How a team does in a transfer window can ultimately be an indicator of how well they may fare during the course of the following season, and former super agent, Jon Smith, believes that the north London duo of Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal might just have stolen a march on their rivals.
The Gunners have got their major business done early, with the incredible captures of Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber.
New man at the Lane, Ange Postecoglou, has acquired James Maddison from Leicester City, Manor Solomon and Guglielmo Vicario well as tying down Pedro Porro and Dejan Kulusevski. At the moment too, Harry Kane remains a Spurs player.
‘Arsenal have had a wonderful transfer window… I’ve been particularly impressed with what Arsenal have done. They’re in a great position but the only negative – and it’s not really even a negative – but it’s the anticipation and expectation now,’ Smith wrote in his exclusive CaughtOffside column.
‘Everyone will be expecting Arsenal to win the league or the least challenge Man City for it.
‘If they don’t start well, if things don’t quite happen or integrating all those players quickly doesn’t come off, there might be a problem.
‘I said to you in a previous conversation that I thought Arsenal’s best year was probably going to be 24/25 and I still stand by that at the moment. I have been known to be wrong though.
‘Tottenham are quietly going about their business and have brought in a few, and they’re looking at Clement Lenglet at Barcelona.’
It isn’t just the London rivals that are busy in the market either.
‘Liverpool have got a bit of work to do, Man United have got a bit of work to do, Man City don’t have that much but they’ve got a bit,’ Smith continued.
‘Nobody’s really moving apart from one or two of the bigger transfers and then there’s going to be the normal bun-fight, but it needs one or two deals to move in early August.
‘In each summer window everyone goes off on holiday, they come back to pre-season training and review their playing staff and then the market starts moving again towards the end of July/beginning of August.
‘Everyone starts shuffling the pack a bit and then it starts picking up pace, and I don’t see this summer as any different.’
One thing that could significantly change the landscape this summer has nothing to do with Financial Fair Play either.
One could argue that agents are a stain on the modern game. A necessary evil if you will. However, whether stakeholders, supporters or otherwise would rather they didn’t play a part in the whole transfer process, agents are here to stay.
Or at least some of them are.
‘The only potential issue this year is that only 18% of the agents that took the English exam to become agents under the new FIFA regulations passed it, and if they don’t pass on their next chance to do so on September 20, they’re out of the game for a year,’ Smith added.
‘So there’ll be a lot of agents looking for deals to bank cheques in case they can’t work for a year or so. Expect a flurry of last minute transfers because of that.’
With a while still to go until the window slams shut for another few months, it appears the fun and games could still be ahead.