Season › 2017-18 › News Premier League teams vote to bring summer transfer deadline forward Thursday, 7 September, 2017 23comments | Jump to most recent The transfer window will close before the start of the 2018-19 season following a vote by England's top-flight clubs this afternoon. In a decision backed by the minimum 14 clubs needed to pass a motion, the Premier League's members decided that starting next year, the deadline for incoming transfers will be 5pm on the Thursday before the start of the new season. Manchester United, Manchester City, Watford, Swansea and Crystal Palace voted against the proposal; Burnley abstained. Reader Comments (23) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer Steve Ferns 1 Posted 07/09/2017 at 21:24:22 Finally. Now we need the rest of Europe to fall in line. Brian Williams 2 Posted 07/09/2017 at 21:37:15 That's right, Steve... otherwise, it could be an even bigger clusterfuck than it is now! Colin Glassar 3 Posted 07/09/2017 at 21:49:34 I've been arguing this for years. I've always thought the transfer window should open the day after the Champions League final and close the day before the season begins. This would give everyone almost three months to get their shit together. Liam Reilly 4 Posted 07/09/2017 at 22:23:24 How can Burnley abstain; with the money on the game today? They must have a view one way or another.Crazy way to run a business. Jon Saward 5 Posted 07/09/2017 at 22:32:30 I agree with this in principle but clubs going through qualifying for Europe will be forced to gamble on buying enough players for the group stages, at the risk of being lumbered with inflated squads if they get knocked out early. Needs to be replicated across Europe – and make the window in January just a week long. Clubs should know who they're going to sell and who they're going to replace them with – get all the deals done in a week and get on with the season... Ian Hams 6 Posted 07/09/2017 at 22:56:57 I totally agree with the principle of ending before the seasons start, the problem is all the league's start on different dates so you will never achieve a common start or end time. Minik Hansen 7 Posted 07/09/2017 at 23:07:55 Oh my God... didn't see this coming. Bad news for newspapers. There'll probably be even more rumours coming through next summer, it will be ridiculous. Maybe the Premier League will start just after the start of September. 😂 Dennis Stevens 8 Posted 08/09/2017 at 00:26:16 It'd be better still to go back to the old days of the transfer deadline being somewhere near the end of March! Eric Myles 10 Posted 08/09/2017 at 04:58:15 If other leagues have differing window dates, Spain last week, Turkey today, it's just going to mean English clubs will have less time to do business. And have an effect on those in Champions League and Europa League qualification. James Morgan 11 Posted 08/09/2017 at 06:45:34 We've seen how English clubs have the money and power to decide not to sell if they don't want to. If a team wants your player after our deadline passes, to buy a replacement, tough titties. It might even mean if English clubs miss out on certain players late in the window, they will have to turn to their academies to plug the gaps. Dermot Byrne 12 Posted 08/09/2017 at 06:47:50 Agree Minik. My heart goes out to the media. Were they represented? Was Jim White consulted? Maybe, as they merge the day the transfer window "slams shut" with the massive, fantastic amazing big kick off, they could create a 48-hour day to manage demand.When we leave the European Union, Murdoch will dictate all government policy, so that should be okay.Bright future! Rob Hooton 13 Posted 08/09/2017 at 07:22:24 Dermot, I'm sure Farhad had Jim on speakerphone during the meeting so he could be involved! Sensible decision! Tim Locke 14 Posted 08/09/2017 at 07:41:21 I can only see this as a good thing. Most deals are done way in advance and this brings forward allowing players to go to their new clubs.As for others closing later; I don't think it matters as much. Clubs don't have to sell. Clubs which do sell will have done their buying already so all about book balancing. So if anything it might make players settle down and shut up when they realise the only option is a couple of seasons over seas. Thankfully we got a billionaire just in time. Colin Glassar 15 Posted 08/09/2017 at 08:13:06 Dermot, I've heard that Moshiri is to co-host the next TDD on sky sports with his best mate, Jim White. This way, Moshiri won't have to call in and read Kenwright's written excuses over the phone. He can do it on live telly. Frank Crewe 17 Posted 08/09/2017 at 11:05:18 Finally. They should have done it years ago. Personally if it was up to me there would not be a January window at all. Make managers earn their crust. No buying your way out of trouble mid season. The squad you start with is the squad you finish with so you had better get the players you need in the summer. Also it would mean players contracts don't end in January so it would end the speculation about players leaving mid-season and unsettling the player, the club and the fans. I also thing no January window would help the young players get more games. Having only a summer window would make managers use their squad more since they couldn't afford to have a squad made up entirely of players transferred in. Dermot Byrne 18 Posted 08/09/2017 at 12:47:55 With sensible head on, I like that idea, Frank. Andy Riley 19 Posted 08/09/2017 at 18:28:06 Why do we have this transfer window at all? Years ago, it was much better with transfer speculation throughout the season until sometime in March. Oh for a return to the days of Harry Catterick when the first we heard generally was when someone had actually signed. Martin Mason 20 Posted 08/09/2017 at 18:48:38 Andy, no thanks, can you imagine this site if there were transfers all season? Jack Convery 21 Posted 09/09/2017 at 00:24:38 Not before time. Also means Jim Shite will be confined to early August and we can all enjoy whats left of the so called summer each year, from now on. David Barks 22 Posted 09/09/2017 at 01:08:53 So the Premier League decided to stop themselves from being able to buy players once the season starts, yet for weeks there players will still be the subject of transfer speculation to clubs from around Europe. So Barcelona, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Lyon, Juventus and anyone else can still come in and buy players from English clubs, but those English clubs will be the only ones in Europe who can not buy anyone else. And, if a key player happens to tear an ACL or Achilles in the opening match the English club can not go out and get a replacement. What an absolutely idiotic thing to do. That like one race car saying they're only going to drive up to 100 mph while the rest of the field go up to 150. Idiots. Karl Masters 23 Posted 09/09/2017 at 01:35:38 Agree David Barks.I'm surprised that they don't seem to have thought about that. There needs to be a worldwide cut off date, so although I agree with the sentiment behind it, all English clubs have effectively done is handcuff themselves to the radiator for the second half of August every season letting foreign clubs approach our players whilst we can't buy anybody. Odd decision. Robin Cannon 24 Posted 09/09/2017 at 02:20:55 Foreign clubs approach our players all the time. This just means that clubs will be more set on not selling them in the last few weeks of the broader European window.And, if the key player tears an ACL in the first match, that's no different than this season if the key player tears an ACL in the fourth match. Simon Bates 25 Posted 09/09/2017 at 12:23:55 There is a pretty simple solution to this really .No half measures here, this really has to mean exactly what it says, the transfer window is shut.That means shut as in locked, bolted with an electric fence and land mines surrounding it.Both ways, no incomings, no outgoings, regardless of other countries' timescales.Our league, our rules – end of. 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