Should the January transfer window be scrapped?
Here we are again in the dark gloomy recess of a cold January and Premier League managers are bemoaning the lack of available talent currently on the market that could augment their squads.
Why is that you ask? Well, keen reader, it is because all the top talent is currently playing for all the top teams who are all competing for silverware and unwilling to say goodbye to the players who have helped them reach that point, if you catch my drift.
Sure, there’s Julian Draxler but he is, after all, only 20 years old and whilst he may have bags of potential, is he really the player that will propel Arsenal to a league title this season? New country, new language and, again, a mere 20 years old.
I don’t think he is the answer. Arsenal could really do with someone like Diego Costa who has been on a hot streak all season long, but Atletico Madrid have mounted a pretty good assault on Real Madrid and Barcelona, with the help of Costa’s goals, so they wouldn’t dream of letting the talented Brazilian leave, would they?
Conversely, the January window is a good time to let go of dead weight (we are all looking at you Anderson) and Spurs have lots of that at the moment so Tim Sherwood is probably thankful he can offload some over the next couple of weeks. Etienne Capoue is apparently on his way out as is Nacer Chadli, two leftovers from the Great Spurs Summer Spend of 2013. There are even whispers that record signing Erik Lamela could be on his way back to Italy.
But is this what the January transfer window has come to? Sub par teams who spent poorly in the summer using the month to get rid of all the rubbish they brought in?
Who can forget the January 2011 window? Fernando Torres to Chelsea and Andy Carroll to Liverpool. How did that work out? Need more reason to get rid of it? I still find the decline of Torres to be one of the most remarkable football stories in recent memory. He was so good at Liverpool and with a change of scenery that was it, he completely forgot how to score on a regular basis. Maybe it was the prospect of seeing John Terry nearly all week every week. That would be enough to put me off.
I suppose my main gripe with the January window is that after a whole summer of persistent and usually untrue rumours we have deal with it all again, albeit condensed into one month. And apart from that big Torres/Carroll deal, is there ever any decent business conducted?
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