{"id":21864,"date":"2019-08-27T09:01:33","date_gmt":"2019-08-27T05:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=21864"},"modified":"2019-08-27T09:01:33","modified_gmt":"2019-08-27T05:01:33","slug":"english-premier-league-why-the-transfer-window-has-lost-some-of-its-excitement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/english-premier-league-why-the-transfer-window-has-lost-some-of-its-excitement\/","title":{"rendered":"English Premier League: why the transfer window has lost some of its excitement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Clubs are more wary about buying and selling<\/sup><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
\n

<\/p>\n

Football players come and go. Sometimes they arrive at a new team with great fanfare, and sometimes they leave for a rival squad in a haze of bitter acrimony.<\/span><\/p>\n

At best, a new player can be a catalyst for a significant change of fortune, making the transfer window \u2013 when clubs buy and sell \u2013 an exciting part of the footballing calendar.<\/span><\/p>\n

In recent years, there has been no better place to observe the transfer business than the English Premier League. Europe\u2019s most watched league has long claimed to be the most lucrative in world football.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since it was established in 1992, the Premier League has attracted talent from around the globe, broken transfer records, and provided broadcasting revenue to fund huge transfer fees and pay packets. Just ask Kevin de Bruyne or Alexis Sanchez who have been earning \u00a3350,000 per week for Manchester City and Manchester United respectively.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet this season there feels to have been a slow down, with the Premier League apparently losing its transfer sparkle. Clubs have been working much harder over the summer of 2019 to get fewer deals over the line.<\/span><\/p>\n

Real Madrid\u2019s Gareth Bale has seemed more interested in a lucrative move to the Chinese Super League than returning to the Premier League. Matthijs de Ligt chose Juventus over Manchester United, who themselves have struggled to get a number of deals done \u2013 although they did finally succeed in luring Harry Maguire from Leicester City for \u00a380m, making him the most expensive defender in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Transfer spending seems to be slowing down as clubs inflate prices because they don\u2019t want, or need, to sell. English clubs spent \u00a31.24 billion last summer and, even though the spending this year just about crept up to the 2017 record of \u00a31.4 billion, it seems to have been an endurance event. Newly promoted Aston Villa helped as one of the biggest spenders (\u00a3110m) and Manchester City bought their record breaking full back Joao Cancelo from Juventus for \u00a360m.<\/span><\/p>\n

The TV deals which stimulated an increase in fees and wages have also ensured that clubs feel less urgency to sell players like they used to. But there are other factors at play here.<\/span><\/p>\n

One is the \u201cFinancial Fair Play\u201d rules, which mean teams have to work more cautiously, spending what they earn and not generating large losses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, the Premier League simply isn\u2019t as internally competitive as it used to be. The emergence of a \u201cBig Six\u201d \u2013 the two Manchester clubs, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur \u2013 which hoard ever more wealth, and ever more of the league\u2019s best players, is starting to ensure those intoxicating upsets, are becoming rarer. The system as a whole is statistically less competitive than it used to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

All to play for?<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

The story is the same in the Championship, England\u2019s second football division. Last summer (2018\/19), clubs spent a combined \u00a3201m, but only \u00a3150m has been spent in this window. Remarkably, Championship clubs recouped \u00a3280m from player sales and four clubs didn\u2019t spend at all, relying instead on player loans and free transfers.<\/span><\/p>\n

A deeper dive into Championship clubs\u2019 finances makes it easy to see why some clubs are reluctant to pay out. Financial sustainability in the Championship is currently a distant concept.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2017\/18, operating losses of the 24 clubs totalled \u00a3361m. Net debt was \u00a3963m and, collectively, clubs spent \u00a3795m on wages while generating only \u00a3749m in total revenue.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet the potential prize of Premier League riches remains the drive in this division, and the evidence points towards spending, more often than not, leading to greater sporting success. With the promotion windfall worth at least \u00a3120m , the temptation remains for clubs to go all in, and gamble with their financial sustainability.<\/span><\/p>\n

With more wealth in Europe, less competition in England and lower spending in the Championship, we can start to see why so many clubs are struggling to enhance their squads. But if a lack of transfers leads to reduced sparkle in the coming season, it could be the Premier League \u2013 and its millions of fans across the world \u2013 that suffers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Rob Wilson<\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/span>Head of Department; Finance, <\/span>
\nAccounting & Business Systems, <\/span>
\nSheffield Hallam University<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Dan Plumley<\/span><\/strong>
\n<\/span>Senior Lecturer in Sport Business Management, <\/span>
\nSheffield Hallam University<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

* Published in print edition on 23 August 2019<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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