Transfer window ain’t all glamour
I can assure you as a player who has been involved, it can be one of the most frustrating times of your career. A year ago I had just returned to Blackburn from a loan spell at Ipswich and immediately made my intentions clear to them that I felt I didn’t have a future at the club and wished to cut ties completely and move on. That was despite Blackburn making a u-turn from their decision the previous summer that I was available for loan and touting my name around to anybody that would listen.
After Blackburn accepted my decision they were insistent they would receive a transfer fee for me, one which was totally unrealistic in my opinion. From that point on it was always going to be a long month filled with meetings with certain members of staff which, if I elaborated on the details, I think people would reckon I made up.
It culminated with me being in the canteen at the training ground at Blackburn from eight in the morning on deadline day and not leaving until seven that evening to make my way to West Brom, a few hours before the window shut. That day was probably the most stressful of my career and, if truth be told, it got to a stage where I thought I would still be at Blackburn on the first day of February, training with the kids.
Football fans only really hear the glamour side of the game and the “big moves”, which get all the headlines. When you are moving clubs there are lots of factors that come into the equation. I have a friend in football who will have to make a big decision in the coming weeks. It has been made abundantly clear to him that his services are no longer required at his current club so obviously he has to look elsewhere for the next chapter of his career. He is very settled where he lives, with a family and his kids are in good schools. I know he has got interest from other clubs but expressions of interest are a long way off two clubs actually agreeing a fee — if there’s a fee involved — and then him agreeing personal terms.
Let’s say, hypothetically, that he ends up with a choice between a year’s contract at a club in the same league but one that’s at the other end of the country or a two-year contract on less money for a team in the division lower but one whose location means he doesn’t have to move house and his kids can stay in school and not go through the upheaval of moving. If he took the option of the two-year deal I’m sure a lot of people would question his ambition but could anybody really blame him if they knew the circumstances and his reasoning behind it?
It’s obviously a month the media can have a field day with in terms of speculation on who’s going where and for how much — but I’d love to have a stat on how accurate these reports actually turn out to be. I know, for example, there have been reports linking James McCarthy with a move away from Wigan to clubs such as Arsenal and Everton but, like I’ve said, it’s hard to know if there’s real substance to them.
All I would say is that I could see James playing for either of those clubs with ease. For someone so young he has amassed a lot of games at a very high level and in the last year in particular has grown in confidence. It would be good to see an Irish player at a top four club again and I think if Irish fans were ever in doubt as to how good this lad is, then a move to Arsenal would verify it.
Meanwhile, as you enjoy all the speculation in the media today about this player going here or that player going there, consider that it’s a time of real apprehension and uncertainty for a lot of players — and, of course, spare a thought for the kids who will have to uproot and leave their friends at school when Daddy fancies a change!
