Why Mauricio Pochettino is Wrong to Criticize Shorter Transfer Window

 Mauricio Pochettino has had a quiet summer on the transfer front. Photograph: Paul Childs/Action Images via Reuters
Mauricio Pochettino has had a quiet summer on the transfer front. Photograph: Paul Childs/Action Images via Reuters
TT
20

Why Mauricio Pochettino is Wrong to Criticize Shorter Transfer Window

 Mauricio Pochettino has had a quiet summer on the transfer front. Photograph: Paul Childs/Action Images via Reuters
Mauricio Pochettino has had a quiet summer on the transfer front. Photograph: Paul Childs/Action Images via Reuters

The habitually genial Mauricio Pochettino has shown another side to his character of late. From suggesting the Tottenham project would continue “with me or another”, to urging his boss, Daniel Levy, to put his hands in his pockets, the Argentinian has taken to being more forthright in public. The object of his most recent remarks was also the one that has left him most irate: this summer’s shortened transfer window.

“If you compare with Europe, you are at a complete disadvantage and it does not help the clubs in the Premier League,” he said during Tottenham’s tour of the United States last week. “We are all in the same situation in England. I don’t know if the rest of the teams are happy with that decision. It’s not right. It’s not going to help the Premier League clubs because we’re going to compete in Europe and in the Champions League but have 20 days less. It’s not going to help.”

While there is no doubting Pochettino is not happy, is he right to be? Part of his frustration is surely specific to his own job. He knew the transfer window would close early, this Thursday 9 August at 5pm to be precise, before he signed a new five-year contract as Tottenham manager in May. But he had also hoped his club would be able to do their business early, before the World Cup. This was probably a triumph of hope over experience given the fact Spurs are short of funds owing to a new stadium which they have yet to pay for, and the poker that Levy traditionally likes to play in any transfer negotiation.

Tottenham are likely to have to sell players before they can buy this summer and no outgoings mean no incomings neither. Given past behaviour it would be unwise to rule out some frantic action on deadline day, Jack Grealish having a medical in a traffic jam on the M40 kind of thing, and the truncated deadline would have had nothing to do with it. The incentives at work are largely the same as ever. Yes, any money received from the continent after 9 August could not be used for any deals this summer but that is just as much of an encouragement for buying clubs to strike a deal beforehand, on terms possibly more advantageous to them.

Similar arguments apply when considering if Pochettino’s point might pertain more broadly. Are Premier League clubs leaving themselves at a disadvantage by shutting the window three weeks before everyone else? Well, on the most basic terms they are, as their continental rivals have more time to trade but 17 out of last season’s 20 Premier League clubs voted for the change and must have felt the disadvantage is outweighed by gains elsewhere.

The most obvious of these benefits is the fact of having decided their squad at the point the season kicks off. There will be fewer inexplicable injuries to unsettled players, no more waiting until after September’s international break before bedding a signing into the team. This was the argument made by clubs just a year ago and if Pochettino has forgotten it again he may be blinded by this summer’s other special circumstance. Spurs, alongside other members of the big six (though not Leicester, as José Mourinho observed waspishly of Manchester United’s opening opponents), have only just welcomed back many of their top players from holiday. This is because these players had a successful World Cup. While this may feel like another interrupted opening, it is really only a consequence of success.

Advertisement

It is the big clubs whose foreign rivals could strengthen late and the big clubs whose players may not be ready for opening day. It is also only the big clubs whose players may be picked off by continental clubs in the weeks that remain of their window. The football food chain is such that the risk of poaching faced by smaller Premier League (never mind EFL) clubs comes only from the domestic market. It’s a stretch to say that even the bigger clubs face much threat from abroad.

Last season, according to the website Transfermarkt, Premier League clubs bought 150 players and sold 174. They did so at a combined loss of just under £755m. Only Serie A gets anywhere close to the Premier League in terms of spending but they make it back in sales almost entirely. When it comes to being able to strike big money deals the English top flight is way out on its own.

Big deals on the continent are often funded by Premier League largesse and when they are not, as might yet be the case with Thibaut Courtois, they are the exception. But even Real Madrid’s pursuit of Chelsea’s goalkeeper is not unusual. If Chelsea were rushed into signing Kepa Arrizabalaga for a world-record fee it is largely because Maurizio Sarri has just got his feet under the desk.

Having a whinge is a noble Premier League tradition and Pochettino will not be alone in doing so this year, in fact he will probably have another soon enough. Even if the top clubs in the world’s richest league were now at a disadvantage owing to their self-imposed deadline, it would not be easy to feel too sorry for them. But the truth is that, really, they are not.

The Guardian Sport



Swiatek Reaches her 1st Wimbledon Semifinal, Will Face Bencic Next

09 July 2025, United Kingdom, London: Polish tennis player Iga Swiatek celebrates victory over Russia's Liudmila Samsonova during their women's singles quarter-final match on day ten of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Photo: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire/dpa
09 July 2025, United Kingdom, London: Polish tennis player Iga Swiatek celebrates victory over Russia's Liudmila Samsonova during their women's singles quarter-final match on day ten of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Photo: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire/dpa
TT
20

Swiatek Reaches her 1st Wimbledon Semifinal, Will Face Bencic Next

09 July 2025, United Kingdom, London: Polish tennis player Iga Swiatek celebrates victory over Russia's Liudmila Samsonova during their women's singles quarter-final match on day ten of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Photo: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire/dpa
09 July 2025, United Kingdom, London: Polish tennis player Iga Swiatek celebrates victory over Russia's Liudmila Samsonova during their women's singles quarter-final match on day ten of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Photo: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire/dpa

Iga Swiatek reached the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over 19th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova that went from a stroll to a bit of a struggle in the late stages Wednesday.

"Even though I’m in the middle of the tournament, I already got goosebumps after this win," said Swiatek, who will face unseeded Belinda Bencic on Thursday for a spot in the final. “I’m super happy and super proud of myself.”

Bencic beat No. 7 Mirra Andreeva 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal since the 2019 U.S. Open. The other semifinal is No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka against No. 13 Amanda Anisimova; they advanced with wins Tuesday.

Swiatek is a five-time major champion, with four of those titles on the red clay of the French Open, and the other on the hard courts of the US Open. She's also twice been a semifinalist at the hard-court Australian Open.

The grass courts of the All England Club always had given her the most trouble as a pro, even though she did claim a junior championship there in 2018. In her five appearances in the Wimbledon women's bracket before this year, she had made it as far as the quarterfinals just once, exiting in that round in 2023.

But the 24-year-old from Poland is enjoying a career-best run on the slick surface, thanks in part to being more comfortable with the footing required.
“I, for sure, feel like I really worked hard to progress here on this surface,” The Associated Press quoted Swiatek as saying. “So this year, I feel like I can just work with it and work with myself. I’ll just keep doing that.”

Before the start of Wimbledon, Swiatek was the runner-up in Bad Homburg, Germany, her first final at a tournament played on grass — and her first final at any event in more than a year, a drought that resulted in her falling from the No. 1 ranking and being seeded No. 8 at the All England Club.

Her rough stretch included a one-month ban last season in a doping case after an investigation determined a failed out-of-competition drug test was caused by an unintentional contamination of non-prescription medication for issues with jet lag and sleeping. On the court, a semifinal loss to Sabalenka at Roland-Garros last month ended Swiatek's 26-match French Open winning streak.

Swiatek led by a set and 3-0 in the second against Samsonova, who was appearing in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Soon, though, it was 4-all, then 5-all. But Swiatek held for a 6-5 lead, then broke to end it, and a smile spread across her face.

“I’ll just recover today, try not to celebrate too much, but already focus on the next one,” Swiatek said. “Prepare in the evening, and I’ll be ready tomorrow.”

Bencic, who at 28 is a decade older than Andreeva, is competing in her second major tournament since returning to the tour after giving birth to a daughter, Bella, in April 2024.

“I’m very proud, actually. All my career, I didn’t say it a lot to myself, but after having Bella, I really say it to myself every day,” Bencic said. “We are just enjoying life on tour with Bella, traveling. It’s been beautiful to create these memories together. And obviously, to play great is so amazing, but for me, it’s a bonus. I’m generally just really happy to be able to play again.”