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"Premier League clubs have today agreed to a rule amendment that will see the summer transfer window in any year end at 17.00 on the Thursday before the start of the season.
"This is for Premier League clubs only and has no bearing on other leagues and competitions.
"The first transfer window in which this applies will be the summer transfer window in 2018 (ahead of the 2018/19 season) and it will close on 17.00 on Thursday 9 August 2018.
"This new rule applies only to the acquisition of players. Clubs will still have the ability to sell players to other leagues in which the transfer window is open (as they can now to leagues that have different transfer wind dates, e.g. MLS and CSL).
"Clubs have discussed this topic at length at previous shareholders' meetings (February 2017 and June 2017) prior to today's vote."
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WC is from 14 Jun to 17 Jul.
The window is already shorter by almost a month. Serious negotiations are unlikely to take part for players involved in WC during the tournament period. Does it not benefit the foreign selling clubs? They know EPL clubs have less them to waste and can stick to their own valuation. For clubs who want to keep their players away from the clutches of EPL clubs, the fight is also 'shorter'.
Then there's the odd case of injuries to key players or serious injuries - a club involved in European club competition qualifiers like us this season played 5 matches before the transfer dateline (although they will probably have a special rule for such cases).
It makes the work (scouting, data collection, negotiation etc.) during the course of the season even more important.
