In recent times there has been a confected outrage directed at the transfer policies being exhibited at certain clubs.
I’ve found it faintly ridiculous listening to people mortally offended whenever a club sells one of its homegrown players.
A theme of this transfer window has been Scott McTominay, Conor Gallagher and other graduates heading for the exit. To those complaining, I get the whiff of double-standards.
If owners built a side predominantly made up of academy players because that was their want, they’d be considered as not having a lot of ambition.
If they sell their academy players instead, it’s a club that has no soul and destroying the future of these bright young things. Sending them somewhere else to play rather than the place they supposedly love because they’d been there so long. I’ve heard it all now!
A theme of this transfer window has been Scott McTominay (left), Conor Gallagher (right) and other academy graduates heading for the exit
Chelsea sold their academy graduate Gallagher to Atletico Madrid for £34million
Clubs understand what the financial rules are so if they choose to spend at the top end, in order to deliver on the almost instantaneous gratification, football requires they are perhaps going to have to pay for it a bit further down the food chain.
At this moment, the current vogue is to shout and scream about people wanting to spend huge amounts of money on players which, let’s face it, is what I thought was the preferred requirement of the ideal owner.
At the same time, academies and their young talent are held up, like the NHS, as a protected species and selling these players rather than plonking them in the first team is a major transgression.
We’ve also got this myth that all academy players are dying to play for the team where they were developed so being “one of our own” is a right of passage.
Don’t get me wrong, youth development is an important part of the football business and my academy was my sanity at Palace.
In an ideal world it’s lovely to see. In the real world it is quite rare such are the rigours and demands of modern football.
Even so, those who are good enough will get the opportunity at their boyhood clubs.
I haven’t seen Manchester City cashing in on Phil Foden or Arsenal with Bukayo Saka.
McTominay is obviously not considered to be good enough. At what point do we cease to view him as a United academy graduate and judge him as a senior player who isn’t cut out for the first-team on a regular basis.
McTominay is obviously not considered to be good enough by United and looks set to leave
United are now chasing Manuel Ugarte, who they want to replace Napoli-bound McTominay
He’s been a full-time professional at Old Trafford for enough years for them to take a view on whether he’s as good as Manuel Ugarte, who they want to buy instead.
And it’s not only the clubs that always decide the timing of an academy player’s development or disposal. It is often the players themselves because they don’t want to wait their turn.
Mail Sport’s Simon Jordan reveals he will be avoiding deadline day on Friday like the plague
That instantaneous here and now mentality that we all have, players are the same.
Was Cole Palmer sold by Manchester City as an awful indication of Manchester City’s buying policy at the top? No. It was the player himself who wanted to go because he didn’t see a pathway into the first-team.
It is a commercial reality for football clubs that people developed in their academies are often going to be sold for one of three reasons.
Either there is an economic upside to doing it (Archie Gray going from Leeds to Spurs for £30million), because the player himself wants an opportunity or because they are not good enough for the ambitions of the club that produced them.
The idea that academies are this holistic environment where the holy grail of reaching and staying in the first-team should be maintained at all costs is silly. It doesn’t work that way.
Regarding the notion of the transfer window itself, I’m conflicted and will avoid deadline day on Friday like the plague.
Those who are good enough will get the opportunity at their boyhood clubs, like Bukayo Saka (left). Meanwhile, the likes of fellow graduate Emile Smith Rowe (right) was sold on to Fulham
However, Cole Palmer’s (left) case at Man City was different. Pep Guardiola (right) sanctioned his sale because Palmer wanted to go as he didn’t see a pathway into City’s first-team
Selling academy graduates means there is an economic upside to doing it. Leeds banked £30million after selling Archie Gray to Tottenham earlier this summer
I’ve always felt it was a restriction of trade. One of the major advocates was Sir Alex Ferguson who felt it appropriate for teams to lock down their squads for the season.
That’s great for Manchester United but more difficult for managers and owners lacking the same economic pull. Why can’t clubs be able to trade when it suits them, like in other businesses.
We’ve seen what it has become. There is a sense of decadence and profligacy, how much money can be spent creating hyper-inflation in transfer fees, wages and gains for the tragically not lesser-spotted species, the football agent.
Total transfer fees will probably get to £2billion again in this window by the time it closes as though it is some badge of honour. Sport has gone this way, it’s about entertainment and part of the package is what happens in the window. It’s showbusiness rather than sound commercial business.
I wouldn’t necessarily say the transfer window will be around forever but it seems to be seeded now in the intellectual capital behind the sport. Do I think it should? No, but it’s likely to stay for the foreseeable.
It’s become a necessary evil to serve a greater good, creating off-pitch interest around the world which sparks ever-greater broadcasting revenues.
I think I understand why deadline day is a broadcast and media spectacular but anyone who is doing their business at the end of the window is ridiculous.
One of the major advocates for the transfer window was Sir Alex Ferguson (left), who felt it appropriate for teams to lock down their squads for the season
I’m more respectful of Liverpool’s patience in this window. They don’t seem to have any real cash issues so must be largely comfortable with what they have got and don’t need to do something in creating an allure and image rather than substance. There is something to be said for that.
So I’ll find something else to do on Friday night. For those glued into my colleague Jim White, enjoy the carnival of horrors and those of a fainter disposition perhaps look away if a young player is being sold.
How Carsley should approach his England audition
The FA won’t want revolution from their interim manager Lee Carsley when he names his first England squad on Thursday.
They’d have kept Gareth Southgate if possible so can’t see them asking for their promoted Under 21s manager to come in and set the place on fire.
If Carsley wants to give his employers cause to think about making him the next permanent England manager, I imagine he’ll be steady as he goes.
Harry Kane didn’t have the best Euros but he’s not a divisive character in the camp. To what end would the new manager leave him out.
I don’t know if the new man is going to be an omelette-maker or whether he feels he needs to but I think it would be unwise.
My only hope is if he does get the job is that he has the balls to play front-foot football against the top opposition!
Listen to White and Jordan every weekday on talkSPORT from 10-1pm
