Transferspeak: The 22 stages of a transfer saga - The Athletic 24/7/22
Adam Hurrey
Transfer sagas are dead. Well, the classic, perfectly-sized
sagas of the golden era, anyway. Bit of tapping-up, some balking at the asking
price, a cheeky transfer request being slapped in, an 11th-hour hijacking, done
deal, “as soon as I heard they were interested, there was no other place I
wanted to go”.
But something weird has happened. Transfers are now taking
ages. Or are they? It’s the transfer window’s Muller-Lyer illusion: maybe
transfers are just as long as they always were, but something is making them
seem more drawn-out.
The badges of honour for “getting your business done early”
or “quietly going about your business” continue to be handed out — a tacit
admission that, otherwise, what were once mildly captivating sagas have become
tantric admin orgies.
(This is not a whinge about transfer culture. Nobody is
above football transfers. They pull everyone in at some point, and that’s fine:
the prospect of an elite player in a different shirt, in a different team —
your team — is a guaranteed curiosity-piquer.)
There is only one credible explanation. Transfers haven’t
changed, but the way we consume them — the way we are fed them — has. Just as
Sky Sports News now count down to deadline day in milliseconds (not just on the
day itself, but all summer) the reporting of transfers has become more…
incremental.
As a result, there is now an industry-standard phrase for
every possible micro-stage of a transfer, from the earliest seed of talent
identification to the final bloom of a shirt held up for the cameras (by a
player already wearing that same shirt.)
At The Athletic, we’ve done the full A-Z of the transfer
window, we’ve covered managerspeak, and we’ve investigated the perennial crimes
of general Footballese. Now, for the first time, the labyrinthine sub-language
of transferspeak can be assembled into its definitive chronology.
The thing is, we know how transfers are supposed to end —
but how and where do they start?
On [Club X’s] radar
Surely the flimsiest transfer sentiment of all. Radars sound
official, important, scientific… but this is the most baseless of all the
transferspeak, and therefore belongs right at the very start. Essentially: This
player could conceivably sign for this team one day, and they could probably
find a use for him. Clubs whose radars have — on their behalf — detected a
possible new signing must, by law, be described as “potential suitors” because
it’s apparently still the early 19th century.
Linked with [Club X]
It’s one of the most tenuous footballing concepts of all but
don’t underestimate the importance of linking: it’s the ultimate lubricant for
the transfer machine. Nothing greases the wheels of the rumour mill better than
the option to abdicate all responsibility for associating a player with a
supposed buying club. Someone else suggested it? That’s a link!
No governing body exists to document or regulate the linking
of players to clubs so, after an indeterminate period of time, you can
essentially make up historical linkage, without consequences.
Eyeing a move for [Player Y]
A grey area. While literally, and heavily, implying that
Club X are watching Player Y, this doesn’t technically mean they’re scouting
them. “Eyeing a move for” is a more unofficial, non-committal form of…
Keeping tabs
Perhaps the first real gear-change in proceedings. Scouts
are deployed, reports are filed, data is crunched — the interest is real.
Once tabs have begun to be kept on a player, a club can
officially transition from being “suitors” to “admirers” (although experts in
Victorian-era courtship may find this counter-intuitive.)
Monitoring [Player Y’s] situation
Once a player is on a club’s radar, is getting eyed and has
tabs being kept on them, there is somehow one more observational stage to
complete: the “monitoring” of their “situation”. Such situations can include
(but are not limited to): being a “contract rebel”, being “wantaway”, the manager
not giving them enough game time, or their present club flirting with
liquidation.
Red alert
This is where the more sophisticated situation-monitoring
systems pay off. When a monitored situation deepens, interested clubs are
placed on “red alert”. It’s quite dramatic but, despite being 27 per cent into
this absurdly granular process, nothing has actually happened.
Mulling over a bid
When did “mulling” become the go-to verb for early-stage
transfer bid development? Who at a football club is qualified to mull? How long
does the mulling-over take? Nobody knows, but one thing’s for sure: no actual
paperwork is involved in mulling. Maybe this is what the real superstars of
football in the 2020s — that is, the serious-faced “sporting directors” — are
doing all day.
Preparing a bid
You want paperwork? Here’s your paperwork. A transfer bid is
not a straightforward thing, of course — there are add-ons, clauses,
instalments — but do we need to know that a bid (post-mulling, remember, but
pre-making) is being “prepared”? The jury’s out.
Opened talks
The cross-club dialogue begins with the would-be buyers
“opening talks” with (also known as “sounding out”) the potential selling side.
Time to submit that mulled-over, well-prepared but almost-certainly-derisory bid.
Leading the race
Like players who face a race against time to be fit, this
isn’t a race that is easy to follow. More than one club, oddly, can be said to
be “leading the race” to sign a given player — that might seem unhelpfully
confusing but don’t worry, because one buying club will eventually emerge in…
Pole position
This slightly misguided interpretation of how Formula 1
motor racing works is the standard signifier for a club becoming the most
serious bidder in a transfer saga-to-be. It’s your player to lose.
Advanced talks
A dangerous moment for any transfer story — any “snags” or
“stumbling blocks” can be encountered here — but, as long as the clubs aren’t
“miles apart” on the fee, it’s all systems go.
Heading for the exit door
The “exit door” is now such a firm part of football’s
fixtures and fittings, supposedly located at the selling club’s home stadium
rather than, more logically, their training ground. Thanks to the clever use of
the present participle of “heading” (just like eyeing, monitoring, mulling,
preparing and race-leading), there is no solid suggestion of how long it will
take, nor any real confidence they will reach, then pass through, the exit
door. It’s all very ongoing, and that’s all part of the cynical,
time-stretching magic of being truly “amid” a transfer saga.
Meanwhile, it’s at this point the genuinely big-name
transfers can begin to be known as “the worst-kept secret in football”.
[Club X] are optimistic
So far, so practical, so businesslike. Where’s the emotion?
In fact, two emotions are allowed for the would-be buying club’s officials when
a transfer nears completion: “optimistic” (optional: “quietly optimistic”) and
“hopeful”.
Agreement in principle
Does anybody know what this means? Does it matter? We’re
only 73 per cent through this approximated transfer saga but there’s some
carefully-phrased light at the end of the tunnel. Someone just needs to find
the right pen.
Personal terms
Personal terms are a “formality” and/or “not expected to be
an issue”. Suspicions grow that these might well have been ironed out way back
at the situation-monitoring phase…
Closing in on
With the all-important, principle-based agreement in the
bag, “closing in on” is a highly sophisticated, scientifically tantalising way
of saying “nothing else has happened yet”.
Edging closer
A genuinely ridiculous state of affairs, I’m sorry.
Jetting in
At this point, we realise the player themselves need to be
there, with or close to their would-be new employers, and so they must “jet
in”. This is, at least, a tangible, physical representation of “edging closer”,
especially for those with a gold-level subscription to Flightradar24.
Set to sign
If the illusory, patience-tweaking circus of transferspeak
could be condensed into two tiny words, those words would be “set to” — the
most versatile phrase in football. Being “set to” do something covers pretty
much everything from even thinking about doing something, to being in the
process of doing it, to actually, physically, imminently being about to perform
the official, legal act of finishing it.
Total agreement
Is this it? Are we done? Not sure. Best ask David Ornstein.
Done deal
Simple. Well done, everyone.
