As recently happened, the team which made the unsettling bids were who? Arsenal. The team which is yet to sign any players, have lost points, have a long injury list going. The bids were understandable and desperate. So while keeping the window as it is makes sense in this regard, to be honest, most of the business is done in the early phase of the summer, leaving only a handful of players in the transfer scene which are more fitting the demand-supply theory rather than being an ideal fit.
So if the European leagues can unanimously decide on cutting short the transfer period to before the start of season, say July 31st, the clubs could be more at ease and be confident of the crop of players at their disposal and plan accordingly rather than living in the fear of losing on their starlets three or four games into the season.
Although agreed the transfer window running a month into the start of the season provides a sort of cushion to the teams with them being able to gauge the voids in the sides and still leaving them with time to make additions. But while this may still be viable for the top clubs, mediocre and low lying clubs suffer losing their players to the teams above, leaving them in dire need to buy to stay afloat. And it cannot be denied, once you lose a player and are in the market to buy a replacement, it becomes much more costlier.
Even cutting the window shot isn’t the ideal solution. Say the window runs until 31 July and a top club signs a inferior team’s star on 30 July or 31 July, they are still in deep trouble with the only meagre relief coming in the form of additional time to mentally prepare for life without the player.
But to keep all these out of perspective and shun any chances of controversy or the decreased competitiveness of the league, why not go back to the old system where the transfer window ran up until March.
Though great philosophers ask not to turn your back or live in the past, the philosophy of going back here makes sense and there is no embarrassment in going back to a better system. Everybody tries, some things work out, some fail.
The transfer window running until March evens up the league a lot more and gives chances to the teams outside the Europa League slots and the bottom half to come back and not overspend.
Recent times has seen clubs in financial crunch, being forced to transfer their player in hurry and for a lower price. But with time at their hands, they can weigh and assess their options much better without losing out on much.
In a nutshell everything has pros and cons, but it is upto the judge to see which overceeds the other and would be more beneficial in the holistic sense.