The anominity of being a big money transfer

Another big move flop?

Ask any football the significance of a transfer window and that person will tell you it is the time when the club can either progress or regress. The Transfer window holds a special meaning to clubs, fans, players and agents all over the world and in the footballing world, it’s something that can shape the future. It is also a time when a professional footballer’s career may or may not be thrown in a dilemma.

As fans, we often tend to forget, that players at the end of the day are professional footballers and playing football is as much a job for them as a journalist covering the news or how an architect plans a design or a director. While there has been always talk about the privilege of how certain footballers should consider themselves lucky for being at that club, it is never that simple. It is the combination of certain mechanics which leads them to being at the club.

No doubt football clubs are flourishing corporates with an eye on the profit-loss margin in terms of revenue, but the economics of football are of bizarre nature and no one can predict for sure. As every manager says no player is bigger than the club, which is true as every player has a price, ultimately though the decision lies with the player in question.

Moving on to the question of transfers, fans often tend to question the loyalty of players, but let’s analyze some of the transfers with respect to some of the well established names and clubs and see how the player’s have responded to them being the big-money signing and how they have fared.

Fernando Torres and Andy Carroll are the first name that springs to mind, especially taking into account the transfer fee they commanded. Torres has met with a varying amount of success at Chelsea, whereas, Carroll suffered a horrendous time, a combination of upheaval at the club and injuries finally led him to being sold to West Ham United, where again he was the centre of attraction. He is currently nursing an injury.

In the most recent transfer windows let us have a look at some of the other players at the big-clubs, Fellaini a star at Everton, has not settled well at Manchester United after following his manager there. The verdict on him is still waiting, but the weight of the transfer fee does create unrealistic expectations. Shinji Kagawa who was a star at Dortmund, is another example, who has shining brilliantly in Germany, before moving to England, these days he hardly gets a look in. Similarly, the other dau Jurgen Klopp, the coach of Dortmund, cited the other examples of Mario Gotze and Nuri Sahin, who were big stars at Dortmund, before becoming fringe players at Bayern and Madrid respectively. Since then Sahin has moved back to Dortmund on loan after a disastrous first season with Madrid and as for Gotze, well he scored on his return to Dotmund this weekend itself.

There are numerous examples of players losing their mojo at big clubs, be it Stewart Downing on his move from Aston Villa to Liverpool, Alex Song and Hleb on moving from Arsenal to Barcelona. At times, the players are to blame for insisting on a transfer, but it also the combination of tactics and the requirement of personnel which leads to players who were focal points at their respective clubs becoming fringe players at the new clubs.

It is easy to sit back as fans and be couch-critics who are not aware of the dynamics that a manager faces, the necessary tactics, but at times there is a feeling it is the greed of the clubs and agents which stalls or destroys a player’s career. The recent example of Daniel Sturridge who was on the fringes at Chelsea is now hitting the form always expected of him at Liverpool. With footballers there is always a chance of being a hit or a dud, as patience lies very thin at the top level.

Football is a very unkind sport and for that matter sport in itself is more unkind than life. So let us enjoy sport for what it is and let us be more patient and let us enjoy the game rather than criticise every time we watch a game. It is human nature to criticize, but these players should be applauded for providing us entertainment week in week out.