Another tradition bites the dust: Transfer window set for early close

Football managers, players and Sky Sports presenter Jim White will be given a night off on transfer deadline day after the closure of the window was brought forward to 5pm by the Premier League.

The summer transfer window will close at that time on September 1 rather than the usual time of 11pm, which has resulted in many being glued to White and his yellow tie – the colour of the breaking news ticker – on Sky Sports News.

Now any player thinking of emulating Peter Odemwingie and driving to another club to try to push through a move will have to set off earlier in the day.

And broadcasters will have to be aware of the watershed and hope fans gathering behind reporters leave their sex toys at home.

The deadline has been moved to September 1 because August 31 is the late summer bank holiday Monday, and Premier League regulations dictate it cannot fall on a non-working day.

A UEFA deadline for Champions League squads to be submitted comes at 11pm BST on September 1, so the Premier League has opted for an earlier deadline.

That will allow champions Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United – the four qualified teams – to formalise their lists in the intervening period.

Twitter is not amused.

The Premier League have announced that on the next deadline day the transfer window will close at 6pm. pic.twitter.com/tgj5NXjgPo

— Paddy Power (@paddypower) June 5, 2015

The end of the transfer window is to be at 6pm. Only Sky would think to tell us this in early June. Bet they hate it closing 5 hrs early

— Football Fragmento (@footyfragmento) June 4, 2015

The transfer window closing at 5pm is actually well disappointing

— Clow (@clowes_ed) June 4, 2015