The January window was supposed to simplify football’s chaotic transfer market but it has become an unwanted and damaging distraction. Chief sports writer Luke Edwards reports
THERE are times when it seems the only people who think the January transfer window is a good idea are the men and women reading from auto cues on 24-hour news channels.
To be fair to the Sky Sports News presenters they are just trying to earn a living like the rest of us and if someone is willing to pay them to generate artificial excitement hyping up the transfer of an unknown Latvian centre-back to Barnsley via the German second division that is their business.
Yet, this is precisely what rolling news channels thrive on, building up tension where there is none, generating pressure where there has not been any and fuelling speculation with the same finesse as pouring petrol on an open fire.
On some days during January a transfer story can be revealed in the morning, talked about over lunch, denied in the afternoon, and revived again in the evening.
And, in the background, the countdown to deadline day continues like on New Year’s Eve in New York’s Times Square, only without anything to actually celebrate other than the possible arrival of an over-priced footballer to fill the void left by a three-month injury to your club’s top goalscorer.
The problem with 24-hour news is there is not always enough happening to keep the agenda fresh and the ticker tape rolling, but in the transfer window there is always something to report and, more importantly, there is always something to fill air time.
Speculation has always kept the media in stories and newspapers are never afraid to go to town with a transfer tale either, but there are some restrictions in place, not least deadlines and print runs.
It can be exciting, it can be interesting, it sometimes even turns out to be true, but it probably does not do any good for clubs, players and managers who, for one month a year, are bombarded with transfer speculation and intrigue.
The agents enjoy it as it gives them a month to earn some money by moving some of their clients around, but does it actually do any good for the game itself, either as a sport or as a business?
There is not a manager in the country who enjoys the transfer window. Their phones never stop ringing, whether it is agents offering them a player or offering one of theirs to someone else.
