´Others will follow´ Premier League transfer window change

7 September 2017 18:05

Premier League executive chairman Richard Scudamore believes the competition’s decision to close the transfer window before the 2018-19 season kicks off will be followed across Europe.

It has been announced that England’s top flight voted in favour of moving the deadline to 17:00 on the last Thursday prior to the start of the next campaign.

Premier League clubs will still be able to sell players to those whose windows have not closed.

Scudamore thinks the likes of LaLiga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 will follow the Premier League’s lead, though he thinks one homogeneous deadline day across the continent is unlikely.

“What’s been very interesting since this was mooted over the last few months, it got quite a lot of air time in June after our summer meeting,” Scudamore told Sky Sports.

“Bundesliga are meeting today [Thursday] to talk about it, other leagues are considering it, UEFA are considering it, but all this noise has started since it was leaked that we were discussing it from June.

“I do think others will follow, I do think it’s a situation that others will look at, but they will have their own start dates and therefore I don’t see us getting to a uniform situation across Europe, but I do see people perhaps copying and going to the start of their season.”

It has been reported 14 clubs voted in favour of the amendment, with Scudamore suggesting a concern over intra-Premier League transfers was a key motivating factor. He also claimed the majority of managers were behind changing the dates.

“There is a big concern that the Premier League has been playing two or three match rounds with a degree of uncertainty between themselves – I think that’s the biggest reason,” he said.

“So, in other words, when we get to transfer day shouldn’t we really have the players bought in, the players we’re going to have for the whole season, so I think that’s why they’ve done it.

“In fairness, no one was pathologically angry about the situation. There were some concerns that while they understood they wouldn’t be able to buy other players, they also understood their players could still be picked off by those who hadn’t closed their leagues.

“It was a concern but I wouldn’t say it was a real pathological anger about that, it was just one of the concerns that they felt, on balance, meant they couldn’t support it.

“The managers are very strong on it, nearly all managers were strongly in support of shutting the window.”

Scudamore does not feel Premier League clubs will now be disadvantaged in the transfer market, pointing to strong stances held in the most recent window.

Arsenal refused to sell Alexis Sanchez after failing to secure a replacement, while Liverpool did not budge from their unwillingness to let Philippe Coutinho complete a switch to Barcelona.

“I think what was interesting this year was the resolve of the clubs. We saw this year the club’s standing up and saying no, resisting that temptation,” Scudamore added.

“The other thing is I think this is a sign of clubs’ confidence, I think there were enough clubs confident that they have the strength and the ability, the brands and the attractiveness to attract enough players to do what they want to do and that’s ultimately why people have voted for it.”

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