By Tony Attwood
This is a transfer window that has died on its feet. Maybe our annual publishing of data showing only 3% (at most) of the transfers mooted by the media is making them all a bit shamefaced (although that seems unlikely) or maybe they have spent so much time in the pub they can’t find their computers.
For while the tittle-tattle of the transfer window always follows the same pattern this one seems to have dried up, with most sites just re-running each other’s stories over and over. Where is that imaginative flair of yesteryear, which saw around 130 players being bought by Arsenal in the course of the summer? Long gone it seems.
Of course we are now approaching the “Arsenal dithering” stage of the window, as other clubs nip in and buy the player. But even those stories are showing signs of desperation.
Things are not helped by Chelsea, the stalwart of multiple mad bids, who now have their own problems having been fined £26.8m by Uefa for breaking the rules, with a suspended £78m further fine if they do it again in the next four years. Meanwhile, ManC know that any more mass buying by them might finally force the League to make its findings on the 120+ cases against the club public. The media have been utterly compliant of course, not saying a word about the ManC situation, but they are getting desperate about the lack of transfer fables.
Of course the fines mean nothing to Chelsea or ManC, but the possibility of points deductions coming along as well, does worry them, as it makes it harder to attract their next manager through the ever revolving door (six managers since 2021 for Chelsea). Here’s the list of 54 players Arsenal are said to be buying
