17 Jan 2022 21:01:31
With regards to January transfer window, surely clubs don't start looking at players on January 1st like it's one big surprise the window has opened . I am obviously not in the know about transfers work but I find it strange these deals aren't already done in the background so the player can join the club as early in January as possible . Isn't this best for all involved?

1.) 18 Jan 2022
18 Jan 2022 07:18:10
Mighty agreed mate, they must know who they are looking at. Or could be that we are not going to do any deals.

2.) 18 Jan 2022
18 Jan 2022 10:17:39
It’s more of a chain reaction I believe. Abit like buying a house, unless you are a cash buyer buying a house with no chain. You get stuck on I’ll buy Dan James if you get Ronaldo, juve can’t sell ronaldo unles they replace him or already do. Valencia can’t have Costa unless we get Dan James. So Valencia had to wait until juventus got a ronaldo replacement, them to sell us Dan James. So all that doesn’t happen on the 1st of January. You then have the well we want this player but they want 10 million, but they can’t afford to keep him so when the window gets closer to shutting they might offer us him for 8 million. You then by the sounds of it have to give a presentation to players and agents which again can’t be made in advance if they don’t know which players will be available so that takes time. Time to book a meeting with the players. Time to get to the destination. It’s not football manager where players can be bought within 10 clicks of a mouse.

3.) 18 Jan 2022
18 Jan 2022 16:30:51
Spot on Lad2 - to all that, you could also add that any decent players (and their agents) will usually have a number of clubs trying to make their case to them. Hopefully if we can beat the Toon at the weekend, our case will look far more compelling than it was at the start of the window - particularly as some of the competition for our potential signings may be from other clubs in the lower half of the Prem, and improving our relative position may well give us an advantage in that market.