Football Poets

Transfer deadline day

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Deadline day
A comfortable
Cul de sac
Nowhere to
Go. Hard to
Know why
The futility
Of it all
Premier League
Funded by Arab
sheikhs
Pots of money
Bursting with
Affluence
And yet West
Ham for their
Part are still
Searching for
Another striker
Rather like lost
Soldiers in the desert
Desperate for water,
Food and sustenance
Pleading poverty
Though
When we who observe
From afar
Know that the
Owners pockets
Are much deeper
We were told
They were loaded
But we know
All about their plausible
Excuses,
Since heads are scratched
At this bidders market
Football’s ultimate auction
Hall,
Where players are swapped
Then exchanged
Like chess pieces
Kings, bishops
Taking pawns
Then castles
Moving in
For the winning
Roll of the dice
Player signed,
Sealed and delivered
But still the
Fans gasp in
Horror at this
Music hall
Comedy
This daft
Financial
Merry go round
Where capitalism
Loses its moral
Compass
The rumours,
The alleged
Speculation,
Players from
All over the world
Hopping onto planes
To British shores
Where only complexity
Exists since fifty million
Is never enough
Perhaps the said
Player was
Never really interested
In the first place
Hold on for another
Couple of hours
And we’ll e-mail
Our building society
For an essential loan
But then said club
Insist it was never
Their intention to
Sell
Oh how frustrating,
Infuriating
Please sign anybody
Simply to appease
The disgruntled masses
Who were hoping the
new Maradona or Cruyff
May have been waiting
In the wings for your club
But it’s all about complications
And add ons, vast sums of money
Washing around in the football
Machine
The mechanism
That keeps football
Alive at all times,
The players who live
Allegedly in
Soul-less mansions
Anyway, with servants
To pander to their every
Whim
But transfer deadline ticks
Away inexorably to 11
tonight
None of the pampered
Or privileged from Milan,
Barcelona, Bayern Munich
Marseille or Napoli
Are going anywhere
Since the global
Banks of transaction
Were firmly shut
For two years
And football
Was mothballed
Skint and destitute
So your club are
Not spending a single
Penny or Euro
Just when
You thought
You’d be signing
Football’s equivalent
Of the Harlem
Globetrotters
You were simply
Delusional, it’s
Just a far
Fetched dream.

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