Are football fans addicted to transfers?

It is safe to say that money has become a rather important factor in football. Little else sums up contemporary football better than how much money there is in the sport. Logic suggests that with more money than other clubs, you increase your chances of tempting their talented footballers to yours. In addition, with more money being offered, the selling club can happily profit from or reinvest the transfer fees they receive for those players. This is not always the case of course but the general feeling is that with enough finance, clubs can get the man they want.

For whatever reason yellow is the theme of transfer deadline day

Young players are able to demand transfers, in the tender years of their careers, in order to force a move to more successful clubs. Those clubs can hoover up the best talent from across the country (with the help of EPPP - for another time), because the initial money they spend is pocket changes to them. And we lap it all up. 

Football is evermore becoming a ruthless business, with the fans baying for blood when results are not how they would like them to be. There is a desire to compete at the highest level by clubs and their fans, for differing reasons, in equal proportion. For the clubs themselves, the revenue and broadcasting rights (in England in particular) bring untold riches. The gap between the richest and the poorer clubs is increasing year after year and if clubs do not act quickly and smartly, they will be the ones left behind. For the fans, Champions League football has developed into the pinnacle of elite football, the holy grail you might say. Unless you support clubs who play in the elite competitions your view is worth less than others. Fans of lower league clubs might even now have a 'second team', one that is successful and have easy access to via TV or the internet.

And the simple solution to improving a team, or increasing their chances of winning, is seen as signing new players. 'Fresh blood', 'competition for places'. It is an easy thing to suggest, and easy for the head coach,  rather than actually doing their job than improving the players they have at their disposal (Harry Redknapp, I'm looking at you). And with this culture of the 'armchair expert', such is the amount of football fans can access nowadays, it is simpler to suggest new players than how the team can improve individually and collectively, on the training ground. After one signing is made attention can immediately turn to another position in the team that needs 'strengthening'. And this leads to the question I ask in this blog: are football fans addicted to transfers?

Such is the hype around transfers that adults will unashamedly admit to booking a day off work for the final day of the transfer window so that they can slouch on sofa, eagerly anticipating whichever bizarre way Jim White chooses to announce himself to the Sky studios with his bright yellow tie for all to see. White can be thankful to the career boost from the fanfare around transfers as he has become something of a cult hero, presenting as the face of transfer deadline day.

A transfer deadline day "classic"

What is it about making new signings that the fans just love? A club rarely makes outstanding signings 100% of the time, with no guarantee on the outcome of any deal. Regardless, it is greeted as a sign of ambition, and that is important to many within the game. Some signings can be just as much about of being seen to mean business than even improving the first team.

Could it be argued that in England this thirst for fresh faces affects the development of our home grown talent? Not in the typically argued 'them bloody foreigners' way but that, in general, if a club feels the need to continuously replenish their playing staff, how on earth can young players stake their claim for a first team place? Without that initial opportunity, how can we know whether we are producing the talent that we are told is not being developed after every international tournament failure?

Not that signing new players is bad, far from it. A good signing can dramatically improved a team's performances and have a positive effect. However there are just as many cases were deals are seen as 'flops' that have blocked off the chance for someone else, already at the club, to step up and show their worth.

I'm not sure how the amount of players that are brought into a club within one window can be slowed down, or if it ever will! Whether there are too many transfers between clubs, and too much money thrown around, is all very subjective anyway. A more cautious approach by any club would be met with riots! With the impact social media now has news travels at incredible speed, fans are desperate to be the first to find out and stay in the loop, and that shows no signs of slowing either.