"By the time the clock hit 7.30pm the main presenter on Monday's Sky Sports Window Slam Countdown looked not just frazzled, but oddly heroic, like a man who has ingested a potentially fatal overdose of late-breaking excitement and is now being encouraged to keep talking in a low, dogged voice about massive deals and unexpected snags just to keep himself awake until the paramedics arrive."
"We must recite the numbers now, because the Premier League's numbers are, as ever, boom time numbers. A record 3.1bn spent! A record 1.4bn trading loss! The Premier League's top five spent more, gross, on players than all the big five leagues combined. Reeling this off is like striding the floor of some wild early noughties boiler-room trading room. Ring the bell. Unleash the cocaine leopards. Cue the champagne-spraying montage, the rueful voice-over about FBI investigations."
The transfer window unfolded as a sustained, theatrical spectacle with broadcasters and pundits exhausted by relentless late-breaking deals and surprise snags. Coverage adopted a Situation Room intensity, with presenters rapidly naming targets and flashing player images while a countdown clock culminated in the blunt finality of WINDOW CLOSED. Spending figures reached unprecedented levels: 3.1bn in transfers and a 1.4bn trading loss, with the Premier League's top five clubs outspending the other big five leagues combined. The tone mixed exhilaration and excess, portraying the window as both a strategic exercise and an emotionally draining entertainment event before the season starts.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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