Newcastle United Steve Bruce has spoken out on the decision to close the Premier League transfer window early, labelling the move as “ludicrous”.
Teams in the English top flight have been unable to sign players since the market closed on August 9th, but can still sell players, with the continental window staying open until September 2nd.
And Bruce has suggested that the disparity between the two is wrong.
As quoted by the Chronicle, he said: “It’s ludicrous that all of Europe’s still open, that’s for sure. I think we have to do something about that.
“If we’re going to shut the window, then all of Europe has to shut because some clubs are going to have to sell a player they maybe don’t want to and can’t add to it.”
OPINION
Bruce is right on the money with this one. It makes literally no sense whatsoever that the Premier League has decided to close the window early, and you can’t help feeling that it puts English teams at a bit of a disadvantage. The logic behind it must be to encourage clubs to get their business done early doors, but the fact is that it creates this weird limbo for the best part of a month where everybody waits around on tenterhooks to see if they are going to get raided from abroad. The plus point must supposedly be that teams are ready and settled for the new campaign, but that rationale only really applies if your squad can’t be taken away from as well. In the grand scheme of things, it probably won’t effect Newcastle too badly this season, but certainly, the manager is speaking sense on this one.
