Tottenhamrsquo;s Alan Hutton inquiry is typical of panic buying during January sales
- January
- 16
5:55 am Live News
It is not exactly a game of poker this January transfer window, is it? Every
hand is exposed, every need known. Daniel Levy, the Tottenham Hotspur
chairman, has admitted that the transfer window is the worst time to buy
top-quality players, although if he sells Dimitar Berbatov for a tidy sum,
he will not mind being on the opposite side of the marketplace.
I am sure other chief executives in Britain feel the same, but they will still
be signing cheques in desperation this month. It is the opposite of the
January sales in the retail sector; on the high street the price of goods is
being slashed to get rid of tatty winter stock. In the football market, even
average players become very expensive as the panic buying escalates towards
the end of the month.
My mother%26rsquo;s advice when I was a youngster spending my Christmas money in the
sales %26ndash; %26ldquo;don%26rsquo;t buy anything you didn%26rsquo;t want before%26rdquo; %26ndash; would be worth keeping
in mind for managers and chairmen this month. However, it is predicted that
the 2008 window will eclipse January 2006, when %26pound;70 million of business was
conducted.
All it takes is Nicolas Anelka to move for %26pound;16 million (some reports suggest
that he could go for %26pound;19 million) and maybe Berbatov to leave Tottenham for
a similar sum and we are almost halfway to breaking the record. While the
rest of the country is tightening its belt, football clubs continue to make
extra holes in theirs.
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