Summer Transfer Window Closes: The Start of a Worrying Trend?

Transfer deadline day. The footballing equivalent to a crowded London marketplace mixed with a Glasgow pub brawl. With perhaps more bloodshed.

Some believe that the crescendo to the summer window merits a day off work. Though I am not quite of that mindset, I can't help but feel a strange sense of satisfaction watching the attempts of TV presenters to explain the chaos that will be occurring at 92 different locations across the Football League clubs, and countless more around the rest of the world. Millions are spent on the 1st September, some more wisely than others.

In recent years, as fees have escalated, the amount spent on this sacred day has risen exponentially. As a result, the panic-buying that is witnessed every years multiplies in cost to club owners across the country. On the other hand, some chief executives earn their pay packet on this day, as we have also witnessed some of the most successful transfers on this day. Wayne Rooney's £24m transfer to Manchester United in 2004 and Ashley Cole's 2006 move across London to Chelsea are good examples of this, and we will see plenty more in the coming years. And this is what makes deadline day so special.

So who has been guilty of panic-buying in recent years? A list of just some of the most high profile ones is below:

Andy van der Meyde - Inter Milan to Everton (£2m) - 20 apps/0 goals (2005 - 2009)
Xisco - Deportivo la Coruna to Newcastle United (£5.7m) - 9 apps/1 goal (2008 - 2013)
Roman Pavlyuchenko - Spartak Moscow to Tottenham Hotspur (£14m) - 78 apps/21 goals (2008 - 2012)
Dimitar Berbatov - Tottenham Hotspur to Manchester United (£30m) - 108 apps/48 goals (2009 - 2012)
Robinho - Real Madrid to Manchester City (£32.5m) - 41 apps/14 goals (2009 - 2011)
Paul Konchesky - Fulham to Liverpool (£4m) - 15 apps/0 goals (2010 - 2011)
Andre Santos - Fenerbahce to Arsenal (£5m) - 25 apps/3 goals (2011 - 2013)
Javi Garcia - Benfica to Manchester City (£16m) - 48 apps/2 goals (2012 - 2014)
Marouane Fellaini - Everton to Manchester United (£27m) - 17 apps/ 0 goals (2013 - current)

2014
This year's scramble for final additions has thrown up a few interesting transactions, and a worrying trend. With the Financial Fair Play regulations threatening to impact on a club's European involvement over the coming seasons, chief execs are looking for more ways to manipulate the system. We have seen clubs like Paris Saint Germain and Manchester City come acropper in their attempts to sign off enormous sponsorship deals to circumnavigate the regulations. While that could be deemed unfair, the current trend is going to be impossible to stop.

Deadline day has always been about the big names, the big transfers and the big money. However, this year we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of loan deals with an option to buy the following year. While this may appear on the surface to be foolhardy, as it always seems beneficial to tie the big names down to permanent deals, it may actually prove to be another shrewd move by chief execs to stay within the FFP regulations. With Manchester United having already spent in excess of £85m, the deal for Radamel Falcao would have taken the club far beyond the break-even necessary to avoid sanction from UEFA had it been permanent. However, with the option to defer payment for 12 months, the club can now rebuild its finances before having to fork out an additional sum. Similar deals for the likes of Alvaro Negredo and Javier Hernandez demonstrate that this trend seems set to continue.

The reason this trend is worrying? Call me old-fashioned, but I liked the thrill of the big signing. I remember staying up all night to watch the 2009 summer deadline day, which saw Manchester United sign Dimitar Berbatov for a British transfer record £30m, only for newly Arab-backed Manchester City to outdo them with the coup of Robinho minutes later for £32.5m. Though both eventually turned out to be flops, knowing that your club owns the player involved is exciting, while renting one is less so. If this is set to replace the traditional transfer deadline day, it will make the whole day a little less climactic, killing some of the fun that the broadcasters spend so long trying to instil.

Should this continue, the bloodshed and chaos we have become used to will become less of a pub brawl and more of an orderly queue of clubs, waiting their turn. A lot more safe, but a lot less exciting.