The charm of the transfer window is fading

As the summer window deadline approaches, we can't help but find that this important day that was once marked by fans in circles on the calendar has disappeared. The former deadline was a grand festival. I remember when I was a child, I would stay at Sky Sports News until midnight, hoping to sign a heavy buzzer-bearing contract before closing the window. There are always noisy crowds gathering behind the reporters, and this chaotic scene is just the extra fun for our onlookers.

Putting aside nostalgia, this is indeed the charm of the transfer window. The key point is not about reports in detail, but about surprises that are caught off guard. For example, a well-known star suddenly descended from the sunny Madrid to the city of London without any warning. But such an era has long ended. Now we pay more attention to information transparency. All details of the transfer operation are made public, and the mystery, impact and most importantly, the sense of expectation have disappeared. The golden age of

Transfer rumors are beautiful years. At that time, the so-called "insiders" were just ordinary people living in the bedroom, not professional journalists like the Romano team. Fans would carefully read the newspapers, keep a close eye on the news, and would argue in the forum based on the rumors about a bricklayer from the neighbor's neighbor's house.

It was the innocent era when Jim White's golden tie had not yet become an awkward gimmick. It was the youthful memory of secretly refreshing the real-time scroll bar of Sky Sports in English class to view the home team's dynamics. Although rumors are always absurd and bizarre, it is the expectation of "what if it is true" that makes everything worth savoring. The long transfer series at that time was exciting, but now it was all exhausted - the surprise should have been unknown until the moment the player actually debuted with his jersey in hand. The rise of internal sources has changed the game. The informed account back then was meme material. Bloggers led by Indy Keira cast a storm and shadow all over the sky. Anyone with a little judgment understands that FootballTransferzGossip and others are simply unreliable.

But Romano completely reshapes the industry ecology. With his well-connected connections, he became the weather vane for finalizing transactions, and "here we go" became the most important announcement in the football transfer industry. Although this phrase should bring the excitement of Sky Sports like a banner-like yellow breaking news, when the same deal was repeatedly pushed 30 times by Romano, all the surprises were already exhausted.

Accurate reporting has become the benchmark for current transfer news. Romano and David Ornstein built industry standards with their top-notch connections, and their continued tracking of transfer dynamics is almost all-encompassing.

The core problem is that clubs and agents are manipulating the narrative. It is said that some journalists charge remuneration to guide the direction of public opinion to influence club or player decisions. The fundamental motivation is still the economic interests of the relevant parties.

Take Isaac's transfer long-distance running as an example. The world-class striker's stalemate with Newcastle lasted for months and has not played since the Premier League finale against Everton last May. Despite their clear willingness to leave, Romano and Ornstein always control the narrative dominance, and the latter even tirelessly analyzes the tug-of-war on TV shows. The influence of these journalists on the market is almost absurd.

This is the crux of the extinction of the transfer window. I no longer focus on rolling news, no longer care about deadlines—especially the deadlines when windows close. All the deals worth watching have been reported in detail for weeks, and this information bombardment cannot be avoided unless it is isolated from the world all summer.

Reporters know everything, and social media is everywhere. The club can no longer create surprise announcements because before the players officially debut, they need to make ten videos, complete a full set of photo shoots, and formulate a complete marketing plan - this means that a staff member had already taken photos of new players on the stadium and posted them on social media. The golden age of the transfer window has passed. Ironically, like many things that have lost their light in the football world, it will eventually exhaust all the fun as each season progresses. Can we go back to the past? It's absolutely impossible. Even if it was suddenly announced that Luc de Jong joined Porto, it would be difficult to cause any ripples.