If they were all like Antoine Semenyo, it would be a dream.
Semenyo was a saga in the summer but cut and dried by January, a rare example of transfer common sense. Bournemouth’s honesty, constructing a contract with a clause that worked for all parties, was repaid in spades by a player whose output never dropped, even in his final weeks in red when the Manchester City move was all wrapped up. The Cherries have time to source a replacement so in the words of one person involved it is “almost the perfect January transfer”.
But if you ask around, it might be one last flourish for a transfer window that is on its last legs. “Absolutely dead” was the verdict of one football executive asked about the market this week. “No-one is doing anything – but we knew they wouldn’t,” said another.
The three clubs most thought would go big – West Ham, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur – haven’t done much yet, barring the latter taking a player whose availability was long flagged.
As for the rest, there has barely been an enquiry gone in from at least half of the Premier League.
It all feels a far cry from 2023, when a record £815m was spent. That crashed to £100m in 2024 before City drove an increase to £310m last year. But those days seem behind us, if voices are to be believed.
The reasons for this are well-established now. Most of the 20 clubs think they need something but most came to the conclusion long ago that they can’t – for very modern reasons.
Time constraints on sourcing a replacement mean that clubs are reluctant to sell their best players, which means prices go sky high and in the world of profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) every penny counts.
Tottenham have signed Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid for £35m (Photo: Getty)A lack of liquidity in the market means everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet – that they are ready to act, but only for the right player.
What that means is everyone gets upset.
Managers – and Ruben Amorim won’t be the last boss to torpedo his career at the altar of being told he can’t strengthen mid-season – players who can’t get the move they want and, most pertinently, supporters.
I have lost track of the number of times I have seen the meme with the stick man poking a club badge asking them to do something.
So who is this month really serving? One director of football with experience in the top flight summed it up succinctly in mid-week: “They should really just scrap the whole January window farce.”
Is he so wrong? Maybe not about shutting the opportunity for clubs to invest – having just a single, jumbo summer window would lead to elite clubs stockpiling players – but definitely about putting the January window out of its misery.
We could be creative about what could replace it. In France they have a “joker” system where every club in the top two divisions can broker one domestic-based transfer outside the January and summer windows.
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It seems to work well, draining the urgency out of the winter window and allowing clubs the chance to add some impetus to their season.
The beauty of that system is it would allow clubs in financial trouble extra time to raise funds. It would also mean injury crises – unpredictable by their very nature – could be prevented by a judicious signing.
Out-of-the box thinking can reinvigorate mid-season recruitment. Without it, we are all just sat waiting for something to happen.
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