Filed under: Arsenal, Everton, Manchester City, Manchester United, Stoke City, Sunderland, Tottenham, Premier League, Football, Transfer News
Ah, transfer deadline day, football's Christmas Day equivalent except that it comes twice a year and is 10 times more cynically commercial. What's not to love as Sky Sports News presenters comically whip themselves into a frothing frenzy of hyperbole amid rumours that Wesley Sneijder has just been seen hailing a taxi at Manchester Airport?Who could fail to be thrilled by the sight of Harry Redknapp, car window down outside the Tottenham training ground, saying he didn't expect to make any signings, no, not this time, only for seven to arrive at 10.59pm?
And who is not secretly hoping for a glimpse of Arsene Wenger's horrified face when he realises that all 20 of his panic buy bids have been accepted and 462 agents are on their way to the Emirates Stadium to get their slice of the most reluctant pie in football?
Cabaret, pure cabaret. Who could not love 24 hours of such chaotic pantomime?
Well, me for a start. In fact, there is so much that is wrong about transfer deadline day that it is difficult to know where to start.
Almost every deal that goes through will be flawed in some way. Most likely it will be rushed and the buying club will lose its nerve and pay not only more than it wanted to play but more than it knows the player is worth. And then that selling club will suddenly do exactly the same itself to bring in a replacement, as will the next one in an elaborate daisy chain of avarice that will inevitablyt break down somewhere along the line and cost at least one manager his job sooner or later.
The other side of that coin is that players themselves feel railroaded into deals they had never seen coming at the start of the season. Is Peter Crouch drooling at being the centre of a tug of love between Stoke and Sunderland? What do you think?
And then there all the agents in feeding frenzy mode desperate to make the most of the one time in six months they are guaranteed a hefty windfall so long as they can get a deal done in time for their client. Who can forget a bewildered Robinho struggling to come to terms with the realisation that it was Manchester City, not United, that he was about to sign for?
Even then both player and representative can end up unhappy, which inevitably will have negative consequences for the manager who had been so pleased to land him. As The Guardian's Secret Footballer revealed in his most recent column, clubs' delaying tactics are designed to save money in more than one way.
"My new employers tried on the age-old tactic of unnecessarily leaving things until the last possible moment, meaning that the final contract was faxed over with roughly half an hour to spare in the hope that I would sign it hurriedly and fax it back," he wrote.
"The contract was missing all of the previously agreed bonuses and, if I had put pen to paper, I would have been worse off than when I started. This is such a common practice when time is short that I am almost embarrassed to mention it, yet a few players have had their fingers burned over the years because their agents missed a trick."
Another inevitable byproduct of the hasty transfer is the hurried medical - or, if time is really tight, the no medical at all gamble. Perhaps the best example of this occurred in Scotland a decade ago when Dick Advocaat, then manager of Rangers, was running out of time to sign John Hartson and Ronald de Boer, who both had knee injuries. In the end, the former was rejected and the latter signed but the random element of such a policy was soon exposed when de Boer was constantly injured and Hartson enjoyed a trophy-laden spell at Celtic at their rivals' expense.
And what about those deals that seemed to have missed the deadline yet are mysteriously announced as complete and totally above board the next morning? One for the conspiracy theorists? Perhaps but you don't see Manchester United doing much on transfer deadline day do you? Sir Alex completed his important business well ahead of the start of the season and has seen his team win all its matches so far. Coincidence? I don't think so.
So there you go. No doubt you are busy pressing refresh to find out who your club is going to buy and, consequently, whether you approve. Or, if you are an Everton supporter, who you are going to sell and how much damage it will do. The chances are you won't do quite as much work today as you did on Monday. Or arrive at the office tomorrow morning not having quite as much sleep as usual.
If so then good luck to you. I'm aiming to be tucked up in bed well before midnight with a book. And it won't be about football finances, I can promise you.
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Source: http://www.fanhouse.co.uk/2011/08/31/cash-lies-and-ticker-tape-why-i-hate-transfer-deadline-day/
Matt Kuchar Maxi RodrÃguez Michael Ballack Michael Essien Michael Owen
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