The January transfer window’s emptiness highlights the impending recession and a need to engineer financial solidarity
We do not need a wise seer to understand the portents for football of a January transfer window whose dominant feature was an absence of transfers. Yes, West Ham, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Brighton did still splash out some millions, for Saïd Benrahma – a standout £20m trickle-down for Brentford – Amad Diallo, Morgan Sanson and Moisés Caicedo respectively; but the rest is a long tail of frees, loans, and battening down the hatches.
Football at all levels, like every other normal social activity, is in a Covid-19 financial crisis that is being parked while the health emergency is faced. As with the bigger social challenges, the measure of sport’s true values will be how it addresses this economic fallout: disaster capitalism, the wealthy seizing what they can, or proper solidarity.
Related: Men's transfer window January 2021 – all deals from Europe's top five leagues
Related: French football crisis deepens as TV rights offers fail to reach reserve price
Continue reading...