da 888casino： There’s a mutually shared feeling of optimism and hope that besets itself across all football fans in the summer and January.
da poker： The signing and movement of players is a let up; a get out of jail free; a passage to a bright future. It provides a period of opportunity to iron out a club’s deficiencies and put some shine on a squad that needs changing.
The furore is a product of the media’s mass-transfer-hysteria. You can trace it’s general conception back to 1969 when media-giant Rupert Murdoch purchased the Sun newspaper and realised how the lack of nationwide printing presses meant the first editions of his papers would have to be finished en-route to British newsagents before the final whistle of evening matches had been blown. The Sun’s solution to that problem four decades ago was to fill the first editions of papers with transfer gossip (a majority of it probably all completely untrue- like today). When more printing stations were constructed nationwide and transfer gossip was deemed redundant and subsequently dropped, people complained of its absence. Inadvertently, the transfer gossip craze was born.
A slight digression, perhaps, but Murdoch’s unintentional invention makes exciting, popular, and readable press. People love to hear it, to envision the consequences of something that’s usually unfeasible, to imagine an almost parallel footballing universe where Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi start up front for Blyth Spartans. With a very small bracket of clubs dominating much of football, for the average football fan aspiring to mid-table mediocrity, the singing of a player for a big fee can sometimes be a season highlight.
Naturally, those stories can gain so much traction, making the January and summer transfer windows the Christmas-es of the modern media. Deadline Day is Sky Sports News’ Champions League Final. Every news stories are transfer gossip, ranging from unfathomably fees to the outright ludicrous (Rivaldo to Bolton remains a personal favourite).
The hysteria really is of quite some magnitude. Which places a tangible pressure on chairmekn and managers to provide some meaty transfer campaigns to feed their insatiable fan base. A failure to tap into a market in conjunction with a fall in form will be viewed in an immensely bad way by fans. And in a sport where finances are largely transparent and people know how much money is floating about, investments are expected.
It goes without saying then, but signing players for the most part is beneficial – a method of acquiring talent that you do not have, a motivational medium to remind a current crop of players that there are always alternatives in the market, a vehicle to stay financially healthy through times of austerity.
But it isn’t always the answer. Sometimes it can be seriously detrimental to a team, a financial black hole that cripples a mis-led chairman. At the end of last season, it was widely reported that Tony Fernandes’ QPR had a larger wage bill than Borussia Dortmund. QPR were plying their trade in England’s second tier while the German giants were competing in the latter stages of Europe. That ludicrous situation was a product of an appalling transfer policy. QPR’s original Championship team was dismantled in place of expensive, famous, has-beens who’s only motive appeared to be to earn their wages. It may seem different now, but QPR might very nearly have gone the same way as Portsmouth had they not quickly secured a route back to Premier League.
There’s also the more worrying effects that acquiring outside talent has on youth academies, particularly on a domestic front where a National team can be interminably hindered by a lack of home-grown talent. Chelsea haven’t had a first team youth product since John Terry. Man City had a fine reputation of developing talent up until the Mansour regime. What motive do young players have to perform at one of those tops clubs when they know they’ll never get a run in the first team? Tottenham spent upwards of £60m on midfield talent in their post-Bale period, but now actually frequently line-up with Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb in those positions- what a monumental waste of money.
Making investments is a natural and necessary principle to any operating organisation. It’s just that in football, it isn’t, like the surrounding hysteria would make us assume, always the answer. Developing and having faith in your current contingent of players can sometimes be better.
But then, after all, that’s such an un-pleasing act on a footballing fans mind, that long may the excitement of purchasing players continue.
[ad_pod id=’ffc-video’ align=’center’]
[ad_pod id=’ricco’ align=’center’]