Hacker: Transfer window shopping

There's window shopping and then there’s window shopping. One involves browsing the wares without the pennies to spend on them, the other is something entirely different.

Which is why when people start complaining about the biannual football transfer window, it’s usually those who fall in the former category and have to nervously or jealously watch others wheeling and dealing who are the main protagonists.

After all, the window was introduced in an attempt to make things fairer. Fewer managers than ever seem completely convinced that that ideal has become a reality. Not now that the big spenders have worked out exactly how it can be used in their favour.

Initially it was just part of life’s natural pecking order and it was accepted that clubs with money would—nearly—always get their man. After all they have the prestige and the bulging pay packets and if it comes to club loyalty or the lure of lucre and long-term financial security for themselves and their families, most players willingly give in to the temptation. If they don’t, then their clubs do, selling off an asset in the belief the deal could help finance the strengthening of the squad as a whole, bankroll stadium developments or youth and training academies or, at the very least, allow the manager to shop around for a cheaper replacement while also servicing debts.

But that’s where the big clubs got cute. Now, more and more deals are pushed through at the very last minute, giving the upstarts little or no time to splash cash on reinforcements. The window slams shut hours, sometimes minutes after their star player has been snaffled by the big boys and they are left weaker than they were when it opened. That’s why most managers reacted with a sense of relief when the deadline for transfers came and went.

Even Rangers manager Walter Smith, himself a beneficiary of late, late deals in the past as the best of the rest from the SPL were plundered, admitted to being delighted when the latest transfer window lapsed without him losing too many of his key players. Now getting an idea of what it has been like for his pauper counterparts in recent years, he knew he was restricted in the cash available to spend on adding to his squad.

At least the window means the nightmare scenario for so many helpless managers and fans remains a possibility for a limited time. After that, managers know where they stand and they can get on with the business of making plans for the remainder of the season. It also means they can get back to answering football-related questions in press conferences.

Tony Mowbray looks like the only man in Scotland to have significantly benefited from the January sales. Having rid himself of players he had no real desire to keep and brought in nine replacements he hopes will help heap pressure on Rangers in the title run-in, it may seem strange but even he was happy to see the market place close. He had lost count of the number of names the club had been linked with and grown weary of issuing no comments or outright denials. Apparently, even when you are on the inside looking out, window shopping isn’t all fun.