Ask any football fan what is so special about the 31st August every year, and the vast majority will tell you just to turn on Sky Sports News and watch events unfold. Tune in to see the ‘drama’ that is transfer deadline day. We know what it’s all about, seeing reporters outside football grounds, cars leaving training complexes and Big Ben getting closer and closer to that midnight cut off point when the window closes. In the weeks and months prior to that, we must endure tens of made up transfer stories in rumour mills across a broad range of media outlets.
So why is the transfer window so melodramatic nowadays? One cliché may suggest it is just yet another indication of the way our beautiful game is heading. It is less about football on the pitch, more about capital off it. Who can make the headlines not for winning the most games or scoring the most goals, but for signing the biggest players and spending the most cash? Transfer rumours will get more coverage than some of the football matches that happen every weekend.
It also helps to maintain high readership and viewing figures amongst those footballing outfits when frankly, there’s not a lot else going on in the close season. Players are on holiday and training grounds are temporarily made redundant so people covering matters at such locations have little else to resort to. Transfer stories are reported based on barely a shred of evidence, but people still buy the newspapers, watch the TV Channels and click on the websites in the hope that the latest rumour is true, and in fact Fillipo Inzaghi will be joining Watford or Yann M’Villa has ‘100%’ signed for Arsenal.
It is true though, that football fans love nothing more than to be full of optimism going into a new season, the rumour mills and the drama of the transfer window only fuel this notion. If every story reported was proven to be true, all of the 92 teams in the football league would be considering themselves for success, becoming completely unrealistic over their teams hopes for the upcoming campaign. But the modern football fan is all too used to the speculation and the pre-season buzz.
There are other and more intelligent football stories that could be covered throughout the close season, taking in wider aspects of the game. To look at the impact of goal line technology, the poor financial structure of some the biggest clubs in football or the prospect of certain young talents. Whilst such stories can be seen, the underlying and consistent feature of summer footballing news is always transfer speculation.
We may all find ourselves avidly following the transfer window in the close season, hoping for each rumour to be true, but the realistic aspect of the situation is that it is all made up, constantly fuelled by half stories just to keep football fans tuned in when there is very little else happening.
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