There is a reason why clubs aren't spending big in the January transfer window, and it points to a major problem
Premier League clubs have not been as active this month as Transfer Deadline Day promises to be the quietest in years
The yellow ties will be adorned but those wearing them might have less to chat about this year.
It’s Transfer Deadline Day, folks, the day that comes but twice a year, when football clubs scramble and pay over the odds to sign players that in most cases they don’t need. It is a day that garners so much attention among UK football fans that it's been capped up.
For years now, reporters have camped outside training grounds in the hope of chatting with managers or players through a two-inch gap in a wound-down Range Rover window.
Harry Redknapp became a parody of himself down the years. “Yeah, Niko Kranjcar is a great player, lovely boy. Delighted to have brought him to (insert club).”
As the seasons have passed the fervor that surrounds this most bizarre of days has increased. Rolling news coverage, the kind that used to be reserved for the OJ Simpson car chase, or the passing of a head of state, is now commonplace, with every nook and cranny of the market watched like a hawk in the hope that someone, anyone, will move clubs.
“We’ve got some big breaking news for you, we’re hearing that Fulham has had an offer for Steve Van Driver accepted by the Belgian side he plays for that is situated in a side in a beautiful part of Flanders.”
Lovely stuff.
It’s never really been January when the big deals happen, though. Those are reserved for the summer when clubs are plotting the season ahead and have budgeted for their summer spending. Those engaging in the January market are either those needing a little extra something to get themselves over the line at the right end, and willing to fish from a small pond and pay a premium to land them, or those hopelessly feeling around in the dark trying to find the remedy for a season gone awry by adding more players to a bloated squad that was woefully underperforming.
Last year was a wild one, though. This one, it is not.
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