This summer’s transfer window promises to be the quietest ever in Scotland due to the complete lack of ‘Old Firm tug-of-wars’.
Survival or revival will be the name of the game with Rangers while Neil Lennon looks to consolidate on the squad that he has build up over the last two years with more departures expected than arrivals.
Upto a dozen players could leave Celtic with activity elsewhere in the SPL certain to be minimal with budgets unclear due to the status of Rangers.
In England the transfer activity is already underway with Chelsea and Arsenal already announcing deal before the window is officially opened. With little speculation surrounding the SPL Will Taylor of Football Fancast prepares for the annual Premiership transfer ritual.
This week and last, we have seen a Premier League transfer attack on the Bundesliga with Chelsea’s signature of Marko Marin and Arsenal’s of Lukas Podolski, and these pre-contract imports have provided a statement of intent ahead of the 2012/13 campaign.
But with the transfer window set to open proper later this month, just how familiar have we become with phrases such as ‘deadline day’, ‘last ditch bid’ and indeed that little yellow Sky Sports breaking news bar that crawls ever so effortlessly along the bottom of our television sets.
Yes, the transfer window is now a staple part of not only the off season but the game and its dynamics as a whole.
I might be mistaken because of my 22 years, but growing up there was never really a distinct buzz surrounding the opening up and closing of the so-called transfer window. Yes, players would sign, but there was no real mediated last ditch rush to sign talent or countless reporters at training grounds across Europe stalking for at least a superficial or hinting transfer blurt.
Nowadays, the off-season receives almost as much attention as the season itself, with dedicated analysts, transfer spies and Bryan Swanson and that space-aged looking machine that informs us of almost every clubs dealings!
Sky Sports has done a lot for the game and positively, but deadline day in particularly is one that few managers enjoy with relish.
It was heavily documented how Arsene Wenger bought several so-called panic buys before the end of the last summer window, but Arsenal weren’t alone in boosting their personnel ranks with many others leaving it as late as the 31st August to add to their squads, when they seemingly had the whole summer to conclude deals, instead of cramming them in nervously at the last minute.
Yes, it may be exciting to slump down in your chair and watch the drama unfold across each hour, yes it may be fulfilling to see your club snatch a top pro an hour till the deadline and yes it may be amusing to watch reporter Jim White’s voice get louder and louder with bold enthusiasm but the Sky Sports hype machine has all by itself coined an event which seems unlikely to cease, with its power and reputation growing year on year
Bryan Swanson particularly gleams with smugness whenever he points to his totaliser, calculating the full amount of every clubs transfer dealings, almost with the child-like freedom of ‘mine’s bigger than yours’. It seems almost a frank disappointment to Sky Sports and their crew whenever clubs fail to engage fully with the January transfer window with reporters eagerly on tenterhooks to break the next big story.
What I’m trying to get at is that Sky and mediated sports television as a whole has billed this so-called ‘deadline day’, it has excitingly and inevitably appealed to a majority of fans and therefore clubs have been pressured into the transfer market for signings which may have previously been plan B’s or not even coveted previously such as whenManchester City snuck in to swoop Robinho from the clutches of Chelsea
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