Premier League clubs reportedly now regret voting to bring the close of the transfer window forward to the start of the season, realising the problems it will cause when it comes to transfer fees.

Arsene Wenger long called for the transfer window to be closed before the season started or to remain open for the duration of the campaign.

“I’ve said many times that the transfer window should be over when the season starts as things usually happen in the last 10 days,” Wenger said in 2013 and kept saying until recently.

Taking moves to address the disruption the window can cause to a team’s start to the season, the Premier League voted to close the window on August 9th with the league set to start two days later.

charles sale 5 july 2018 daily mail premier league transfer window regret
Daily Mail, 5 July 2018

Now, however, the reality of what that means is starting to bite.

The transfer window is infamous for the number of late deals that get done. This is something else Wenger often highlighted.

Clubs wait as late as possible to drive down a player’s price, hoping that the selling club will get desperate when they look like being stuck with a player who wants to leave.

But at this point in the window, you have to pay full whack if you want to bring a new player in and that is unlikely to change when the English window shuts if the rest of Europe/the world has another three weeks in which to do business.

In addition, although Premier League clubs will not be able to buy after the August 9 deadline, they can still sell.

This means that squads still won’t be fully settled until the window closes across all leagues, not just in England.