The opening of the transfer window in July heralds anxious times for supporters across the footballing spectrum. Fans wait with baited breath to hear news of signings made by the clubs to bolster their squad and make up the deficiencies that saw them fall short of the mark last season.
Transfer windows have undergone a remarkable transformation over the ages. While it was a low key affair earlier, transfer windows now are periods of protracted negotiations and, media hype and frenzy.
The transfer window has seen a steady rise in the exorbitant money spent over the years, and clubs are not shy in dipping deep into their pockets to bolster their squads.
This transfer window is perhaps the best transfer window in recent times. Let’s recap on the 10 moments that made it so
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#1 Glamour returns to Man Utd
Manchester United spending big in the transfer market is nothing new nowadays. Over the past few summers, United spent big on some of the top players in world football. The likes of Angel Di Maria, Juan Mata, Ander Herrera, Memphis Depay, and Luke Shaw represented significant outlays which saw United smash their own transfer spending records on a regular basis.
This season is no different. Louis Van Gaal’s fate was sealed when United failed to achieve Champions League football for the second time in three seasons, which is nothing less than a disaster for a club like United. In stepped the United hierarchy, and brought in Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho.
While United supporters were sceptical about the appointment of Mourinho, the manager is a proven winner who can bring the glory days to Old Trafford very soon, something which the Old Trafford hierarchy wants desperately.
Mourinho’s arrival ushered in a wave of changes, and United brought out the cheque book to sign ace Swedish hitman Zlatan Ibrahimovic on a free transfer, Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Borussia Dortmund and Eric Bailly from Villareal.
The arrival of Zlatan was seen as a major signal of intent as the Swede, despite being 34 years of age, is still in prime goalscoring form and will add much-needed firepower up front.
The summer’s longest transfer saga came to an end when United finally managed to lure Paul Pogba away from Juventus for a world record fee of £89 million. Whether he merits such a fee is definitely questionable, but he is the marquee signing of the Mourinho era; the man who can potentially be the pivot around which everything falls into place.
It will be an intriguing season for the United faithful, and the new signings will no doubt make them hopeful for good things to come.
#2 Toothless Tigers
Hull City made their way back to the Premier League under the stewardship of Steve Bruce, but the owners’ refusal to sign players led to the resignation of long-time manager and fan-favourite Steve Bruce who reportedly left the club due to their failure to land 3 transfer targets.
With the Hull owners desperate to sell the club but with no buyer willing to match their asking price, this saga dragged on for much of the summer transfer window.
Having failed to capture Nick Powell, formerly of Manchester United, Ludovic Sane and his brother Salif from Bordeaux and Hanover 96 respectively, Bruce was not prepared to risk his reputation any further.
Mike Phelan took over, and won two of their first fixtures of the new league. When the owners finally saw reason, Hull pulled off 6 signings in the last 2 days, giving a much better look to their depleted squad.
#3 Arsenal's yearly transfer saga
Transfer windows are generally greeted with a healthy dose of apprehension by Arsenal fans. With Arsene Wenger steadfastly refusing to accept the financial rigours of the transfer market, which causes players’ prices to be greatly inflated nowadays, fans were once again looking to catch the manager’s ear for quality reinforcements, especially in the defensive third of the pitch.
Everyone was taken by surprise when the Arsenal manager decided to splash the cash on Granit Xhaka, the young Swiss international from Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Arsenal reportedly spent around £35 million to lure Xhaka to London; a significant acquisition for Wenger, who has been roundly criticised for his refusal to spend big. Xhaka is an able defensive midfielder, who can blossom into a leader in the Arsenal midfield - something Arsenal have sorely missed over the years.
After luring Xhaka, Wenger failed with bids for Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez of Leicester, and a cheeky snub by Roma meant Kostas Manolas would not be heading to London either.
Just when the fans were getting frustrated at Wenger’s refusal to spend big, brought out the cheque book and signed German international Shkodran Mustafi from Valencia for £35 million and Lucas Perez from Deportivo for £17 million. Mustafi will add much-needed steel to the backline while Perez adds creativity and guile at the helm of attack, both much needed by Arsenal if they are to mount a serious title challenge this year.
#4 ‘The Godfather’ was unable to make offers players can’t refuse
Chelsea’s lack of Champions League football hit them hard in the summer transfer window. Football fans have been accustomed to Chelsea getting their way in the transfer market over the last decade or so, thanks to the crazy sums of money that owner Roman Abramovic was willing to splurge on new players.
With Chelsea mounting a dismal title defence last season and finishing 10th - a dismal result by their standards, the fallout was no European football for the current season, which makes it difficult to sign players of high calibre.
While Manchester United faced a similar situation back in 2014, the allure of Manchester United managed to bring in big name signings such as Angel Di Maria and Radamel Falcao.
The same cannot be said for Chelsea as they failed in their pursuit of Kalidou Koulibaly, Radja Nainngolan, and Alessio Romagnoli, top transfer targets for new boss Antonio Conte.
#5 The curious case of Los Blancos
Every transfer window sees Real Madrid fans eagerly awaiting one of the best in the world to arrive at their doorstep. When it comes to statement signings, Real Madrid are the undisputed kings. Fans of other European giants have become used to the fact that if a player blossoms into a promising footballer, Real will come calling soon enough.
Such is the sway that the club holds in the minds of professional footballers, that very rarely does anyone say no to Real Madrid. Barcelona battle it out for the mantle of ‘ most attractive club in the world’ for footballers, but Real still edge it at present.
Despite having won the Champions League twice in three years, Zinedine Zidane was expected to indulge in a flurry of summer transfer activity, to bolster the squad, especially in attack.
Using a buy-back clause in Alvaro Morata’s contract, to bring him backto the club, was the only real piece of business the Frenchman eventually indulged in and it remains to be seen whether his squad is capable for challenging for top honours again.
#6 Hart-less Pep
One of the biggest summer signings was pulled off around December last year when it was announced that Pep Guardiola would be leaving Bayern Munich to take up the helm of affairs at Manchester City.
The Blue half of Manchester needed a systematic overhaul, as a fourth place finish was definitely not good enough to save Manuel Pellegrini’s job.
Pep enforced his tactics and strict regimen as soon as he arrived at City. Players who reported overweight were not allowed to train with the first team and had to work individually to shed those extra pounds. High profile victims of this regimen include French midfielder Samir Nasri.
The biggest shakeup probably occurred in the goalkeeping department, as long-time City custodian and fan favourite, Joe Hart was relegated to the bench; his place in the first team going to Argentine Willy Caballero.
Despite being a fan favourite, Hart fell out of favour with Pep pretty quickly, and after the signing of Claudio Bravo from Barcelona, it was certain that he had no place in the team and was loaned out to Torino in Serie A.
#7 Juventus go the Bayern way
It’s been quite a long time now since Bayern really had any serious title contenders in the Bundesliga. After Borussia Dortmund’s memorable campaigns at the start of the decade, they faded out and left Bayern with no real challenge in the domestic competition.
A large part of Bayern’s recent success has been due to their financial muscle, which no other Bundesliga club was able to match.
Juventus have slowly but steadily gone the Bayern way in recent times. They are regularly snapping up top talents from direct rivals in Serie A. This is made possible by the significantly deeper pockets of Juventus, compared to their rivals in the league.
The signings of Miralem Pjanic and Gonzalo Higuain depleted their rivals and bolstered their own ranks, making them firm favourites for the Serie A again, and contenders for the Champions League.
#8 The window of homecomings
There is a Hollywood script waiting to be made about football homecomings. There is a lot of romanticism associated with a player returning to a boyhood club.
Till the time the author develops the financial clout to finance such a movie, take a look at the top homecomings of this transfer window. Mats Hummels has developed into one of the finest centre-backs in the world at present. He is a rock at the heart of the defence for Die Mannschaft. He learnt much of his craft at Borussia Dortmund, whom he has now left in favour of a move back to boyhood club Bayern Munich.
Mario Goetze was a Dortmund fan favourite before he acrimoniously left the club to move to Bayern. This summer sees him reunited with the yellow and black faithful and long-time friend Marco Reus, back at Dortmund.
Alvaro Morata needed first team football to build on his promise. He developed into a fine marksman at Juventus, prompting Real Madrid to utilise the buy-back clause in his contract to bring him back to Madrid.
The jury is out on whether David Luiz cuts it as a good centre-back, but having fallen down the pecking order under Unai Emery at PSG, Luiz completed a deadline day move back to Chelsea.
Deadline day also saw the return of Tomas Rosicky to boyhood club Sparta Prague, and Denis Suarez returned to the Barcelona from Villareal.
The most talked about homecoming of the summer window was definitely that of Paul Pogba. The United youth product, who left the club in search of first-team opportunities, returned after a prolonged transfer saga and has a lot to prove, to live up to his world record transfer fee.
#9 Premier League shows its power
The Premier League is one of the most viewed sporting events in the world today. With viewership crossing billions, new fan-bases sprout in different corners of the globe each year.
It is, therefore natural for broadcasting rights for the Premier League to be bought for exorbitant amounts. That is precisely what happened when a new broadcasting deal resulted in a windfall of cash for all Premier League teams.
The combined spending of all the teams crossed more than £1 billion - the first time in history. By the end of the window, Premier League clubs spent £1.165 billion.
With so much money available for all the teams, clubs have started spending big. Many of the clubs broke their own spending records this summer, in a bid to strengthen their teams to ensure they can stay in the top flight.
Even the likes of Bournemouth, who were languishing in the second division in 2009, spent £15 million on Liverpool youngster, Jordan Ibe. To put it in perspective, Alan Shearer cost Newcastle less when he transferred from Blackburn to Newcastle in 1995.
#10 Change in hiring policy at Barcelona
There was a time when Barcelona fans spoke with pride about the famed La Masia, Barcelona’s youth academy, in glowing terms for having produced fine academy graduates who went on to become stars in the first team.
They reveled in having the bragging rights over the best youth setup in Europe. The likes of Messi, Pique, Fabregas, Xavi and Iniesta have cultivated their trade at La Masia, before becoming household names in world football.
However, Barcelona seem to have ditched their strategy of blooding academy graduates into the first team, and with their new-found financial clout, are opting to bring in established players to bolster their lineups.
While the likes of Munir and Adriano have turned out for the first team in recent times, they are seen as cover for the first team rather than prospects for the future. Coupled with a mass exodus of academy players, either on loan or on permanent transfers, the entire transfer strategy of the Catalan giants seem to have been turned upside down.
The arrivals during this window were Andre Gomes, Samuel Umtiti, Paco Alcacer, Lucas Digne, Jasper Cillesen and Denis Suarez, while academy players departed during the same period include Marc Bartra, Alen Halilovic, Adriano, Cristian Tello (second consecutive loan), Douglas (loan), Sergi Samper (loan), Martin Montoya, Sandro Ramirez and Munir El Haddadi (loan).
