The end of transfers as we know them?

[Rafiagra]

After the struggles for teams to land their primary targets, the inability of the players to force moves to them, and importantly the massive hike in transfer fees; I can't help but think there is going to be a major shift in how transfers and players contracts are completed in the near future.

I would imagine that aspiring players will be reluctant to tie themselves down for 5 or 6 years, particularly at mid-tier teams, and if they do then there will be an insistence on respectable release clauses. This will undoubtedly have a knock-on effect on reducing transfer fees.

Of course, it would just be a further shift in 'player power' but it could also just make the whole system more transparent and avoid the pressure and constraints that the transfer window brings. If a clubs knows what business it wants to do, then they could essentially make it happen and the only reasons for 'failing' to land targets would be because either the player doesn't want to sign or the club weren't prepared to do the necessary.

It could also potentially reduce the influence of agents and the amount of money they take from transfers.

Thoughts?

 

[rurikbird]

I think the elephant in the room is the growing financial disparity between the "haves" and the "have nots" in football – mirroring the larger economic trends. It looked like the majority of deals this summer were loans – mostly rich clubs parking their excess assets and poorer clubs eagerly gobbling them up. Look at our business – we sold a few players, but loaned out probably twice as many, now extrapolate it to every rich club in Europe and you will see how the loan market dwarfs the actual market. Then you have part-ownership like Italy, buy-back clauses or advance sales like in Germany, "super-agents," "farm-teams" (Man City just bought themselves a La Liga club, if you haven't heard) – all just different ways this economic disparity manifests itself. So I think you could argue the system has already changed – in North America they trade players and in Europe they mostly loan them back and forth and even when the big-money transfers happen, I can't get rid of the impression that there is a "hidden layer" to a lot of them.

It's all really shady and I think it's better for our sanity to concentrate purely on football side of things. Tactics, managers, fans, players. Because when all this financial bubble inevitably crashes and burns, the game will still be there.

 

[Squiggles]

They'll be a reaction to clubs trying trying to curb down player power. As you say, players and agents will demand release clauses and if clubs don't agree, players will walk for free, or will only sign short term contracts.

Players and agents will continue to set the narrative of dealings. Now there's more money in the game, there's less risk in players leaving on a free or signing short term contracts. The financial security of a long term contrsct no longer means as much as it used to when half the league are minted and can afford to buy players they couldn't dream of signing years ago. I'd be surprised if the Emre Can situation doesn't become a lot more common as we progress.

 

[The Nomad]

I think we are on the cusp of having a system similar to Spain where every ambitious player has a release clause.

Barcelona got caught with their trousers down, as no one expected the inflated market to jump over double this window. Its unprecedented.

I also think England will lead the way in getting the transfer window reduced until the end of July. I.e. 1 month to sort your business. It could lead the way to more deals in January too.

One thing is for sure. Player power is over for now, and the agents do not like it. Despite earning record numbers.

 

[Woland]

I still can't get my head round Countinho being worth 50 million quid more than that new stand. That stand, years in planning and design, probably one of the most ambitions public space projects in Europe of last year, thousands of people working on it for ages... The day it opened when we played Leics my mate Glen came in the pub at noon, and him and a team of 20 had been up all night painting five stories of fire escape because it had been forgotten till the last minute, sticking ladders on top of ladders, working 30 hours straight to get the thing finished. And you think about that little tranny crying his eyes out to get a move. I dunno. It's fucking mad innit. The cost v the value. Makes no sense.