32 days, 22 hours, 17 minutes and 35 seconds. As I begin writing, that is how long until the first whistle of the new Barclays Premier League season blows, and in recent memory, a season has never loomed as been as potentially open as this upcoming one.
The summer transfer window is a time of intense speculation, hoping dreaming and fantasising among fans, managers, players and club owners alike.
We all want ‘that’ player to come to our club.
That international striker who can put a ball in the back of the net like he ties his shoes; that exquisite midfielder who could land a cross field pass on a coin in the grass or that rampaging defender who beats down any striker brave enough to cross his path.
That last player does exist actually, in the form of Real Madrid’s Portuguese hitman Pepe.
This window however, nearly all of those players have decided that greener pastures lie in Europe’s other top leagues.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Shaktar Donetsk’s former Armenian midfield maestro, was pursued by Liverpool in a saga lasting weeks, before he ended up at last seasons Champions League runner’s up, Borussia Dortmund.
Radamel Falcao, until recently Atletico Madrid’s ridiculously talented frontman, and linked to more than one English club, chose to move to French side Monaco, a team only just promoted out of Division 2, and as of yet with no guarantee of appearing in Ligue 1 this season because of a tax feud.
Apart from Manchester City’s acquisition of Fernandinho and Jesus Navas, Chelsea’s purchase of Andre Schurrle, and the arrival at Spurs of Brazilian midfielder Fernandinho, the PL is yet to have any substantial transfer activity among the big clubs.
Instead, it has been the smaller clubs making their mark. Norwich, only promoted for the 2011-12 season, have so far added five new recruits, including Dutch striker Ricky Van Wolfswinkel from Sporting CP in Portugal.
Last years bargain buyers, Swansea City, have this year made their impact on the market with a big signing in Dutch Everidisie top scorer in Wilfried Bony, and also acquired Jonjo Shelvey from Liverpool, who themselves have so far added four brand new players to the squad.
Fulham also have done well, especially with the addition of former Roma keeper Maarten Steklenburg to the team under the order of Martin Jol.
This lack of spending by the big clubs is also a god send for the English game and national team.
It will hopefully encourage more and more clubs to utilise young home grown youth academy players in their first and reserve teams rather than forcing young English footballers to move abroad to find first-team football.
The seemingly imbalanced activity in this transfer window makes me believe that this season could be very open. If not for the title, then for the top 10 at least.
In the next couple of seasons, who knows, we may very well see a team lifting the trophy that is not from Manchester or London.
32 days, 21 hours, 50 minutes and three seconds to go.
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