Premier League clubs are considering a couple of changes to the transfer windows, including reducing the length of the January window and closing the summer window earlier.
Sam Wallace reports for The Daily Telegraph that talks between Premier League clubs earlier this week raised a couple of proposals related to the transfer market.
The first is one we’ve heard plenty of times before, shortening the summer window to end it before the Premier League campaign kicks off. The proposal was even introduced in 2018 and 2019, but then abandoned when other European leagues didn’t follow suit.
But if the Premier League could get the other leagues on board this time, that might help.
The other proposal is reportedly to reduce the winter transfer window to just two weeks, presumably again to minimise the disruption of the market on the football that month.
Aston Villa were one of the clubs left frustrated in January as bids for their strikers were leaked to the media on the day of their Champions League game against Celtic.
The two proposals will be voted on during the Premier League shareholders’ meeting next week, assuming the owners and chief executives feel the ideas actually have any chance of winning such a vote.
If the top leagues could come together and agree to bring the summer deadline forward to before the season begins, that would be a good thing for everyone. It’s just whether that’s likely to happen or not.
If it doesn’t, and the Premier League are alone in changing the deadline, then they’ll probably revert back to the current system before long. The clubs never like feeling like they’re missing out on market opportunities.