Why we love Transfer Deadline Day so much

We’re at that stage of the season when fans worldwide are glued to the television, Internet and radio waiting to hear the news of deadline day transfers. The Premier League Summer transfer window shuts on Friday 31 August at 23:00 BST and clubs won’t be able to make any more signings until January 2013. The break in transfer activity between summer and winter often leads to a mad panic with clubs practically scrambling to make last-minute signings which could secure their Premier League survival, their ambitions to achieve European places or the likelihood of winning silverware come May.

The reason it’s such an exciting day for all football fans is that we never quite know what’s going to happen. Use Clint Dempsey as an example this season. Fulham apparently accepted an offer from Aston Villa only for the player to reject a move to the Midlands in favour of other offers.

Then there was Andy Carroll’s on-off transfer to West Ham. With former club Newcastle also showing an interest throughout the summer, it was never clear cut as to where the England striker would end up, or whether he would remain at Liverpool – until deadline day! In the end, he moved to Upton Park in a loan deal that could be a fantastic coup for the Hammers and their ambitions to stay in the Premier League this season.

We’ve also had Sir Alex Ferguson shattering Fulham fans hearts on the final day of the transfer window with a comment linking Dimitar Berbatov with Spurs, while also claiming that he didn’t have a clue where the Bulgarian striker was during his pre-weekend press conference on Friday morning. The deal did eventually go through as expected.

Manchester City have left it late all summer with only Jack Rodwell signing for the reigning champions before the deadline day captures of Scott Sinclair from Swansea and big name signing Maicon from Inter Milan. Surely such deals could have secured before the last day of the transfer window, although it all add’s to the excitement and anticipation among fans.

And then we’ve had the usual Tweets from fans spotting players in taxis, at train stations, airports, bus stops, Premier League grounds…..you get the picture!!!

Various pundits have confessed that the Summer transfer deadline should be cut short, and close before the opening game of the season. That way you don’t get players starting a season at one club, then signing for another, as indeed Mousa Dembele and Victor Moses did this season before their moves to Spurs and Chelsea. Another issue is that the deadline is not the same for every country. Russian clubs such as Zenit Saint Petersburg for example have a longer window in which to sign players.

Whether you like it or not, it doesn’t look like changing anytime soon, and it would be near impossible for the English Premier League, or FA to get a different ruling than Europe’s other top leagues. The difficulty lies in the fact that in modern football, many Premier League clubs are targeting European talent with rival clubs from Spain, Italy, France, Portugal and Germany all showing interest as well, therefore it probably wouldn’t make sense to change the deadline date for the Premier League, unless a change was universal Europe wide.

A quote from BBC Sport Chief Football Writer Phil McNulty about transfer deadline day this summer just about sums up eveything we love (to hate) about the deadline day drama:

“Today is one of those days that is great but horrible at the same time. Something will happen late that nobody expected, and it will be hectic right up to the end.”

If you’ve got a comment on transfer deadline day and whether you love it or hate it, please let us know. We’ll be accepting comments below so feel free to join the debate.