Transfer windows have been one of the many banes of my existence in recent years, and there are a few reasons why. With the lack of football this summer (with the exception of MLS, the Confederations Cup, U21 and U20 tournaments,  legends matches, and some friendlies), I’ve found myself with quite a bit of time to do a lot of thinking, and that generally does not end up being a good thing. With the World Cup in Russia next summer on both players’ and coaches’ minds, there is a lot of anticipation in the air. Here are a few things I expect in the world of football in the coming months:

1. Clickbait rumours: Some papers and websites have nothing better to do than fulfill their quotas, and so any whisper that is overheard from 30 yards away will turn into the summer’s transfer saga. Look at the Arda Turan to Arsenal story for starters, what about Costa to China? What about Zidane’s future? #WengerIn or #WengerOut? How about Florentino Perez’s latest interview?
2. Fake football agents: Ander Herrera was almost signed by David Moyes when three fake agents showed up to a hotel to try and sign the bloke when he was playing for Bilbao. I couldn’t believe my eyes when this story broke! Totally expecting it will happen again to spice things up a bit. With people’s imaginations held hostage by the stories that are told by the media, I wouldn’t put it past any talented con men to try and sign some footballers.
3. Ridiculous PR stunts: Its simply too early in the transfer window and people are not emotionally invested enough to part ways with their time and money over a big signing. This is why we expect all the shocking things to start happening towards the end of July and into August. Anybody remember Pogba’s “homecoming” with United last summer, and subsequent slightly bizarre video with Stormzy?
4. Agents talking big: Which is essentially their job, but hopefully people will smarten up and not listen to them because they’re specialists at creating demand and getting a better deal for themselves (and of course their clients/players). The Mino Raiola – Donnarumma dance has been especially distasteful.
5. Ethics & Financial Fair Play: In recent weeks we saw Liverpool publicly apologize for their transfer conduct over a Southampton player, which was shocking. However, with financials under severe scrutiny now along with the rest of FIFA, everybody is looking extra hard to make sure nobody gets ahead of the game. Could this be a potential barrier to transfer activity?
6. Broken Fax Machines: That’s right, which clubs still use a f**king fax machine to do their transfers with?

All in all, things will likely heat up in July when everybody is back from vacation and has had the time to think about their future. As for me, I’ll just try to stop thinking about the transfer window until something real happens.

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