The transfer window system has been around since the 2001/02 season and, although the winter window has been tweaked a bit, the summer window has remained the same – it opens at midnight on the last day of the previous season and closes at the end of August.

Is it just me, or has the hype surrounding the transfer windows grown over the years?? It really does seem to send some people into an unfathomable froth!! At this time of year it makes no sense whatsoever. If you think of buying players along the lines of buying a house you’ll understand why. First time buyers aside – there are other exceptions of course – generally when you buy a house you are part of a chain. You are also selling your own house, the person buying yours is selling theirs and the person who owns the house you’re bidding on is also looking to buy somewhere to live themselves. That’s just immediately either side of you, but it can continue up and down. If something goes wrong for any party it will effect the chain in both directions, often to the point of collapse. Then all parties will evaluate what can be salvaged from the previous agreements. Sometimes they can continue without too much drama, other times they have to start from scratch. No wonder buying a new home is credited with being one of the most stressful events of a person’s life.

Maybe it’s because the term “transfer budget” has entered the common language that fans have little appreciation of this. Maybe it’s because teams with silly budgets steal all the headlines at this time of year throwing their cash around with little consideration of how and when the acquisition will be balanced. Maybe we’ve all played a little bit too much Football Manager on our computers. But if you look around at this time of year you won’t find much business going on. Sure, you’ll get the likes of Kaka and Ronaldo moving for stupid money. You’ll find plenty of free transfers and small money deals too. You won’t find much of the meat and potato stuff going on though.

Image you’re a Premiership club manager and your chairman hands you a summer kitty of 20 million. That might only buy you one of Ronaldo’s legs, but it’s no small amount even in today’s money. You might think about buying a single player or perhaps a few cheaper players. Either way, it’s not just the 20 million you’ll have to take into consideration – you’ll also be committing to paying the player(s) wages and other costs for the duration of a 3 or 4 year contract. That’s something that might require some thought before you can go raiding other clubs of their players. The situation is obviously the same for those clubs – they’re not going to let players go without trying to find replacements. So on and so forth. When you think about the complexity of all these player transactions being crammed into one summer, often around a major tournament and always around holidays, it’s a wonder anything gets done!!

Moving home is just an analogy though. Houses, unlike players, don’t have their own ideas, aspirations and agents influencing anything and that’s just one more complication in player transfers. Most people selling their houses are doing so of their own volition, not because some rich stranger knocked on their door and said they’d like to buy it. Some managers might be masters at navigating their way through this minefield. Others might appear to struggle. But never let anyone tell you that it’s simple. It isn’t.

So anyway, the point of this post was a little reality check for anyone starting to froth up already. Since the transfer window was introduced, when has Aston Villa conducted their summer business in the past?? I’m glad you asked, check it out…

May
14th ’02 Stefan Postma
18th ’02 Marcus Allback
20th ’05 Aaron Hughes
21st ’04 Martin Laursen

June
20th ’01 Hassan Kachloul
27th ’05 Stuart Taylor
29th ’05 Kevin Phillips

July
1st ’05 Patrik Berger
3rd ’08 Curtis Davies
5th ’07 Nigel Reo-Coker
7th ’01 Mustapha Hadji
8th ’02 Michael Boulding
10th ’08 Steven Sidwell
12th ’01 Peter Schmeichel
17th ’07 Marlon Harewood
19th ’01 Olof Mellberg
24th ’03 Gavin McCann
26th ’02 Ulises De la Cruz
26th ’08 Brad Friedel

August
1st ’08 Brad Guzan
6th ’04 Mathieu Berson
7th ’08 Nicky Shorey
8th ’08 Luke Young
8th ’03 Thomas Sorensen
12th ’08 Carlos Cuellar
23rd ’05 Milan Baros
23rd ’02 Mark Kinsella
24th ’01 Bosko Balaban
29th ’02 Ronny Johnsen
29th ’07 Zat Knight
30th ’08 James Milner
30th ’05 Wilfred Bouma
30th ’06 Stilian Petrov
30th ’02 Oyvind Leonhardsen
31st ’07 Moustapha Salifou

In 9 summer windows only 7 players have ever been brought in before the 1st of July. Today is the 12th of June. You’re better off slapping on some sunscreen and enjoying the great outdoors for the next couple of weeks.

Ah, you might think, look at our success during this period. Doesn’t this just prove the point that players need to be acquired as early as possible to settle into the team during pre-season?? Not necessarily, although it might help paint that picture. Certainly in an ideal world it would be just lovely to have your whole squad assembled and ready for the first day of training, but the new players aren’t being plucked out of thin air. Remember the chain – unless we’re offering deals that can’t be turned down, which clubs are going to green light discussions with their players without having a replacement lined up?? And do we need to be thinking about who’s heading out the exit door to keep the books balanced??

You might not care about such intricate details and that’s fine, the important stuff happens on the pitch, I prefer to concentrate on that too. I’m just not going to stick my head in the sand and pretend that assembling a squad is an easy task that any manager worth his salt should have all sewn up by the middle of June.

And one last point to consider… the reserves have won their division the last 2 seasons, claiming the full title last season. The academy side won the league title in 2007/08. We’ve got some serious talent coming through the ranks and the club have continued to bring in prodigal youngsters in the last few years to follow on behind. I doubt we’re likely to see a graduation that would make Hansen eat his words again any time soon, but don’t underestimate the contribution the “kids” can make next season.