Transfer windows - Good or bad?

I wish we got rid of them - I'm sure wages and fees are ridiculously high because of them.

The clubs get screwed by players and agents more as the deadline approaches so in the end the price goes up and we all cop the cost in the end.


Let clubs sign players when they want whenever they are out of contract - whats the downside? Manure being able to stave off relegation by signing some player with 3 games to go? I'd pay to see that!
Sunderland being able to tempt our players away when they want? they have done that anyway!

Remind me what the downside was because I can't think what it was now?


That Bosman fella has a lot to answer for too - why can't clubs get a fee when a contract ends? Maybe if they were letting him rot in the reserves perhaps he should be able to walk but why should a club lose a player they trained, developed and put in the shop window for zilch?

I don't know about closing it, but curtains would definitely be an improvement.

Chicken Runner61 said:

Let clubs sign players when they want whenever they are out of contract

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pretty sure they can. though aren't you contradicting yourself with the impact of Bosman, suggesting there should still be a fee for out of contract players? anyway, Bosman was to comply with basic employment law, once your contract is up you are no longer beholdn to the employer so why should football be different? they've kept in an exclusion to cover hoovering up young talent, its about right.

Mustafa said:

However limit the amount of players a club can sign in a season.

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thats not a bad idea, with or without the window.

If the decision about this was based purely for the good of the game then I think the best solution is to have a window existing from the end of one season to a week before the start of the new season.

Clubs would then have a week to submit their squad to the league and those are the players a team must stick with for the whole season. Loan signings permitted only for medical reasons subject to certification and checks, etc.

Restrictions on movement during the season would focus attention on preparing home-grown players, rather than short-term fixes of loans in and out, leading to more first-team opportunities for youngsters.

This way, you avoid all this bollocks about "player's not being focused / head's not right" mid-season. It also avoids bollocks about whether players are cup-tied or not.

Also, whats the big deal if a player is cup tied, why can't they just play the game? If it was a league game and say they were playing watford, and they played against them with thier old club, they are allowed to play against them with the new club, so why not the same for cup games.

Keep the summer/closed season one but get rid of the January one.
it was good enough in years gone by so why not now.
All players should complete the season and sort themselves out in the prolonged summer break.

beorhthelm said:

pretty sure they can. though aren't you contradicting yourself with the impact of Bosman, suggesting there should still be a fee for out of contract players? anyway, Bosman was to comply with basic employment law, once your contract is up you are no longer beholdn to the employer so why should football be different? they've kept in an exclusion to cover hoovering up young talent, its about right.



thats not a bad idea, with or without the window.

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You can sign a player if he's out of contract but you can't play him in your squad.

I don't think its fair that you can train someone up help them get established, put them in the shop window for them to leave for a bigger better position - whether thats in basic employment or otherwise. It might be something you have to live with in basic employment after all you can't keep someone who doesn't want to work for you but whats the point of a club investing in youth and development squads to find all their best talent that they nurtured goes to clubs with a bigger draw as soon as they are out of contract.

The biggest clubs can not only buy up all the players they can draw off then best coaches from all the smaller development clubs around - Bosman is a win win for players agents and big clubs. Its why wages and transfers (and agents fees) are ruining our game and making going to football too expensive.

I want our game to be fair and I want to see smaller clubs have a chance to compete by having clubs develop local talent that remains loyal not sold off because we have to or because they can be bought off by bigger teams.
If that means monitoring clubs and stopping players from being able to force a transfer so be it.

All the transfer window does is make a farce of the system and increased loan deals. You have players being signed on long contracts not to tie them down but to hope they get a payback if they leave you have players sitting on high wages because no one can buy them and if they could they are stopped by the window.

Putting a limit on how many players you can buy puts a limit on how many are sold as well which could be good to bring down wages and fees but the game needs to flow and players need to move around to keep squads fresh and fans interested.