In chronological order, the last figure in the world of football to openly take sides against the dynamics of the transfer market was Beppe Marotta, CEO and director of Juve, a football man and forward-looking manager: "The transfer market is really too long and exhausting, it should close when the first major European championship begins”.
If to say it is someone who has built a real war machine, designed to win titles after titles, well, then it means that there is something true.
However, it is true that the transfer market fills the mouths of all of us during the hot summer months, in which there are few matches, and the main protagonists are the big headlines of the sports newspapers, which light up the hearts of the fans, even if only for a few days. However, all this is not enough for the transfer market to be accepted in its current practices.
In Italy, the Lega Calcio has established for years the time frame in which it is possible to deposit new contracts: 1 July – 31 August. The period is the same for the main European leagues, with some small exceptions: in England the transfer market starts even earlier, on 9 June, and also ends on 31 August, while in Portugal it even ends in mid-September. First big obstacle: why not standardize the start and finish dates in all the European championships?
Nor should the recent rise of the Asian championships be underestimated, which attract the not brightest stars of European football by offering millionaire contracts and benefits of all kinds, in which the winter transfer market, for example, ends in late March, while the Italian one closes its doors on January 31st.
The "Italian" transfer market was born in the mid-50s, when Raimondo Lanza di Trabia, a nobleman who wanted to bring Palermo to the Olympus of Italian football, began to receive presidents and executives in the best suites of Milanese hotels, amidst brocade sofas and bottles of champagne. From there the idea of a fixed venue for the transfer market was born, which at the time was the legendary Hotel Gallia in Milan, right in front of the Central Station. Then came the Hilton and the AtaHotel, but without the same charm.
It would be nice to think that negotiations are still being conducted the old-fashioned way, but that hasn't been the case for a few years. It would be nice to still have figures of the caliber of the lawyer among us, men of class and business, but football lovers at the same time. Think how funny it would be to see Gianni Agnelli today find himself forced to deal with Mino Raiola, the king of agents. Two too distant personalities, symbols of two eras.
By now the transfer market is a purely media phenomenon, which does nothing but ruin the summer plans of the teams' technical staff, upsetting plans and tactical schemes. Let's think, for example, of Gasperini's Atalanta, the revelation of the championship that has just ended, which is preparing to make its debut in the Europa League. Within a month Kessie and Conti, two protagonists of the nerazzurri's ride, went to Milan, without forgetting Gagliardini who moved to Inter in the winter, and very probably the winger Spinazzola, who has returned to the national orbit, will return to Juventus, which holds the tag. Three fifths of the starting midfield. And new work to do to recreate the right alchemy of an entire team.
Marotta is right, the time for negotiations should be reduced. A guess? Leave the possibility of buying and selling players from the date of the last championship match until the date of the first day of the following championship. Football has now become programming, and managers must be able to concentrate the achievement of their goals in a more limited period of time. If they had to keep up with the so-called "market dynamics" (translated: whims of players and agents), the transfer market should last all year.
There are no longer the figures who led the world of football twenty or thirty years ago. Football men are gradually decreasing. Juventus represents an example of what has been: a family in charge that entrusts sports management to two competent people, with experience in smaller teams, capable and well-prepared, Giuseppe Marotta and Fabio Paratici.
No more "last-minute deals", no more "days of the condor". We need to protect football played, real football, not that of declarations, contracts and termination clauses.
