusion of wealth was the gradual dilution of coverage. Once, even the irreverent football-related material on TV was helmed by the greats of the game. For example, one of football’s most popular offerings in the 1980s features Saint and Greavsie. Ian St John had been part of Bill Shankly’s legendary Liverpool sides of the 1960s, while Jimmy Greaves was, quite simply, the best English forward of that era.
They went off air in the months before the first Premier League season. In the years that followed, many programs came up in their place. Few concepts associated with modern football, however, are as ludicrous as the artificial storms whipped up over the transfer window. In particular, this nonsensical concept of ‘winning the transfer window’.
Did you ever see Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp or Carlo Ancelotti giving it a good fist pump because they ‘won the transfer window’? We thought not. What the phrase even means, no one knows. If transfers were an exact science, there wouldn’t be so many colossal blunders every season. Barcelona, for example, would be in rude financial health, instead of being so heavily in debt. The short period in which they spent nearly half a billion dollars on Philippe Coutinho, Ousmane Dembele and Antoine Griezmann is at the heart of that financial mess.
Have Chelsea ‘won’ the transfer window by signing 12 players for in excess of $200 million, or does this latest buying spree merely reinforce their owners’ reputation for being spectacularly clueless? Have Manchester City lost it because they sold Julien Alvarez to Atletico Madrid? Are Liverpool the biggest losers after not signing anyone?
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We now even have journalists who do little more than track transfers. Fabrizio Romano, an Italian journalist whose “Here we go” is as much part of each transfer window as ‘winning it’, has over 31 million followers on Instagram. That’s marginally less than Jude Bellingham, the best young footballer in the world and a strong candidate to win the Ballon D’Or.
Needless to say, the hourly updates whip the fans into a frenzy. Social media goes into meltdown with each signing, or each miss. It’s often forgotten that winning football matches isn’t about getting players to sign on a dotted line.
In the last two weeks, much has been made of Arne Slot’s calm demeanour while addressing Liverpool’s lack of transfer activity. Slot took over a team that Klopp had taken to the brink of a perfect season just two years earlier. In addition to established stalwarts, he has some brilliant young players at his disposal. It’s entirely logical that he would want to look at the hand he has been dealt properly before he goes out waving wads of cash.
In recent times, it’s become the norm for several managers and coaches to go back to their former clubs or leagues and sign players in bulk. Having enjoyed so much success with Feyenoord and in the Eredivisie, it would have been natural if Slot pushed for Liverpool to sign Lutsharel Geertruida, or even Teun Koopmeiners, who he worked with earlier.
Fortunately for Liverpool, he has taken his time to assess what he already has. Would Geertruida really be an upgrade on Ibrahima Konate and Jarrell Quansah? And what would Koopmeiners add to a midfield that already has Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai? Either player could yet be signed, but it won’t be an impulse decision. Across the East Lancs Road, Manchester United are still counting the cost of the millions paid to Ajax, Erik ten Hag’s former club, to get Antony, the one-trick Brazilian who is no longer even a guaranteed starter.
The great teams – whether that’s Guardiola’s City or Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal – don’t do panic or impulse buys anyway. It’s always about a tweak here and there. Ruben Dias came in for an aging Vincent Kompany. Rodri eventually took over from Fernandinho. And Erling Haaland replaced Sergio Aguero.
Clubs have also learned to make use of the hysteria around the window. Most often, they are the sources for Romano and others, knowing that selective leaks help drive up prices. Last summer, for example, PSV’s Ibrahim Sangare, an Ivory Coast international, was linked with so many of Europe’s top teams, many of whom hadn’t even scouted him. Eventually, he landed up at relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest for 30 million pounds.
Once the clock ticks over to September 1, most managers, and even serious fans, will breathe a sigh of relief. At least, for a few months, the nonsense will be on hold, and they can get on with what really matters, winning football matches.
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