Sport
Player transfer deadline day is something that has become a brand in itself. Rightly or wrongly, it is a phenomenon, building and in some cases exploiting the hunger for football news that is so ingrained in the modern age of social media.
Yet it has rarely justified the hype. Most sensible football clubs get their business done early, aiming to be ready for the start of the season. The notion of doing deals on the final day has given a suggestion of chaos and being underprepared. However, it feels like football, and therefore football transfers, heading into a new age and embracing the chaos.
On Friday, there was a genuine possibility of lots of things happening, which media and TV companies have always promised: unpredictability. There were a number of deals that went through, and didn’t for that matter, which came out of nowhere. The drama genuinely felt like it was worth everything around it. Why is this? Well, because football finance is changing. There are so many other factors at play which dictate decisions made by clubs, that they never would’ve thought of before.
Firstly, Profit and loss Sustainability Rules. Although they have been around for some time in different guises, it is only recently that they’ve had real resonance. Once Everton and Nottingham Forest were fined for breaching them last season, suddenly clubs were more mindful of what they could and couldn’t do.
There’s also the presence of the Saudi Pro League, which is keen to grow by taking big money players from European leagues. Ivan Toney has joined Al-Ahli in £40 million deal; he has wanted to leave Brentford all summer, but no deal could be struck with another Premier League side. It soon became clear that it was Saudi or nowhere; and the race was on to see if the deal would be done. Napoli striker Victor Osimhen was in a similar situation, with Chelsea also linked, but he didn’t leave and is now in a state of purgatory under Antonio Conte, who doesn’t want him.
Chelsea have been busy this summer, both in terms of buying and selling, to balance the books. Head coach Enzo Maresca had a tough job understanding which players he wanted to keep, and which he didn’t. There were a number of high-profile players he wanted to sell, but doing so was always going to be difficult. That meant, a lot of their unwanted players were available deep into the night on Friday.
Raheem Sterling joined Arsenal on loan; it is a deal that sums up the Blues’ scattergun approach. Sterling was a £50 million signing two years ago, and because there is so much competition, he won’t get any game time at Chelsea. But Arsenal, a better team on paper and a title contender, believe he is good enough for them. Then Jadon Sancho, who was similarly on the fringes at Manchester United, moved to Stamford Bridge.
It used to be rivals would avoid trading players. But now it is necessary because of the regulations. Clubs cannot carry expensive flops as much as they used to, but because these players tend to have plenty of potential, others believe they can get it out of them. Clubs across Europe have often found they cannot match those players’ wages, too, hence the rise of Saudi as a major player in the transfer window.
With PSR, there are now almost two deadlines. June 30, when yearly accounts are due, and the regular closure of the window. But the need to trade with highly-rated and expensive assets to comply often leads to panic and chaos. In many ways that isn’t a good thing, but as seen on Friday, it could give a new lease of life to the entire notion of Transfer Deadline Day.
