What the transfer window really means to everyone from chairmen and players to fans
By Terry Butcher
Published 07:01 30/01/11
The January Transfer window:
Chairmen’s definition
The period of time where pressure is applied to spend beyond the budget for someone else’s dregs.
Players’ definition
Try to be misquoted in a foreign paper and engineer more cash from a lucrative move.
Managers’ definition
A month of media-driven transfer requests; incessant calls from different agents (each alleging to be the sole representative of the same player); arguments with the press, the players, the supporters who want to keep their idols and your wife, who feels she has to make an appointment to see you without a mobile phone pressed to your ear
We all know how Ian Holloway feels with the calls about Charlie Adam’s future.
Agents’ definition
Wait until the last four days of January and as for your fee, think of any number and treble it because clubs are desperate for cash at this time of year.
Fans’ definition
A period for dashed dreams as your club brings in no-one of any note and sells your one and only star.
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