Why spending 0£ in a transfer market will hunt you down

I recently explained why getting too many players in a transfer window can’t work. Now, we’ll look at the complete opposite. Why a strategy of not spending a single £ on a transfer market will also hunt you down. Or at least prevent you from achieving some greater things. The case of Leicester City has encouraged me to clarify it in detail.

When managers go into the transfer market, they normally have some wishes. Players they want and think will suit their playing styles and their needs. Even if these players are maybe not on top of their game, they still believe they can make it work in the new environment.

Since managers normally speak about their wishes quite openly with their owners, these potential players soon become linked with new clubs in the public as well.

If managers smell potential troubles in questioning their picks they mostly pack them in the statements like: “We need quality, not quantity. We think this player possesses it.” The end. Only time gives the final verdict.

Yet, no matter how we look at the potential recruits, the ones that catch attention are players in form, players at the end of their contracts, and young players with (huge) potential. Sure, everybody wants a top player that is also a free agent.

But, the reality is that clubs have to spend in order to strengthen their teams in transfer markets. Nowadays, when players’ development is monitored in thorough detail more than ever. Realistically there are very few mistakes from the opposition, so getting top free agents are almost non-existent.

Which manager’s wishes clubs can later fulfill comes down to many different factors. Will of a player, available budget, club’s current performance, club’s rename, manager’s philosophy …

However, one thing is certain. In order to make a team better and boost competition within a team, new players have to arrive. If they are bought for a decent transfer fee that suits managers even more.

With that maneuver, they literally send the message of trying to reach the next step across other players. A message of ambition if you like. A message of being up-to-date and competing with others.

Otherwise, especially key players get the feeling that the club has lowered their expectations. Or perhaps there are money problems waiting right around the corner. Or that there are more general problems in the club.

Now, down to Leicester City. In the summer transfer market, they haven’t spent a dime until the first day of September when they bought Wout Faes from Reims for a fee of £15m.

Up to that point, they were comfortably sitting in the relegation zone with goals easily flying in the back of their net. Why they didn’t invest in the team still arouses curiosity in me.

Moreover, I am confident enough to say that they made that one signing just because they lost Wesley Fofana to Chelsea a few days earlier. No disrespect to Wesley Fofana, which is an exceptional player, he may have done more to the club’s situation than he could imagine.

Wout Faes settled well into the starting eleven, so there was a win-win situation. Not just because of his imminent impact but because of all the above-mentioned reasons which that signing triggered.

In addition, the scenario benefited the club heavily because we all saw Wesley Fofana leaving the club sooner. So, this is not a bitter story of getting a cheaper player instead. Or a story of making a mandatory profit.

It’s a story of how Leicester City had been on the verge of disaster (results supported that) but responded in the right way. Nobody will convince me that it was exceptionally well planned from the start. Yet, it was that last-minute response that counted.

Therefore, a transfer ticked all the above-mentioned boxes and may just get them above the relegation zone (at the moment of writing this article Leicester City sit 16th in the table).

Despite recent success, let me just go back to the beginning of the article for a bit. Spending 0£ in a transfer market will at least prevent you from achieving some greater things.

Leicester City may have gone out of a danger zone at the moment. But their lack of spending cost them heavily until it was almost too late. Let’s see, what they have learned and how they will act in January.