Unlike other windows unfortunately you can’t just shut this one and open it when you see fit. Every sporting website, newspaper and radio show produce a daily onslaught of what is in many cases nonsense and rumour.
In my teens I genuinely loved this time of year, any disappointment which lingered from the end of the previous season soon ebbed away and was replaced with an excitement of who might arrive. One summer holiday, I clearly recall sitting in the front room, while others played outside in the sunshine, painstakingly waiting for Teletext to confirm that Neil Ruddock has signed from Spurs. There was no internet to check the latest gossip, no Sky Sports reporter outside Melwood, so I was resigned to watching the pages slowly change, but the excitement was tangible.
Phil Babb for £3.6m was another. In Phils case the transfer fee was enough to convince me that we’d signed a top player. I worked with the presumption that ‘if we’ve paid £3.6m then he must be good.’ It transpired that model doesn’t work which Chelsea fans have discovered with £50m for Fernando. Phils first touch was never the best but compared to his second it wasn’t that bad.
The summer of 2002 rings another rather uncomfortable bell, when in World Cup year the names of Diouf and Diao were linked and almost immediately confirmed as Liverpool players. I watched the un-fancied Senegal shock the world by beating France in the opening game and that alone was enough to persuade me that we had made two extremely good signings. Again I was wrong. This wasn’t helped by the fact that Gerard Houllier compared Diao to Patrick Vieira. I soon realised that the fact they both played professional football was pretty much the only fair comparison. Another classic was Mark Gonzalez, he was likened to C. Ronaldo who at the time was coming of age in Manchester but other than pace the similarities unfortunately stopped there.
Being linked to players brings an excitement that, due to the quantity of links, rarely fulfils what it promises. In the morning you hear of a striker who is ‘on the brink ‘ of moving to Liverpool, this excites you and you start to imagine how he’ll potentially fit into the new look line-up but by that same afternoon he’s signed a new contract with his existing club or even worse is now linked to Man Utd. In this last instance the player who you were preparing to welcome with open arms is now someone who’s overrated, a primadonna and certainly not fit to tread the Anfield turf, all in roughly six hours! Such players include Tim Flowers, Gareth Barry and Lee Bowyer, in Bowyers case he was pictured signing numerous replica shirts for fans before driving away from Anfield. Approximately two hours later it was announced that he would not be joining. Those particular fans were suddenly searching the depths of the kitchen cupboard and asking nearest and dearest if ‘anything gets out permanent marker?’
The unexpected signing is always nice too, I recall nearly crashing the car on a round-a-bout when radio 5 announced Robbie Fowlers return. I was equally pleased at Gary McAllister signing and believed his aged to be irrelevant, one particular prediction that proved 100% accurate.
In previous years the names of players linked were known to us, in fact in most cases we’d seen them play on many occasions. Times have changed dramatically and when players arise the research begins with the information on Wikipedia along with the viewing of anything and everything Youtube has to offer up. This enables us to walk into work the next day proudly boasting that the ‘new lad is quality.’ The fact that this is based on a 3 minute highlights package is neither here nor there!
As we near the end of the window once again enough players have been mentioned to fill about three Brendon Rodgers squads. I currently find myself a little depressed at missing out on a player I cannot recall ever watching. If Willian does indeed turn out to be the signing of the summer then I will once again feel depressed but history has taught me that its reasonably unlikely to be the case. I’ll go on record now and say I’d like two more please Mr Rodgers, a little extra depth at the back and more creativity in attacking Midfield as already this season everything seems to be going through Coutinho. The most likely names would be Papadopoulos and Eriksen.
Although I miss the days of teletext and reading that we’d signed someone in the morning newspaper, I might just treat myself to the circus that is Sky Sports Transfer deadline day come the end of August. Having said that, anything similar to the Carroll /Torres 85million merry-go-round will not be well received!