Fishburn Hedges

22.07.2010

Summer is a frustrating time for football fans. Even with the extended World Cup there is then the lag between the end of the season and the start of real skirmishing in mid-August. This summer there’s not even any decent test cricket to keep us occupied.

So the media fills the void with transfer speculation. This tends to follow a well trodden course – a story appears (probably generated by an agent) that club x is buying player y from club z for a figure normally twice what he is worth. There are then a series of follow ups where everything he says is interpreted as saying he wants to join club x.

In the old days these we fuelled by stories on the back pages of the tabloids, but these days fans websites make all the running - I’d list them but there are simply TOO MANY. At this point player y is termed “wantaway”. The manager of team z then says he will fight to hold onto player y.  This however may merely be a way of pushing the price up. Eventually player y either commits to club z, signs for club x or signs for someone completely different. The club he signs for is suddenly the best club in the world.

Thankfully the transfer window closes at the end of August.