Clubs in talks over cutting January transfer window
Premier League clubs are considering reducing the winter transfer window to two weeks and closing the summer transfer window before the beginning of the season.
The proposals were raised in talks between clubs yesterday. The aim of shortening the summer window would be to minimise disruption to managers and their squads once the season begins.
The summer window ended before the start of the season in 2018 and 2019, but this was abandoned because other leagues in Europe kept their windows open until the end of August.
Since then, Saudi Arabia’s Pro League has become a major influence in the market and it is likely to be open for the full scope of the window – as laid out by Fifa.
The timing of transfer windows was debated at a meeting of sporting directors of the 20 Premier League clubs yesterday. The owners and chief executives will decide whether the proposal has any chance of going to a vote.
In general, the curtailed transfer windows of 2018 and 2019 were felt to put Premier League clubs at a disadvantage against competitors around the world who could drive a better price on deals because of the more limited scope their English counterparts had to complete.
The chief argument concerns the integrity of the game and how the movement of players during the season might affect that.
There is a Premier League shareholders’ meeting next week when owners, chief executives and other key figures will come together to vote on the timing of the closing of the windows. There is likely to be a discussion with fellow top European leagues about aligning the closure of their windows in the summer, although, ultimately, that will be a choice for those countries.
Once again, the English clubs dominated the market in this January window, with a net spend of £266 million, more than twice that of the next highest, which was Saudi Arabia with £119million. Manchester City alone paid out £180million on new players, the most expensive being Omar Marmoush for £62.2million from Eintracht Frankfurt.
The 24 Championship clubs had a greater net spend of £36.5 million than Serie A (£28 million) and the Bundesliga (£26.3million). Both Ligue 1 and La Liga recorded overall net trade surpluses.