Martinez remains opposed to late summer transfer deadline

This actually sounds so foolish from Martinez when his best signings to date for Everton have come in the dying hours of the window.

Or is this his way of telling us he's done all his deals already??

How many of us would complain if Roberto got even more stubborn and didn't use it on the basis of his feelings towards the window.

Perhaps because it would be extremely foolish not to utilise it just to make a point that he doesn't agree with it.

Or perhaps because agents drag deals out til late in the window to secure the best deal for their client and their own bank balance.

Or maybe because the Everton board strategy has been, since long before Martinez arrived, to leave transfers as late as possible because they believe that approach will get the best value for money for the club.

No, forget I said all that. You're right. It's a coded message to say we have done all our deals already.

Off topic but more worrying is Martinez being on Sky Sports last night. Not the fact that he was on in it. Good to see Everton represented in the media.

But some of his comments/analysis was hard to fathom. We probably need another thread on ToffeeWeb to see if many understood his thought process. One classic was Carragher trying to work out some Everton defending against Villa. After a 'nice' bit of passing amongst defenders, the ball was passed to Lukaku who managed to kick it back first time to a Villa player. Ball in back of net seconds later with Everton defence probably bit out of place.

Martinez reaction was we won 3-1 . Fair enough. :)

I have to believe that if they did make the end of the transfer window before the first match of the season, then the Sky money would arrive earlier, and there would still be transfer deadline day drama...just a little earlier. Get the season started proper!

I also agree with Roberto - it has become a circus and I would prefer the deadline before the season kicks off. This may be a veiled indictment of our own chairman, who waits until late August to conclude most deals.

No coincidence that we, who have done very little, are the ones now moaning...

He gets paid blooming well by Everton and he should be working all hours to fix the flipping mess he has made with his passing it for the sake of it football and poor buys. Not trying to improve brand Martinez by being on sky sports. Saturday showed the whole league and our fans that this club has not moved forward since the end of last season. It begs the question what has been going on since May. He should be moving heaven and earth this week to rectify the situation and the board need to pull their finger out and force through an exciting deal that would give us all a lift.

Just don't understand why they seem to be happy with mediocrity. I fear we will end up in a relegation dogfight unless we get some quality up front to help big Rom out.

All transfer dealings are down to the Boardroom and not the manager despite all the fans moans. The Board hold the purse strings.

We are the only club who are not active.WBA just bought their fifth player so far. Some clubs have 10 or 11 signed. We have about 10 injured. Who is wrong ?

We'll go right to the wire, simply because it's there. The likes of Tottenham will be hoping we flinch first, as will Chelsea. The strongest position we can have is if we are genuinely prepared to let Chelsea walk away. I don't think Spurs want us to walk away so I see us as fairly strong there too.

Every year there are bargains as teams who need or want to sell, panic that they'll be lumbered with a player until January (that's where wages really come into the equation). Likewise buyers will throw silly money if they have it just to secure the player they want.

We then have the fact that the first 2 or 3 games are notorious for long term injuries. Fingers crossed we've had our full quota of bad luck with Gibbo, Oviedo, McGeady, Hibbo, Pienaar, Kone, Delboy and Bainsey but I wouldn't bet on it. If key players go down before the end of the window we may need more than the promised "3".

Remember the destabilising effect of the Lescott and Fellaini sagas. The window should shut before the first ball is kicked so that players can concentrate on their football. Who benefits from it being several games into the season?

Not the players who are distracted, not the fans who just want to enjoy watching the games without the prospect of their favourite players doing a bunk just as things are getting going. Someone somewhere must be getting something out of this other than the greedy agents. Backhanders at FIFA or the FA?

Yes we do a lot of business very late on, but that makes financial sense as it is largely a buyers market and teams who have not yet received bids for surplus players have to decide whether to carry on paying their wages until January or cut their losses and accept a lower bid than they may have taken at the start of the summer.

Everton will get in 2-3 players on the last day, but why does the last day have to be at the end of August and not the start. Roberto is right to criticise this and we should back him up when he calls something right, not pounce on every word he says and twist it to fit our own agendas!

I'm unhappy with aspects of Martinez's management and Bill Kenwright's running of the club, but the ammount of negativity on ToffeeWeb is starting to really put me of visiting this fantastic forum. I'm all for constructive and passionate criticism but it is starting to feel like a witch hunt in these comment sections!

Last minute signings are our thing... there will always be a last minute regardless of when it happens.

Look at what happened with Lescott... did his performance against Arsenal serve us well? Pull the deadline forward and the move still happens - we just get the business done before the opening day.

The only teams who would prefer this system to remain are Champions League clubs who get to choose whether to register players with injuries or simply but new ones in. Let's face it, it's set up solely for that comp. It's even been moved to accommodate CL squad submissions this year.

RM is quite right to argue against the current system. And for those who say we'd never get any business done if it was changed are clearly missing the point. We're not the only club to conclude our business late. We would (rightly or wrongly) leave our business until the 31st July instead of the 31st August!

No reason the window couldn't be shut 48 hours before the first scheduled game. No reason at all.

Surprised most EPL club owners aren't pushing for it.

There's more to football than the British game. It's a world game remember.

But the problem of closing the window before the Sky money is to hand would mean that half the deals would never be made as the money (even more of it !) would find its way into the players pockets before the January window opened.

Chicken and egg, really !

If transactions were limited to the English leagues alone, he and others would have a point. But they are clearly not. There is global trade between leagues on every continent.

In Europe, the hub of most transactions, most leagues kick off in the month of August, but not all start on the same weekend. It is very staggered which leagues commence when.

To suggest the PL transfer window should slam shut before a ball is kicked in anger is unworkable, given the staggered start across different leagues as mentioned above.

Therefore, there has to be a compromise - a universal date for all European based leagues when the window slams shut on summer dealings. I believe only Russia, for some reason, has an extended transfer window beyond the now long established end-of-August deadline.

It's not ideal, but, it is a compromise fair to all leagues. If each league had a different limit on the summer transfer window, there would be even greater confusion than now exists.

Now if all the major European leagues agreed to kick off their seasons on the same weekend, then there would be a case to close the window before the ball started rolling.

Failing that, one alternative would be to return to the old system when there was NO shutting of the transfer window and it was open season for the whole duration of the league programme. But then of course, the uncertainty of whether a player stays or goes continues throughout the whole season.

Furthermore, if you want to extend the logic of Roberto and others that there should be no disruptive transfers possible once the season has commenced, then surely the January transfer window should be shuttered as well.

I understand the arguments against allowing transfers once the season kicks off. But as I've outlined, IMO it just isn't workable.

FIFA (or UEFA, or someone) dictate how long the window can be individual FAs decide on the timing.

This year, England will be one day later than the rest due to the public holiday. Though it shuts early at 6pm to accommodate CL squad registration due layer that night.

We just need our people in charge to firmly say, and even if it takes putting a statement in the media, that player (a) or (b) is not for sale and no offers of any kind will be excepted, and any reference to the contrary will be false.

If something doesn't work then people should push the powers that be to find a solution.

Ernie Baywood 43 Again, I agree that this is a major reason for the current situation. However I'm fed up of the super rich Champions League teams having everything set up to suit them and screw the rest. This only widens the gulf between the haves and have nots. That said, should some oil tycoon wish to invest heavily in EFC I would be willing to
modify my principles to accommodate them ;)

I'm just dreading the deadline day scenario of John Stones leaving and us scrabbling around for Johnny Evans +1 and getting screwed over because the selling teams know we have cash and are desperate for a replacement. I guess that would be the same situation if the window shut in July or August, but at least the distraction wouldn't be hanging over the team!

If the window closed before the first game then the sky money as said a few times above would be paid earlier. Do you think that would wait until mid August after a window closed to pay out and spoil their deadline day circus!! sky aren't stupid, it's all related!

As I alluded to in my piece, there are some leagues with later transfer windows, but as this link shows - listing the transfer windows of all European federations from Azerbaijan to the Ukraine - they are the exception to the rule.

Link

Most of those outside the 31 August / 1 September closing date are those who take a winter break and who are already well into their season.

But in saying that, it is still incredibly, incredibly frustrating to see clubs like West Brom being able to/willing to splurge ~£18 million on a record signing, while our income appears to go into a financial blackhole.

1. Signing players at the end of the window.

2. The date of the end of the window.

Roberto is talking about 2. You're all talking about 1.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/pictures-Everton-fc-top-league-8561655

It's a fact we do 1, and there's a variety of reasons for it. None can be pointed at Roberto, that's just how we do deals, and by and large we've been winning the game of poker that is the late transfer deadline day deal.

We should have had the players in already, jose must be laughing his nuts off if we then sign three players, hes making himself a laughing stock.

Roberto is spot on.

Foreign teams will comply with the English deadline if they want to do business.

And Roberto isn't saying anything he hasn't said before. He's been very consistent on this matter. Not sure what all the fuss is about.

"The window should close before the season starts."

"Uhhhh... OK... then why the hell do you wait so long, uh-huh, uh-huh??" (spits chewing tobacco on the floor and wipes back of hand across mouth to clean up residue).

Roberto isn't waiting until the bitter end by choice. Everyone waits to play the poker game to extract as much money as possible from those with smaller stones who panic at the deadline. If the deadline is moved up, everyone just plays the stupid game of poker a bit earlier in the year.