Do you remember when transfers had rules?

By: Rob | May 9th, 2008

Fabregas has to court Madrid A couple of days ago, when I was talking about Arsenal’s impending exodus, I mentioned that Real were eyeing up Cesc Fabregas. Now though, in an effort to completely flout the transfer rules, they have told the Catalonia Kid that he has to make the first move. Now ignoring entirely that they have effectively made the first move now, what the hell has happened to transfers? Why does Cesc have to come out and say “I’d like to go to Real” for them to bid? This kind of gamesmanship in the transfer market is rife at the moment, it doesn’t seem that long ago that transfers weren’t a murky buisness at all, and if they were you didn’t know they were so it didn’t matter.

Every coach likes him [Fabregas] but my policy is that it has to be the player who makes the first step for the signing because we don’t want conflicts with any team. Something nice about Cesc is that he is Spanish and this is one of my objectives – to make Real Madrid more Spanish

Is what Raman Calderon, the Real chief had to say, repeating that party line about making Real “more Spanish”. He’s been promising Fabregas since he got elected back in 2006, but the midfielder – who spectacularly came of age this season – is on a long contract at Arsenal (unlike his soon to be ex-teammates, Matthieu Flamini and Alekandiar Hleb) and would require a huge transfer bid from Real.

Of course Real are aware of this, and so want to use the player’s wishes to force Arsene Wengers hand. If Wenger thought that Cesc was content in North London then there is no way he would accept any transfer bid for Fabregas. Of course if Cesc is unsettled, and wants to go back home (leaving aside the Catalonia/Spain debate for a second), then what could Wenger do? So while its very cunning what Calderon is doing, it seems a bit, well, underhand.

Transfers didn’t used to be like this. The problem is, the press is so big and everywhere these days that these tactics can no only exist, but thrive. The added factor of the Webster Clause, which has been in place for ages but only being thought about now Webster actually used it, means that clubs are pretty powerless. Of course it means we’ll have more thrillingly exciting transfers, but it also means the likelyhood of keeping a team together is ever less.

Arsene Wenger knows that feeling. This is likely to be the third time he’s had to rebuild his Arsenal side, from the 98 Double Winners, Through the Invincibles, and now a team who won nothing, but looked exciting for part of a season. In an enviroment where fans demand results yesterday, and managers face the axe unless they win or have won the Champions League, this kind of unsettling of players is bound to be prevelant. And its worse because of those circumstances for Arsenal, who have just had one season that defied expectations, and now all of Europe is thinking of getting themselves a piece of it.

Arsenal fans have also noted, that some of the prospects might not be as attractive as they seem. After just one good season though, the suitors don’t care, they want to bring in someone who could potentially turn the season around for them.

Maybe this new way is more exciting, but I don’t think it helps the clubs any. No side seems to have roughly the same XI for more than two seasons at most, and every season the backbone of teams is completely changed. Its not as if its even as if its changing who wins things every season, as only the select few can afford to buy the players and so it just roughly keeps the quo, highlighted by the ‘Big Four’ in England, but also noted by Real winning La Liga again, with Lyon winning the French again, and look Bayern have won the Bundesliga, Inter have won Serie A again, with Roma second and the two teams will comepete for the Coppa Italia. Again.

Its going to take something big to upset the status quo. Maybe if a side could keep hold of thier players for more than a season eh?