Does the transfer window system need a tweak?

JamesSeed

Clubs, particularly in League One and below, have taken a big financial hit because of the covid crisis. And now they're faced with the annual problem of getting their squads together before the window closes, knowing that they need decent cover for every position on the pitch, at a time when money is tight for many.
Injuries can, and always have wreaked havoc, but wealthier clubs with bigger squads will always have a major advantage over those with less wealthy owners.
Is it time to tweak the system to level the playing field a little bit, or at least to reduce the element of luck a little bit?

Maybe each club should be allowed to make one or two transfers outside of the transfer windows each season, perhaps with the an exclusion for the last month of the season. All clubs would benefit by being at least slightly protected from freak injury crises, such as the one we suffered in the Championship. 

I'm sure there are a ton of reasons why this idea can't and won't happen, but it would appear to make at least some sense to me.

Rothko

I do think the new work permit system has done a lot to slow things up, and make players who would be in League 1 end up in the Championship as they can't go and get better value players from the EU anymore. 

sam3110

I thought them bringing in a maximum amount of players able to register in the squad was meant to fix this, so every club has maximum of 25 players to choose from, and if you get 10 injuries you deal with it, with exceptions for under 23's.

The problem is some clubs only sign 19/20 players and don't have an academy to speak of, and others sign 25 senior players and have a full academy to pick from too. 

The only true solution would be an American style roster, with wage caps, and then the ability to place players on injured reserve etc and sign players short term from a practice squad (reserves) to play, but that's too complicated to do over a 4 league system with 92 clubs

cafcfan1990

JamesSeed said:

Clubs, particularly in League One and below, have taken a big financial hit because of the covid crisis. And now they're faced with the annual problem of getting their squads together before the window closes, knowing that they need decent cover for every position on the pitch, at a time when money is tight for many.
Injuries can, and always have wreaked havoc, but wealthier clubs with bigger squads will always have a major advantage over those with less wealthy owners.
Is it time to tweak the system to level the playing field a little bit, or at least to reduce the element of luck a little bit?

Maybe each club should be allowed to make one or two transfers outside of the transfer windows each season, perhaps with the an exclusion for the last month of the season. All clubs would benefit by being at least slightly protected from freak injury crises, such as the one we suffered in the Championship. 

I'm sure there are a ton of reasons why this idea can't and won't happen, but it would appear to make at least some sense to me.

How does that level the playing field though? What if a League 1 club is weakened by selling their best player or two in say March? I get what you are saying about an injury crisis, but if we suffer one towards the end of the season, how would it be fair for us to be able to weaken other teams? Surely this completely goes against what you are trying to achieve. 

cafcfan1990

Rothko said:

I do think the new work permit system has done a lot to slow things up, and make players who would be in League 1 end up in the Championship as they can't go and get better value players from the EU anymore. 

Yes I agree, you would have to guess going forward there are going to be more British players in the Championship who would be playing in League 1. You'd have to say longer term this will be beneficial for home grown players but will widen the gap in quality between the Prem and the Champ. 

Chris_from_Sidcup

cafcfan1990 said:

JamesSeed said:

Clubs, particularly in League One and below, have taken a big financial hit because of the covid crisis. And now they're faced with the annual problem of getting their squads together before the window closes, knowing that they need decent cover for every position on the pitch, at a time when money is tight for many.
Injuries can, and always have wreaked havoc, but wealthier clubs with bigger squads will always have a major advantage over those with less wealthy owners.
Is it time to tweak the system to level the playing field a little bit, or at least to reduce the element of luck a little bit?

Maybe each club should be allowed to make one or two transfers outside of the transfer windows each season, perhaps with the an exclusion for the last month of the season. All clubs would benefit by being at least slightly protected from freak injury crises, such as the one we suffered in the Championship. 

I'm sure there are a ton of reasons why this idea can't and won't happen, but it would appear to make at least some sense to me.

How does that level the playing field though? What if a League 1 club is weakened by selling their best player or two in say March? I get what you are saying about an injury crisis, but if we suffer one towards the end of the season, how would it be fair for us to be able to weaken other teams? Surely this completely goes against what you are trying to achieve. 

Happened in Spain a year or 2 ago.

Barcelona were granted an emergency exception to sign another striker from La Liga outside of the transfer window because of a long term injury to Dembele. They went and signed Martin Braithwaite from Leganes who at the time was their top scorer..........and Leganes weren't able to sign anyone to replace him.

Why couldn't a club of their size just use their world famous academy?

cafcfan1990

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

cafcfan1990 said:

JamesSeed said:

Clubs, particularly in League One and below, have taken a big financial hit because of the covid crisis. And now they're faced with the annual problem of getting their squads together before the window closes, knowing that they need decent cover for every position on the pitch, at a time when money is tight for many.
Injuries can, and always have wreaked havoc, but wealthier clubs with bigger squads will always have a major advantage over those with less wealthy owners.
Is it time to tweak the system to level the playing field a little bit, or at least to reduce the element of luck a little bit?

Maybe each club should be allowed to make one or two transfers outside of the transfer windows each season, perhaps with the an exclusion for the last month of the season. All clubs would benefit by being at least slightly protected from freak injury crises, such as the one we suffered in the Championship. 

I'm sure there are a ton of reasons why this idea can't and won't happen, but it would appear to make at least some sense to me.

How does that level the playing field though? What if a League 1 club is weakened by selling their best player or two in say March? I get what you are saying about an injury crisis, but if we suffer one towards the end of the season, how would it be fair for us to be able to weaken other teams? Surely this completely goes against what you are trying to achieve. 

Happened in Spain a year or 2 ago.

Barcelona were granted an emergency exception to sign another striker from La Liga outside of the transfer window because of a long term injury to Dembele. They went and signed Martin Braithwaite from Leganes who at the time was their top scorer..........and Leganes weren't able to sign anyone to replace him.

Why couldn't a club of their size just use their world famous academy?

Funnily enough, I was thinking of that transfer as I was typing. The only transfers that work for me outside of a window are the emergency goalkeeper ones. 

JamesSeed

I was going to add something about having a committee that would decide whether a transfer was justified because of an exceptional injury crisis. 

And to stop clubs taking advantage of financial muscle there could be some sort of a cap. So if a player like Stockley was out for the season, you’d be looking to buy cover for whoever replaces him, rather than another big name striker. 

golfaddick

No,

Clubs have from the end of the season (early May) to the end of August to bring in players. That's almost 4 months. Plenty of time. If you can't formulate a squad of 25 players during that time then you are doing something wrong.

jimmymelrose

No, it simply needs abolishing, especially at our level.

I don't remember any good reason for it in the first place.

stoneroses19

JamesSeed said:

I was going to add something about having a committee that would decide whether a transfer was justified because of an exceptional injury crisis. 

And to stop clubs taking advantage of financial muscle there could be some sort of a cap. So if a player like Stockley was out for the season, you’d be looking to buy cover for whoever replaces him, rather than another big name striker. 

You mean an independent committee, like the one that has continuously let off clubs like Wednesday and Derby for cheating? 

cafcfan1990

JamesSeed said:

I was going to add something about having a committee that would decide whether a transfer was justified because of an exceptional injury crisis. 

And to stop clubs taking advantage of financial muscle there could be some sort of a cap. So if a player like Stockley was out for the season, you’d be looking to buy cover for whoever replaces him, rather than another big name striker. 

No offence, but think that's a terrible idea. Unfortunately injuries are just part of the game, letting clubs replace those players outside of a transfer window brings too many disadvantages. What if Birmingham lost Aneke for 5 months, then they wanted Stockley which unsettles him. Then if we sell him do we have to put an application to make our own signing to replace him? Way too much effort, I much prefer accepting it's part of the game and using a youngster where necessary.

JamesSeed

cafcfan1990 said:

JamesSeed said:

I was going to add something about having a committee that would decide whether a transfer was justified because of an exceptional injury crisis. 

And to stop clubs taking advantage of financial muscle there could be some sort of a cap. So if a player like Stockley was out for the season, you’d be looking to buy cover for whoever replaces him, rather than another big name striker. 

No offence, but think that's a terrible idea. Unfortunately injuries are just part of the game, letting clubs replace those players outside of a transfer window brings too many disadvantages. What if Birmingham lost Aneke for 5 months, then they wanted Stockley which unsettles him. Then if we sell him do we have to put an application to make our own signing to replace him? Way too much effort, I much prefer accepting it's part of the game and using a youngster where necessary.

Fair enough, good points. 

Luck has always been part of the game I guess. I just think when some clubs are struggling to survive something should be done to help, but maybe this wouldn’t help as much as I thought it would. 

👍

JamesSeed

stoneroses19 said:

JamesSeed said:

I was going to add something about having a committee that would decide whether a transfer was justified because of an exceptional injury crisis. 

And to stop clubs taking advantage of financial muscle there could be some sort of a cap. So if a player like Stockley was out for the season, you’d be looking to buy cover for whoever replaces him, rather than another big name striker. 

You mean an independent committee, like the one that has continuously let off clubs like Wednesday and Derby for cheating? 

Very good point 

DOUCHER

i think we should scrap the window and go back to how things were but then i guess we'd miss all the fun we've been having on the rumours thread  - what was the reason for creating the window anyway? what are the perceived benefits - settled squad? 

ForeverAddickted

DOUCHER said:

i think we should scrap the window and go back to how things were but then i guess we'd miss all the fun we've been having on the rumours thread  - what was the reason for creating the window anyway? what are the perceived benefits - settled squad? 

Presume it was to stop the big clubs from stealing players from other clubs that risked competing with them

SomervilleAddick

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

cafcfan1990 said:

JamesSeed said:

Clubs, particularly in League One and below, have taken a big financial hit because of the covid crisis. And now they're faced with the annual problem of getting their squads together before the window closes, knowing that they need decent cover for every position on the pitch, at a time when money is tight for many.
Injuries can, and always have wreaked havoc, but wealthier clubs with bigger squads will always have a major advantage over those with less wealthy owners.
Is it time to tweak the system to level the playing field a little bit, or at least to reduce the element of luck a little bit?

Maybe each club should be allowed to make one or two transfers outside of the transfer windows each season, perhaps with the an exclusion for the last month of the season. All clubs would benefit by being at least slightly protected from freak injury crises, such as the one we suffered in the Championship. 

I'm sure there are a ton of reasons why this idea can't and won't happen, but it would appear to make at least some sense to me.

How does that level the playing field though? What if a League 1 club is weakened by selling their best player or two in say March? I get what you are saying about an injury crisis, but if we suffer one towards the end of the season, how would it be fair for us to be able to weaken other teams? Surely this completely goes against what you are trying to achieve. 

Happened in Spain a year or 2 ago.

Barcelona were granted an emergency exception to sign another striker from La Liga outside of the transfer window because of a long term injury to Dembele. They went and signed Martin Braithwaite from Leganes who at the time was their top scorer..........and Leganes weren't able to sign anyone to replace him.

Why couldn't a club of their size just use their world famous academy?

I agree - but if they were to go for some emergency exemption, they could easily restrict it to loans where they pay the players full salary for the rest of the season or free transfers where the club has to assume all of the players contract. 

cafcfan1990

JamesSeed said:

cafcfan1990 said:

JamesSeed said:

I was going to add something about having a committee that would decide whether a transfer was justified because of an exceptional injury crisis. 

And to stop clubs taking advantage of financial muscle there could be some sort of a cap. So if a player like Stockley was out for the season, you’d be looking to buy cover for whoever replaces him, rather than another big name striker. 

No offence, but think that's a terrible idea. Unfortunately injuries are just part of the game, letting clubs replace those players outside of a transfer window brings too many disadvantages. What if Birmingham lost Aneke for 5 months, then they wanted Stockley which unsettles him. Then if we sell him do we have to put an application to make our own signing to replace him? Way too much effort, I much prefer accepting it's part of the game and using a youngster where necessary.

Fair enough, good points. 

Luck has always been part of the game I guess. I just think when some clubs are struggling to survive something should be done to help, but maybe this wouldn’t help as much as I thought it would. 

👍

I think the only way it works is emergency loan signings, but I'd like to see this restricted to young players from the Premier League clubs. I still wouldn't want a Championship club able to settle League 1 players because that goes against supporting those affected by having smaller squads. If for instance we lost Stockley, Davison Schwartz and Washington to injury this season it would be nice if we could borrow a Prem youngster out of the window but I wouldn't want us to be able to dip into League 2 and tempt someone.