Silly Season

It’s that wondrous time of year again. The time in which rumours and steaming piles of cow excrement are carelessly flung about. It’s like the Brexit referendum, repeated annually every summer. It is, of course, the transfer window.

What ridiculous and unfeasible transfer of a player to Manchester United is going to pop up in the Sun, on your Twitter feed or in the BBC Gossip Column? And shall we just ignore the fact that the club is widely recognised as an utter mess, and that they finished sixth?

Still, the signing of Aaron Wan-Bissaka has been pulled off, and that is a start for the Red Devils (after snatching Daniel James from Swansea). Right back was certainly a position that needed addressing, and they have splashed the cash to do so. It’s bordering on a sensible transfer policy, heaven forbid.

The main issue for United, though, is the fact that pretty much every position on the pitch needs a revamp, and has done for several years. The task is surely too great to be undertaken in a single transfer window. Perhaps fans would do well to appreciate this fact, and perhaps this fact could have been appreciated more with previous managers?

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer certainly has the doughy eyed nostalgia and propensity for hitting buzz phrases like ‘faith in youth’. But will this actually translate into anything? He had an excellent start but things have gone pear shaped since. It will be interesting to see how he fares with team building over this window and coming season.

Some inspiration could most definitely be taken from fellow managers Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. Yes they have had large resources at their disposal, but their application of these resources has been nigh on perfect.

Guardiola’s initial season in England was a little disappointing, but it was important and necessary in building the team he has now. It was a chance to preach his style to crop of players already there, then see which ones were up to the task. The rest were replaced in incisive fashion.

Full back was identified as a weak area, and serious money was splashed to bolster in that department. Claudio Bravo was a disastrous replacement for Joe Hart, so in came Ederson for a world record fee for a goalkeeper. The squad was bolstered in midfield and attack by Gabriel Jesus and Bernado Silva, before Aymeric Laporte was brought in for more quality in defence.

The weak areas were targeted, and dealt with.

At Liverpool, the process took a little longer. Klopp arrived at the the club not at the start of the transfer window, but in October. And his arrival was not trumpeted with the signings of Leroy Sane and John Stones.

But Klopp set about his work, identifying players he needed to bring in to effectively administer his style of play. Like Guardiola, some already present players were able to be coached and make the cut, such as Roberto Firmino and Jordan Henderson. Improvement was needed, though, and the front line was bolstered by Sadio Mane and then, of course, Mohammed Salah.

They helped fire Liverpool to an excellent 2017/18 season which saw them reach the Champions League final, but gaps were still there in the side.

Full back had been brilliantly filled by an academy product and a cheap buy from Hull. Central defence was an issue, though, as was goalkeeper. So the Reds splashed out world record fees on Virgil van Dijk and Alisson for both positions to fix the issue. And it has worked an utter treat, alongside the upgrades that were made in midfield.

What Klopp and Guardiola have done is bring a cohesive style of play, with a knowledge of what players they need to make it work. They have assessed their respective squads, worked out which areas need a revamp, and poured money into those areas. Yes, their funds do seem unlimited, but Manchester United have splashed out similar amounts without little to show for it. The difference is, City and Liverpool have made sure to target their spending effectively.

Most clubs, obviously, do not have the same financial power, but there is something universal in this approach. It stems from having a way of playing, and targeting players who will fit into that.

Further down the chain, even this sensible approach is hard to replicate. When funds are tight, sometimes managers must make do with whatever they can get their hands on. Clubs in these situations shine a light on how much of a circus and a farce the transfer window really is.

Ridiculous fees and unrealistic stories are banded around. Figures like £30 million don’t really seem like that much any more. Yet just a few leagues down, there are clubs like Morecambe who, realistically, will likely never have any money to spend on transfer fees. Then there are your Bury’s and Bolton’s, teams who will struggle to even put a side together.

The endless cycle of painstaking nonsense that, if read into too much, will make you want to claw your eyes out detracts from such issues. The reality of clubs struggling to survive, against the mythos of whatever ridiculous fee a club will pay for Matthijs de Ligt, and what mind bending salary will be fed to his bank account in Panama. Then there is the foreboding question of where the money actually comes from.

It’s unpleasant business and, also, there’s an incredibly exciting World Cup going on that should not be detracted from. It is far more worth your time watching the tournament, than reading through a tacky gossip column. England are in a semi final for the third consecutive national tournament. Let’s not forget - it might, actually, be coming home.