Futbol Transfer Market & The Puppet Master Hysteria

The World Futbol transfer market is the most hilarious and annoying time in sports for me. The amount of non-sense that is printed by the media borders on that absolute absurd. Fans are so eager and hungry for any news about anyone potentially joining their clubs that they’ll damn near believe anything, from anyone, no matter who it is.

And that’s the annoying but hilarious part of the transfer market for me. It’s annoying because these media outlets and social media personalities who act like they have any inside information (most do not from the amount of times they’ve whiffed) get the fan bases riled up and it starts unnecessary drama and anger. It’s hilarious because it keeps happening, and people keep falling for it year after year.

These people and outlets are the ultimate puppet masters. And this cycle of predicting anything and people believing anything makes the summer transfer market such an abhorrent time for me.

Are They Really In The Know?…

Tell me if you’ve seen this before: Person A is online and has a massive online following, tweets or sends out a cryptic message about your Club “potentially” going after a player he or she can’t name but believe them because they have a lot of followers and of course, clubs want to strengthen their squads.

Now, to me, it’s common sense that a club would want a really good player to improve said club. That’s just how the sport works and will always work. Players come and players go. Why anyone would believe anyone online spouting this non-sense is beyond me, but it happens in every transfer window. I’ve always stuck to one motto during a transfer window:

Do not believe anything until you see a player holding the club’s shirt on their official site or social media page. Simple. But fans are so hungry for any glimmer of hope of a potentially huge signing, or any signing period, that they’ll run with anything. And the more followers a person has, the more “believable” he or she seems.

Apparently a large number of followers means credibility, which again, is pretty funny. We don’t know any of these people personally (most of us don’t know them personally anyway), we’ve never met them, they never name a source other than to say, “I’ve been told by someone from inside the club” or “someone I trust who knows about these things” as to why we should trust and believe them. Yet, without fail, if you just go into that person who’s “In The Knows” mentions, you will find hundreds of people asking them who this mystery player is and how close the club is to singing them.

They never reply to these people with a specific name or any pertinent information. The reason for that is if the club doesn’t actually announce any big named players, that “In The Know” guy can just say “I never said it was that specific player so what are you all on about?” In reality, they don’t know anything for the most part, and you should probably stop believing them and just wait until the club announces players.

It will work wonders for your health and stress levels if you stop believing Internet guy with all this supposed Intel from inside the club, and just wait until your club announces players. Just my take.

Website Clicks Are A Publisher’s Best Friend….

I have no idea how much major newspaper publications make per click on a post for their websites, it varies by ads and a lot of other logistical stuff that I do not know. But I know when it comes to transfer season, their revenue from clicks and the click-bait stories they post must go through the proverbial roof.

With millions of football fans online, most of who are hungry for any semblance of news in regards to transfers, these publications will print any story linking any player to a club and it will always get a decent amount of views.

The writers for these stories see how insatiable the hunger is from people online waiting for any news about their clubs bringing in players, so naturally they tell their higher-ups to let them write anything, and voila, stories comes out that have no basis.

Keep in mind these are tabloids, not written Gospel, so they can say what they want and don’t have to back it up with any concrete information. Their job is to report what they claim they heard, not to substantiate what you’re actually reading. It’s a very simple but brilliant business model. They write what they think the masses want to hear, sit back and just cash out.

I don’t blame them one bit, and nor should you who continue to click on these asinine stories.

How Much Are The Clubs And Managers To Blame?…

I’m an Arsenal fan, and I love the club with all my heart and always will. But being an Arsenal fan during the transfer window is as dreadful as it gets.

Part of it stems because Arsenal has a fan-base full of over the top personalities who seem to have a lot of influence on the rest of the fan base.  And also because Arsenal fans will literally believe anything or anyone about players coming to Arsenal. Players that the club genuinely has no interest in, but as long as just one-person links them to the club, chaos ensues.

But how much of that boils down to the Arsenal F.C. and Arsene Wenger continually not doing enough in these transfer markets? I think that certainly plays a large role in it. Arsenal still hasn’t replaced Robin Van Persie who left in 2012. And that is not a shot at Olivier Giroud, who I am most certainly a fan of.

But Giroud is more of a second striker/impact substitute than a Thierry Henry that can lead your club to glory. So the civil unrest come transfer season is warranted to an extent because honestly, Wenger buys quality a lot of the time, but it’s always been the quantity that’s kept Arsenal from winning an EPL title the last 12 years.

And that falls squarely at Wenger’s feet no matter what. Because we can say the board is the one telling him not to spend, but when people from inside Arsenal say there is a lot of money to spend, makes it seem like Wenger is refusing to use money allotted to him to make this team a title contender. And that is idiotic and frustrating beyond belief. Does it warrant abuse to Wenger?

No. Does it warrant frustration from the fans and their right to speak up and protest and hold up signs and make petitions, etc.? Absolutely. But from reading comments these past few weeks, Wenger is not alone in his crusade to curb the ridiculous transfer market rates. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, and new Chelsea manager Antonio Conte, both sound like younger versions of Wenger when speaking about the transfer market. These two feel the fees being asked for players are beyond ridiculous and think the transfer market is out of whack.

I agree 100% but that won’t matter when clubs like Madrid and Manchester United and Manchester City will pay whatever an agent and club are asking for. It’s a valiant crusade from Wenger, Conte and Klopp, but I don’t know how that will go for them in the end. With Arsenal that has resulted in a shiny new stadium but no EPL title in over a decade.

Times have changed, and with it have come higher revenue from television deals, jersey sales, gate revenue and numerous other moneymaking avenues. The English Premier League is a cash cow. And agents and clubs from all over the world are fully aware of that. They are going to fleece EPL teams for as much money as possible, and I don’t blame them.

Business is business. It’s either up to EPL clubs to pay-up or to stick together and say no, we won’t pay these extravagant prices. But, the latter won’t happen, not anymore.
The Transfer Window, or as I’ve always called it, “Silly Season” will just get worse and more manic and annoying and frustrating and hilarious.

It’s up to you as the fan to try and temper your expectations and emotions as much as possible and wait it out. Obviously easier said than done, but ignoring the white noise associated with Silly Season will honestly make your life much better as a football fan. I can attest to that first-hand.