Dry January: Financial Unfair Play and the dullest transfer window in recent memory

This January transfer window was a notable one. Not because there were many major moves, or any records smashed. It was notable because it was bloody boring.

The biggest deal of the entire window was Wilfred Bony’s £28m move from Swansea to Manchester City, whilst the only big money #DeadlineDay purchase by British clubs was Juan Cuadrado’s £26.1m transfer from Fiorentina to Chelsea.

Juan Cuadrado adds to the growing list of players who look like they’ve been made to move with a gun held to their head.

This was a rather drawn-out transfer which had seemed all-but confirmed the previous Saturday (taking away much of its #DeadlineDay drama), but seemed to rumble on until relatively late on the Monday as it became apparent that Chelsea were waiting to confirm Andre Schurrle’s departure to Wolfsburg.

For a club that had a net spend of over £200m in the first two seasons alone of Abramovich’s ownership, this was a curiously cautious tactic.

The reason for Chelsea’s, and many other clubs, caution in the last few transfer windows has been the need to ‘balance the books’ in mind of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.

The regulations were brought in for the 2011/12 season in an attempt to close the gap and theoretically increase competition between Europe’s mega-rich clubs and those operating on far less of a budget, by limiting the losses clubs were allowed to run up. In practice, a club like Chelsea would be unable to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on new players, without facing sanctions that include heavy fines and squad limitations.

FFP was meant as an attempt to level the playing field that clubs were competing on, but the truth is it has actually made it harder for poorer clubs to catch up with the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea.

The latter such clubs have spent the last few years stockpiling players and resources, providing them with vast assets which can be sold off when deemed expendable to fund new purchases. Chelsea executed this almost to perfection in the summer of 2014, using the sales of David Luiz, Romelu Lukaku and (from the previous January) Juan Mata to fund the signings of Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas, Filipe Luis and Loic Remy for a net spend of only £11.1m.

£40m man David Luiz alongside PSG teammate Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Whilst this is all well and good for the top clubs with vast reserves of talent (/assets), it is not so easy for the not so well stocked clubs, who can only buy as they sell with numbers far inferior to those exchanged by the bigger clubs. This ensures that clubs are self-sufficient and do not repeat the financial mistakes made by clubs such as Portsmouth, but what about the ambitious clubs with a bit of financial backing who can afford to run up losses in an attempt to break into the big time?

Roman Abramovich’s huge outlay upon purchasing Chelsea in 2003 was possible because he could afford the huge losses he was raking up as Chelsea owner. Through this, he transformed an ambitious club into a global superpower.

Under FFP, such an ascendance is no longer possible. Whilst many fans of clubs further down the league table might initially think of this as a good thing, what is has actually done is establish a status quo in which smaller, ambitious clubs are unable to break into the top-of-the-table domain reserved for the already mega rich clubs.

Even with significant investment, clubs such as Crystal Palace (for example) would be unable to significantly bolster their squad, even if they were taken over by a multi-billionaire oligarch tomorrow, because they do not possess the expendable assets to fund significant new signings, without acquiring considerable losses.

There are other ways to achieve this, of course. Southampton are currently enjoying a place normally reserved for the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, due largely to a fantastic scouting network that allowed them to make a number of bargain deals last summer, but how long can it last? Can they continue to operate (a system that still relies on a fair degree of good fortune) season after season, transfer window after transfer window? It is too early to say.

Southampton summer signing Dusan Tadic was a relative bargain at £10.9m.

If they do, and they establish a sustainable model for growth that can be reproduced by clubs everywhere, then that is all for the better of football. And as the example of their close neighbours Portsmouth will testify, if FFP can prevent clubs going out of business, then it is surely for the best. It just needs tweaking a little.