Is the Transfer Window Losing Its Excitement?
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Is the Transfer Window Losing Its Excitement?

Is the Transfer Window Losing its Excitement

Saturday’s Champions League Final between Inter Milan and PSG will signal the end of what has been an enthralling, immersive 2024/25 season. Some team’s head for a well-earned summer break, while others turn their attention to the FIFA Club World Cup, which starts in mid June.

With little football to watch, fans shift focus to the summer transfer window, as clubs and players assess their options and plan meticulously which move will suit them best.

However, in recent years, transfers have undergone a significant change. In our technology rich age, transfer rumours and potential deals have become the subject of hyper-reporting. Gone are the days when the first you heard of a move was through the Sky Sports News show. Nowadays you are more likely to hear about the first signs of a deal through X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Youtube, and a host of other platforms.

In the last four or five years in particular, a number of journalists have risen to fame through their knowledge of on-going transfer, and accuracy with which they are reported, the most renowned of which is Italian reporter Fabrizio Romano, who coined the term “Here We Go!” for confirmed transfer.

He became so popular that even up-and-coming journalists and football followers started to parody his approach - last summer, young football writer Winner Tshipamba adapted Romano’s catchphrase to earn himself a host of followers, and now tags all of the latest confirmed moves with “There We Land!”.

But while Romano, Florian Plettenberg and a handful of others first earned praise for the accuracy and frequency of their reporting, some football fans have since become disgruntled with the same traits. The hyper-connected world we find ourselves living in has the ability to spoil surprises, and surprise is something the football world prides itself on.

So do these transfer reporters ruin the excitement of the transfer window? What are the pro’s and con’s? And will it ever go back to how it used to be?

The Pro’s

First and foremost, transfers are exciting developments. The prospect of your team making a big-money signing or sealing a bargain is a mouthwatering one. However, one cannot anticipate a transfer move without fair warning.

That is why many fans like and support the updates posted by social media journalists. Take Trent Alexander-Arnold for example - it was first reported that Real Madrid were in contact with the right-back in the summer of 2024, and this rumour gave the rest of the season a compelling story-line; will he or won’t he?

That is why potential contract renewal talks for Trent, along with Virgil Van Dijk and Mo Salah, were so heavily reported throughout the season - thanks to the early rumour, outlets wanted to track the situation as closely as possible, providing updates to football fans on the likelihood of one outcome or another.

That rumour gave Liverpool fans a memorable moment when Trent netted a late winner against Leicester with five games of the season remaining.

Had Mo Salah scored that goal, then sure, the celebration would have been messy. But because it was Trent, and all of the fans were invested in the story of whether he would stay on not, the celebrations were straight-up wild. Even Trent himself lost control somewhat. The shirt came off, the hand went up, and he indicated that the rumours were all “just talk”.

Maybe that gesture was just a ploy to get some of the more toxic Liverpool fans off his back, as he did eventually seal the move to Los Blancos, but in that moment at least, he and Liverpool supporters were at one, all thanks to a transfer rumour reported 11 months previously.

There are also benefits for clubs and players involved. Due to the coverage of even the seemingly small-scale transfer, the selling/buying clubs names and reputation are put out on the web for all to see, which could lead to increased opportunities and market visibility.

The same goes for players and agents - if it is reported that a player is in contact with a club, other suitors would then swoop in, launching a bidding war which would drive up the players value and provide the player’s agent with a more significant pay day if and when the player eventually makes a move.

Finally, close reporting of the situation around a high-profile transfer encourages absolute transparency from all involved. There can be no back-alley dealings or dodgy use of funds with the world watching on, and if a club were to dip their toes into illegal activity during such a scenario, then it wouldn’t be long until the whole football world knew about it.

The Con’s

However, it is also easy to see why some football fans stand opposed to transfer window reporting.

First off, there is a case to be made for the over-reporting of a particular transfer. The expected move of Florain Wirtz to Liverpool serves as an excellent example.

It was first reported that Arne Slots Liverpool were in touch with both Wirtz and Bayer Leverkusen representatives over a potential bank breaking deal over two weeks ago, and it was a prospect that was covered on both reputable websites and in newspapers across the country.

However, 16 days later, the transfer is yet to be confirmed despite comprehensive coverage by Romano, Plettenberg and countless other transfer platforms across social media and the web. It indicates that perhaps the deal was reported too soon - maybe the journalists believed a deal to be closer than it actually was, resulting in them jumping the gun.

Though Wirtz still looks set to join Liverpool (talks are ongoing), surely it wouldn’t have hurt to have waited a couple of days to reduce the gap between the first rumour and the moment of signing?

Another downside is that online reporting can also be less than accurate - while Romano, Plettenberg, David Ornstein and others have respectable records, other platforms are reporting different rumours to separate themselves from the crowd.

The trouble is, the average football fan finds it very difficult to distinguish a legitimate rumour that is false, or indeed planted by an agent in order to boost attention in his client. Fans can become emotionally invested and attached to a rumour that could be anything from a 50/50 to totally made-up, misleading a fan base.

Usually when this happens, people almost totally stop trusting a platform, meaning such a mistake will not be made again, at least not by the same people. But with the number of pages out there all reporting the same thing, it is only a matter of time until another page spreads fake news.

Widely reported transfer rumours also have the potential to divide a fan base. In the last 24 hours alone, Chelsea sealed a move for Ipswich’s striker Liam Delap, a deal which on the face of it seems like good business. It was sealed in around 24 hours, meaning that the gap between the first indication of the move and the move being sealed was far from the torturous eight days Liverpool have so far had to wait for Wirtz.

However, it still proved long enough for Chelsea fans to drive a wedge between themselves. Many fans were in support of the move, stating that Delap has a high ceiling, and will only improve at a club which has now secured Champions League football. However, other fans are anti-Delap, with some posting fail compilations and some of his worst misses across social media for all to see.

All of this stems from the first hint that Chelsea were making a move for the former Man City youth player, and as soon as the news hit social media, supporters were ready to give their honest opinion, whether it be generally positive or overwhelmingly negative.

Will This Ever Change?

It’s unlikely. The year is 2025, and the world is only going to become more interconnected, and reporting even more punctual and accurate. At some point, mistakes and oversights will be eliminated altogether, meaning the only rumours and transfers you see are based on truth and fact.

I myself am a fan of the heavy reporting of transfers. It gives summer time a different type of hype and excitement, and encourages year-round engagement to fans, even when their club may be months away from playing a competitive fixture.

Involved fans may even have their own takes on what moves their clubs should make, sparking discussion and discourse over what the right plan of action should be, and this has a strange way of bonding a fan base together - if an opinion is discussed among like-minded people, they tend to grow closer.

However, the mystery of the transfer window no longer exists, and that is a shame. I myself used to enjoy the surprise announcement of a done deal, even if there had been no hints of the move going ahead behind the scenes, and it is saddening that we will likely never see that level of mystery again.

Of course, fans have the option of uninstalling social media, cutting themselves off from transfer news and allowing themselves to be surprised when a piece of business is confirmed, but the much of the footballing populations’ reliance on technology, very few people will follow through with this.

As a football-mad journalist, I can appreciate two things: firstly, that year-round reporting can only be a positive thing, and secondly, that knowing about transfer is an exciting feeling. The anticipation of welcoming a confirmed marquee signing is intoxicating, and every football fan, to a certain extent, would agree that some aspects of the reporting are beneficial.

However, we can all sympathise with fans who feel that the reporting is the equivalent of a movie spoiler, and removes the element of genuine surprise that they used to feel less than a decade ago.

Benji Kosartiyer
Journalist
Harry Pascoe

Lead Writer

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