Dull January transfer window was the perfect therapy for football’s spending addiction
As club executives called each other in the last days of the window, it wasn’t for the customary purpose of seeing what deals could be done. It was with the now customary complaint that Profit and Sustainability rules had prevented spending.
It isn’t the only reason, of course, since Saudi Pro League expenditure has mercifully dampened and there isn’t the same panic in the bottom half of the Premier League. Clubs aren’t as fearful of going down, so don’t feel the need to spend to stay amid the competition’s accumulation of riches. And if the Premier League doesn’t spend, it now means the rest of Europe doesn’t move.
That’s what this entire system has done to the game, almost cannibalising it so one competition consumes everything in sight – and maybe itself. Two days before the window ended, some of the main “action” was Plymouth Argyle
