Bad scheduling by UEFA?

[anchorman9]

I think a big part in the lack of transfers so far (not just at Everton) could be down to the latest round of Champions League and UEFA Cup qualifying rounds.

Players (and their agents) want to know whether or not they've got Champions League football or UEFA football before making their final decisions.

The fact that these outcomes won't be finalised until after Thursday night is a big concern for clubs at our level. This is yet another thing in favour of the bigger clubs in Europe. We may well have targets featuring this week, who we can't move on without these games finishing. SWP for example - we could go ahead of City in his eyes if they get knocked out of Europe.

Poor scheduling by UEFA of these fixtures means that the last 3 or 4 days of the transfer window will be crazy all over Europe - crazier than they should be.

 

[kenada_blue]

But in our case its down to --

A) Not having enough or are not willing to pay for a players.
B) Poor management, communication and negotiations by agents on both sides
C) Leaving it VERY late.

The players we were/are rumoured with could've been sorted weeks ago (Moutinho, M'Bia) or fell through due to other circumstances (Tiago, Love, Riera).

SWP will pick a club he feels he'll play for week in week out IMO. If he was interested in European footy i'm sure an offer by us or Villa would suite him better.

 

[anchorman9]

Oh I agree - there are millions of reasons why we've messed up this summer in terms of transfers - can't blame UEFA for our ineptitude in the market.

But I do think European football plays a huge part in a players decision, and the type of player we might be able to persuade to come to us, could well be in UEFA or Champions League action this week.

Teams like Athletico Madrid, Schalke, Spartak Moscow, Fenerbache, Galatasaray, Deportivo etc all involved this week, and if they find themselves out of Europe then we could have some more players on the market.

Watch this space, as Bill would say!