Premier League clubs are considering reducing the winter transfer window to two weeks and closing the summer transfer window before the beginning of the season.
The proposal to shorten the summer window from its current length has been raised in talks between clubs since the end of the most recent window on Monday, which ran from January 1 to February 3. The aim is that it minimises disruption to managers and their squads once the games begin.
The summer window ended before the start of the season in 2018 and 2019, but this was abandoned because other leagues in Europe kept their window open until the end of August. Since then Saudi Arabia’s Pro League has become a major influence in the market and it is likely to be open for the full scope of the window – as laid out by Fifa.
The debate over the timing of transfer windows happened at a meeting of sporting directors of the 20 Premier League clubs on Thursday. The owners and chief executives will decide whether the proposal has any chance of going to a vote.
In general, the curtailed transfer windows of 2018 and 2019 were felt to put Premier League clubs at a disadvantage to competitors around the world who could drive a better price on deals because of the more limited scope their English counterparts had to complete.
The chief argument concerns the integrity of the game and how the movement of players during the season might affect that. There is a Premier League shareholders’ meeting next week when owners, chief executives and other key figures meet and vote on the timing of the closing of the window. There is likely to be a discussion with fellow top European leagues about aligning the closure of their windows in the summer, although ultimately that will be a choice for those countries.
Once again the English clubs dominated the market in this January window with a net spend of €320 million (£266 million), more than twice that of the next highest, which was Saudi Arabia with €142 million. The Championship clubs had a greater net spend of €43.7 million than Serie A (€33.5 million) and the Bundesliga (€31.45 million). Both Ligue 1 and La Liga recorded overall net trade surpluses.
The Telegraph
