I struggle to believe that we would lump Ely and Stu into the same we will accept a good offer bracket. Stu has been far and away out best attacking 10 for several seasons, and regularly the only player that we've had that can create chances and link midfield and attack.
They tried this, would only work if all of Europe had the same deadline. The scenario where say a Barca came in for a player after the English window had closed, player wanted to go and kicked up a fuss, and the English club couldn’t sign a replacement as our window was shut, was enough reason for them to go back to the August 31st deadline in line with most of Europe
Might as well just visit your local park, find any kids playing football, steal their ball, burst it, and then lob it over the nearest garden fence.
Should have made it with a limit on sales too. Wouldn't have been hard to draft a rule relating to that.
I guess an alternative could have been to allow buying and selling to continue with foreign clubs (ie between the start of the season and the end of August), but to prevent any further domestic transfers from taking place once the first ball has been kicked. It's not a perfect answer (for years I've supported all transfers ending before the season starting - or just scrapping the window altogether), but still better than what we've got now. For smaller PL clubs, there's much less risk of losing players to foreign clubs. So much, but not all, of the uncertainty is removed once the domestic window is shut.
I've got a 'good offer' for Southampton FC - keep Stuey Armstrong or face the working end of my hissy fit. Your choice.
Every PL club gets the same television money though. I think agents and oligarch owners coming in have had the more ruinous effect. Unless - of course - it's Markus.
Hmm Stu Armstrong has been one of our top performers over the past 4 years but last season he wasn't great, mainly due to his injuries. Last summer the idea of selling him would have been unthinkable but he hasnt been his best for a while now.
Pretty much my thoughts. Stu at his best is one of our most important players - a vital part of our team. But "Stu at his best" isn't something we've seen too often in recent times.
And yet he's still at least as good, if not better than any of our other options at 10 over the last few seasons even when not performing to his best. This to me is like when people were happy for us to sell Che this summer.
I think everyone thought it was okay to sell Che if the offer was very good and we sign a top replacement - same is true here. Plus Stu is 30 now and injuries keep mounting up - it doesn't matter how good he is if he isn't fit. Che is yet to peak so it makes more sense to move Stu on than Che.
