Football: The magical land of transfers

Luis Suarez: Should I stay or should I go?

For those of us who suffer from withdrawal symptoms once the official club football season ends all over the world (except for maybe the MLS and the South American leagues), these three months of no football to watch on TV or on our laptops provides us with some crazy surfing and refreshing all our various sources for…..you said it….. transfer gossip.

We football fans begin to think of ourselves as clairvoyants and pundits. We have long animated discussions with our friends on how Robin van Persie and Cesc Fabregas would create wonders if the former Arsenal players were joined together at Old Trafford.

We speculate on the 12th club that Zlatan Ibrahimovic might choose this summer and gasp at the media trying to insinuate anything that we have not thought of. The transfer window has been open for almost a month and already there have been numerous allegations of players’ next clubs.

Bale, Baines, Benteke, David Luiz, Fabregas, Fellaini, Higuain, Ibrahimovic, Mata, Nani, Ronaldo, Rooney, Soldado, Suarez, Thiago Silva are some of our pet projects for the next month or so. Not to mention those transfers already completed – Cavani, David Villa, Falcao, Gomez, Gotze, Isco, Jovetic, Marquinhos, Mkhitaryan, Neymar, Paulinho, Strootman, Thiago Alcantara, Tevez, where we debate on whether they made the right choice and how much money the club paid for them (or they earned) and determine for ourselves what the reason for their transfer to the particular club is.

Each club supporter will experience a slight increase in their heart rate when they see an awesome transfer target in relation to their club. What potential to tap if that particular target is signed. Our minds begin to hallucinate and dream up amazing future games where the future target scores the winning goal or makes a winning pass/save or simply is brilliant throughout the game.

To be honest, last season transfers, at least in England were dominated by only one person- Robin van Persie moving from Arsenal to Manchester United after effectively playing his best season ever. He then topped it off by having his best season ever and win the title for the Red Devils.

This year though, transfers of managers too have come into the equation. In England, the charismatic Portuguese Jose Mourinho will look to bring several years of negotiation experience in trying to snare Wayne Rooney away from Old Trafford. While David Moyes – the new Manchester United boss – has made just one signing in the young Guillermo Varela. The world still waits as he tries to put his unique stamp on the most popular club in the world.

Manuel Pellegrini – the boss of the other Manchester club – having sold Carlos Tevez to Juventus, has already made four major signings in Fernandinho, Jesus Navas, Alvaro Negredo and Stevan Jovetic, which has made them one of the early title contenders for the 2013-14 season.

Meanwhile, our Arsene Wenger hasn’t spent a penny this summer (despite being linked with almost all the big players), preferring to wait until all the wolves are done and pick scraps for himself. Not that I don’t agree with Wenger, but I just wish that he too would add to the buzz after (narrowly) missing out on Gonzalo Higuain and Stevan Jovetic.

And as the new season comes closer, the transfer window episodes might pale in comparison to the months of September and October where new managers in all the leagues along with their new players, and old managers with new and old players will battle it out in what promises to be probably the most interesting football seasons of all time.