Marquee signings defined the 2023 January transfer window.
Chelsea paid a British record fee for Enzo Fernandez, then spent another €70million (£60.2m; $76.7m) on Mykhailo Mudryk. Liverpool and Newcastle United paid more than €40m for Cody Gakpo and Anthony Gordon respectively.
More was spent last January (€842million) than in the three previous winter windows combined (€718m). This reflected the financial hangover from the pandemic years. But instead of more big-fee signings in this current window, everyone needs to sign squad depth, for a few reasons:
- Increased speed and intensity of matches
- Greater amount of games (club and international) in a season
- A higher rate of injuries to players
- Head coaches having more extreme/specific philosophies
- The quality needed to win the Premier League has gone up
Maybe football can learn something from NCAA (American collegiate) cross-country, a team event where runners score points based on their finishing position (for example, the runner in 12th gets 12 points). The team with the lowest combined score wins, meaning the quality of your fifth runner matters as much as your best one.
In the women’s race at this season’s NCAA Championships in November, North Carolina State beat Northern Arizona University by one point (123 to…
