By Paul Conatzer
Twitter @Toffeepaul.com
I thought I had a nasty attack of hay fever or perhaps an allergy that would start after the end of the football season. No, it’s a reaction to the opening of the domestic transfer window and the silliness that flew out as general managers, directors of football, managers, journalists and all kinds of social media jerked open the transfer window.
For example, I’m sure I saw somewhere that a number of the Ajax players had been seen on Merseyside. Apparently, Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong had been at Goodison Park offering their services to Everton in an attempt to repair Scouse/Dutch relations after the less than stellar performance as Everton manager by Ronald Koeman.
Don’t worry, it’ll get sillier. UEFA will open the European window on June 9. That will give the UEFA bosses time to figure out a way to allot European players to English clubs based on who they elected to the European Parliament. So if you live in an area that elected pro-Brexit MEPs, you’ll be lucky if your team can sign some continental lower division reserves. Maybe some players from the third division in Malta.
I’m betting some people who voted for Brexit didn’t think it would affect footballers, especially very gifted ones, who play for their team and don’t need work permits because they come from an EU country.
That’s OK, we have a capable government handling the situation. I’ve lost count of how many times the Prime Minister has put forth her Brexit plan to have it rejected. That’s a bit silly isn’t it?
Perhaps it’s not as silly as having the final of the Europa League in Baku, which is the capital of Azerbaijan. So not only do Arsenal and Chelsea fans have to travel over 2,500 miles to support their teams. The Foreign Office asks them to check for updates on its website before they travel. All of a sudden, that shifts it from silly to scary. Add the fact that Arsenal’s Armenian international Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been omitted from Arsenal squad because of political tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia and it starts to sound like something from The Twilight Zone.
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