Southampton boss Mauricio Pellegrino won the transfer war to keep Virgil van Dijk but January window should be banished
SOUTHAMPTON manager Mauricio Pellegrino is delighted the transfer window will shut before the start of next season. Little wonder.
You can bet that the majority of the other 19 bosses in the Premier League will be delighted that for once, English football has seen sense.
Pellegrino, of course, has faced one hell of a battle with Virgil van Dijk who wanted to move to Liverpool but has not got his way. He remains on the South Coast and is back in training.
Asked about the Premier League’s decision just moments after it was announced, Saints boss Pellegrino said: “It’s a message from the owners, from the board, the chairman and the directors and it’s really good.
“It’s a message in this moment that we don’t need to sell players.
"We need to keep our best players to be more competitive.
“For me it is a good decision, not just for me but for everyone.
“It is not easy for the players, the directors even the agents.
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“Even for the clubs, to be focused 100 per cent in the competition after two games to be talking about movement and the possibility to leave the club.
“Everyone is anxious. You are scared of losing a player.”
The window will shut the Thursday before the start of next season although teams will be allowed to sell players to foreign clubs until August 31.
This will not be a problem, though, because once the season has started, managers will already have decided which players will be leaving the club to go overseas.
So foreign clubs will know they must make a move for a top target in England before the Premier League starts so that team can get a replacement.
This new rule was always going to happen as club chief executives, managers, players and most fans all wanted an end to this sheer madness in the final week of August.
Ideally, I would like to see Premier league clubs go even further and get rid of the January window.
If a Premier League team is short in January, they would then be forced to do something really drastic - and start picking young British players from their academy.
Virgil van Dijk is one of the best goal-scoring defenders in the Premier League. But he is not alone.
Take a look at the ten best back-four free-kick specialists in the Prem including stars from Chelsea and Liverpool.