Football Poets

Transfer deadline day

¶ 1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Transfer deadline day
Windows open then shut
Once Harry Redknapp was
Always a model of punctuality
Winding down his window
On a million souls
Car parked conveniently
In case Neymar
Turned up out of the blue
Adorning the mantlepiece
At Spurs
Sign on the dotted line
Harry may well have exclaimed
But today we can hardly
Contain the fevers of our
Excitement
A burning furnace seething
With rumour, speculation
Exaggeration, then highly
Unlikely scenarios
To sign or not to sign
Let the Bard be the arbiter
Breathless on the verge
Of completion then fruition
Or fallen through
But then hold on
Late night persuasion
With agents and representatives
Has ebbed away rather like
The fans shuddering disappointment
Like the sweets that were snatched
Away from us when we were five
Everywhere we hold our breath
Today is the day
When the Premier League
Closed in on signings
For the last time until
That loose window slams
In our face
Until the season
Of summer fetes
And village marrow
Competitions
Play at leisure
When football puts
Up its collective feet
And contemplates aquamarine
Holiday seas and coasts
That glitter like jewellery
Now though is the time for rushed
Transfers, marquee signings
More advanced talks
A delectable dish of discourse
Hurry up West Ham
Brazilian blends of Yuri Alberto,
Pedro and Hugo Ekitike
Of the French resistance
Goes on the attack
Perhaps in claret and blue
By end of day
Negotiations humming in low
Murmurs
Will he, won’t he?
Suspicion is wreathed
In questions but not
Answers yet
Wait until 11pm tonight
Everywhere players are
Poised for planes
For mad dashes down
Motorways thick
With the world’s greatest
Ball players, artists
And artisans, show boaters
Time for vital decisions
Millions clinging onto their lapels
The addictive smell of money
Vast vaults of fees, add on fees
Materialism gone mad
60,70,80, 100, 200 million pounds
And that’s for just for their first game
Football sinking rapidly into a quagmire
Of its own making
Hard not to be cynical
But we revel on transfer deadline day
Because that’s like our childhood
A bit of fun, stop that silliness .
That gushing fountain of absurdity
Washing over us like some April shower
But this is the first day of September
Let the transactions begin
Pull over on the hard shoulder
Potentially world class signings
A reviving coffee
And a croissant for two
Players in and out
During the Hokey Cokey season
Putting their right leg in
Their left foot out
Football at its most frantic
Urgency creasing the wrinkles
On the faces
Of the Premier League bosses
Who wake up to the pressures
That weigh down so heavily
On their everyday livelihood
Get the striker and winger now
Pronto. Make sure the calculator
Is working effectively
For football’s financial
Farcical farrago
Just madness
A penny for the thoughts
Of the Johnny Haynes
Family, that game changing
100 quid a week
When London swung backwards
And forwards
During the sensational Sixties
The moment when football changed
For good but not now
Seedy corruption on its doorstep
Transfer deadline day
A strange phenomena
Where millions and trillions
Of pounds and Euros
Send blood pressures into outer space
Surely unnecessary
Let the fans be the best judge
Of the merits and demerits
European club competitions
Loom, squads must be swelled
Back up reinforcements
For all positions
Transfer deadline day
Still sits uneasily
On our moral compass
But Harry knew best
His car was always
Well informed
On the future,
Today and tomorrow
Open that window
Maybe, maybe not

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