Saga of the football transfer window
Thursday 31 August 2017
Simon Chadwick, Professor of Sports Enterprise at the University of Salford Business School, comments on the frenetic final day of the football transfer window.
Simon said: “One suspects that many of the deals we see have been previously agreed and that there is an element of theatre and staged drama in the prevarication around player transfers. This engages fans, generates content, and keeps football (clubs) at the forefront of people's minds.
“That said, clubs will often be very anxious not to cede competitive positioning to a rival and will therefore seek to frustrate and undermine them for as long as possible. Even though a club may be desperate to bring-in a player, a rival may attempt to undermine and destabilise it by constantly creating obstacles. The buying club may not want this to happen, but sometimes if they want or need the player so badly they will have no choice.
“Beyond the manufactured drama and competitive rivalry, clubs will also be thinking in terms of strategy and tactics. Strategically, signings may be brought-in to strengthen an already established strategy - think Manchester City and Guardiola's attempt to play a different type of football, or Middlesbrough and its chairman's claim that the club will 'smash the Championship' this season. Yet signings may also be tactical decisions too; having already played several games, clubs will by now be aware that they may be exposed in a particular position - think centre-backs in the Premier League, where the sagas involving Evans/Van Dijk/Gibson et al. suggests there is a house of cards waiting to tumble.
“Late signings may also reflect a sudden cash windfall, indeed we should not forget the enduring cascade downwards of liquidity injected into the transfer system by the Neymar deal. Alternatively, crowds may have been larger during early season than a club expected, generating money that might otherwise have been unavailable.
“There are also issues around management and leadership; clearly, this is the last opportunity to buy players for four months. Clubs may want to buy players as even if they score just a couple of goals, they could make the difference between being in the relegation zone at Christmas or being mid-table. As such, managers and owners may take a gung-ho approach, believing that it is better to spend and potentially buy points than be faced with a struggle. Alternatively, clubs may adopt a much more cautious approach, believing that it is better to keep their cash in the bank in case the rainy-days of winter dictate that they have spend to address a predicament their teams faces come January.”
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Sam Wood
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