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However, I think that to harp on about the age old argument about no footballer being worth millions and millions of pounds actually doesn’t satisfy the question about why it is wrong that clubs spend so much money in the January transfer window. The problem is not one surrounding the moral question of how much a footballer should be worth as such but whether it makes business and football sense to have a fixed four-week long transfer period halfway through the season.
Firstly the business side of things. On the last day of the 2011 January window, Chelsea spent £50 million on striker Fernando Torres and a further £21 million to bring in defender David Luiz from Benfica. It doesn’t take much mathematical skill to realise that is a heck of a lot of money to spend on two players. Whether or not Torres was worth £50 million is a debatable issue but I think you would struggle to find many Chelsea fans who would say they weren’t happy to see him arrive from Liverpool. I actually think that Torres probably is worth the money that Chelsea paid for him but the problem is that Chelsea recorded a pre-tax loss of £70 million for 2010 and operating losses for the football club stood at £68 million last year. Now, how can any business running with operating losses of £68 million warrant spending a further £70 million? It makes no financial sense whatsoever.
But this is where the problem of the January transfer window comes into play because football operates a system whereby if a club wants to buy a player, they have to do it in that fixed period of time. It means that clubs like Chelsea will be prepared to add to their debts in order to satisfy a greed for wanting a top player and they hope to recover their losses throughout the rest of the season.
The problem is that this type of business model is simply not sustainable and this point has been further proved by the fact that UEFA has decided to introduce a “financial fair play” rule, which will come into effect at the start of next season. This ruling states that clubs will not be allowed to run with losses of more than £38 million over the next two seasons. This step is one that needs to be brought into the game but I don’t think that it has helped this year at all because it seems as though clubs have gone on one last January spending spree before the financial sanctions come into play.
Secondly, and perhaps more fundamentally, are the problems that the January transfer window causes for football, and particularly managers. It is often the case that managers lose their jobs in and around the transfer window as chairmen won’t give their money to a manager that they are not sure about for him to spend. In the last two months, we have seen 16 managerial departures from English clubs, the most notable being Roy Hodgson from Liverpool. Now, I’m not saying that these managers would have remained in work for a long period of time had it not been for the transfer window but what you often find is that having the window there acts as a catalyst for managerial sackings within the game. I would bet that we won’t see another 16 mangers lose their jobs in February and March this year.
The idea of the transfer window was to make clubs reign in their spending habits and act more responsibly with their finances, but in reality, I believe that the idea has only served to hinder financial fair play and decency and common sense within the game. In my opinion, something needs to change, and it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if the January transfer window was done away with altogether.
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