Summer is a bad time for English football fans. If it's an even-numbered year, we've grown accustomed to the England side crashing out of major international tournaments in embarrassing circumstances. Odd-numbered years are even worse: there's no football at all. Over the past couple of decades, however, things have changed significantly in those dreaded odd-numbered summers.
Once upon a time, there was genuinely an "off-season" with no televised football and minimal coverage in newspapers or television. Nowadays, football is permanent. There has been summer-long coverage of various international tournaments from across the globe, while social media is packed with as much football content as ever, mainly involving transfers. Indeed, one major football website recently reported its highest-ever day of traffic. When the football season ends, the transfer season begins.
It would be inaccurate to say that transfer speculation is a recent phenomenon, but over the past 15 years, the emphasis upon transfers has increased significantly. But it's also worth remembering that the transfer window in its current form is only 15 years old. Until 2002, Premier League clubs were allowed to purchase players throughout the season with the exception of the last few weeks when there was a spring transfer deadline day, which passed without much attention. There simply wasn't a need to get business done in the summer.
In 2002, however, the the Premier League was forced to abide by new UEFA rules about transfer windows. And in 2002-03, therefore, the concept of "having a good transfer window" was started by Birmingham in January.
After a disastrous first half-season in the Premier League, Steve Bruce signed four key players in January: Matthew Upson, Jamie Clapham, Stephen Clemence and, most importantly, the majestic Christophe Dugarry. Birmingham improved dramatically and defied the odds to avoid relegation. Their survival was widely traced back to their fine transfer campaign and suddenly, the transfer window was a thing in itself, a concept clubs could "win" and "lose."
The problem, though, is that teams are judged to "win" and "lose" in completely the wrong way. There's increasingly an implication that the primary objective is simply to sign as many players, preferably big names and for a sizeable fee, as possible. "Spend some money!" became a regular early-season chant at the Emirates a few seasons ago. A Liverpool fan recently told me "Really, we just need to sign someone."
Signing no-one is considered disastrous. One British newspaper recently awarded "marks" to all 20 Premier League sides for their summer transfer business. Everton were the only team awarded an "A+" based upon the fact that they've brought in five relatively good players. But it's unlikely that any of that quintet boasts the ability to help Everton improve upon last season's seventh-placed finish, while it ignores the fact the Toffees have parted company with Romelu Lukaku, by far their best performer last season.
At the opposite end of the scale, three clubs were awarded an "E." Crystal Palace have only just appointed Frank de Boer as coach, so their transfer business has necessarily been delayed, while West Ham have been more active in the past couple of days, securing the loan signing of England number one Joe Hart.
The only other side to have endured a disastrous campaign, apparently, is Tottenham Hotspur but the truth is entirely different: Tottenham have enjoyed the best transfer campaign of any Premier League club.
Realistically speaking, Tottenham are not one of Europe's elite in terms of stature, honours or wage bill and yet they have genuinely elite players. Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen, Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld would walk into any Premier League side and also catch the interest major European giants, while Victor Wanyama, Moussa Dembele and Hugo Lloris are also among the best in their positions. None of them have left the club so far.
A chairman or manager pointing to "not losing players" as reason to celebrate is considered something of an excuse or cop-out but it's the primary objective for every football club. Everyone has given up claiming they're "not a selling club" but really, every club in Europe, with the exception of Real Madrid and Barcelona, is now a selling club.
In recent years, Tottenham have previously been forced to cope with the loss of almost every genuine superstar they had: Dimitar Berbatov, Luka Modric, Gareth Bale to name just three. Keeping your star players is far better than signing a star player: there's no risk, no period of adaptation and no need for others to adjust their game to cope with a new arrival.
What's most striking is that Spurs' key players haven't even been linked with other clubs: there's no will-he-won't-he saga involving Alli or Kane. Desperately convincing a want-away player to leave can be disastrous too: the uncertainty hampers tactical preparations and harms team spirit, the player performs poorly because he doesn't want to be there, and the club eventually sell the player the following summer at a knock-down rate because his contract is closer to expiring.
It's not simply about avoiding sales, but about avoiding the possibility of sales.
In that respect, Tottenham have played a blinder. They have lost one player -- Kyle Walker -- but Spurs were compensated with a truly staggering amount of money, £50m. They'll surely be able to purchase a comparable replacement for that type of money while they currently boast an impressive understudy in Kieran Trippier (who recently signed a contract extension) anyway.
One of the most frequent cliches used to encourage clubs to sign new players is "if you stand still, you go backwards." That's unquestionably true, but improving isn't simply about signing new players. The most crucial improvement can equally come from individual players gaining more experience -- Tottenham have a number of players approaching their peak years, for example -- and from teams becoming better collectively due to more experience of playing together.
Tottenham are arguably the most tactically harmonious team in the Premier League. During Mauricio Pochettino's three years at the club, the points tally has gone from 64 to 70 to 86. There have been some crucial signings, certainly, but more than anything, Spurs' improvement has been about their collective understanding of Pochettino's tactics. The way they've become excellent at various concepts in turn -- pressing, defending, attacking, tactical versatility -- is about far more than a couple of new arrivals.
An increasingly common punishment for irregular practices, particularly with regard to youth players, is clubs being handed a transfer ban. It's tempting to wonder whether for many clubs, this is the best thing that could happen. While it would be considered a disaster by supporters, it would force the club into pursuing the practices that generally make for good teams: keeping a settled side, addressing tactical problems and steadily promoting or nurturing promising youth products.
In the case of Atletico Madrid, a classic selling club, it even meant that their star player, Antoine Griezmann, was convinced to stay because it would be a "low blow" to leave when his club wouldn't be able to find a replacement. It's worked out brilliantly. If Atletico have another fine season, Premier League clubs might start to wonder precisely why they're so intent on buying players simply for the sake of it.