"Without a good transfer window, we will not get there. " The observation of Bernard Blaquart is final. To hope to save the Olympic Nimes from relegation, its coach aspires to a stronger workforce. Like the nineteenth in Ligue 1, many clubs are betting on the winter transfer window, which begins Wednesday 1st January and will last until the end of the month, to correct recruitment errors or supplement their workforce in order to achieve their objectives, maintenance or podium – synonymous with the Champions League. Every year at the beginning of the football world, even before digesting the holidays, rumors abound. Which club will strengthen? Which player will be transferred?
"In winter, you shouldn't expect a rich transfer window because clubs are not open to selling their best players during the season like summer, analyzed Frédéric Antonetti at Le Figaro in 2015. I see it as a slight correction transfer window. " A few keys that can change the game. Poorly embarked on winter 2017-2018 (16e and struggling to maintain it), Saint-Etienne illustrates the team having cleverly taken advantage of this period. Active on the market, the Greens recorded six arrivals – including former internationals eager to relaunch their careers (Yann M’vila or Mathieu Debuchy) – and completed an end of the season without being in danger. An example that many clubs aspire to follow, provided that finances follow.
"The transfer window destroyed three months of work"
But this period can also quickly manhandle the workforce, and plunge the clubs into turmoil. "At one time or another, this period shakes you, insisted Bernard Lacombe, then advisor to the President of Lyon, in 2013. Players cannot be insensitive to everything that is said. " Like others, the former international pleaded for a cut in January transfers.
Last winter, the Emiliano Sala case crystallized the criticisms made of the winter transfer window. Sold to Cardiff without asking after a successful first game, the Argentinian striker from the Nantes Canaries lost his life in the plane crash bringing him to his new club. But even more than the drama, and the disappearance of his player, the Nantes coach at the time, Vahid Halilhodzic, attacked this winter transfer period. "I hope there will never be a winter transfer window again, he completely destroyed three and a half months of work, it's criminal", said the Bosnian technician. For him, rumors of transfers, especially around Sala, made his group explode.
Less virulent, other technicians have long questioned the principle of this all-winter upheaval. "Everyone gets nervous from November, until February, former Arsenal coach Arsène Wenger was annoyed in 2012. From coach to player to club, this period makes things difficult. If it no longer existed, we could focus, we would know that there was no other way to get there. "
"When we start a season, I don't see why we shouldn't go all the way with the same squad" (Rudi Garcia, coach of Olympique Lyonnais)
Current coach of Olympique Lyonnais, Rudi Garcia is also campaigning for the abolition of this period. "This winter transfer window should not exist, except to compensate for injuries, there should be medical jokers. But when we start a season, I don't see why we wouldn't go all the way with the same staff. " Deploring the absence of his attackers Memphis Depay and Jeff Reine-Adélaïde, both victims of a broken ligament in one knee, the Rhone technician could nevertheless see his workforce reinforced during this month of January.
Two years ago, FIFA boss Italian-Swiss Gianni Infantino opened the door to a reduction in the number of transfers during the winter period, arguing that"It is not acceptable to rebuild a team" during the season. "I don't like it when a regular player switches from one team to another in mid-season", had criticized Infantino.
The fact remains that the system still exists, and that the transfer period is open. But if by chance Paris-Saint-Germain was eliminated in the knockout stages of the Champions League by Borussia Dortmund, on a goal by his Norwegian recruit Erling Haaland, brilliant with Salzburg during the group phase (eight goals) and which the transfer has just been formalized, the boss of FIFA will not be the only one to regret this system.
