When Deadline Day Was Just March: Ceefax, ClubCall, and the Lost Art of Waiting

[JA News]

When Deadline Day Was Just March: Ceefax, ClubCall, and the Lost Art of Waiting

Before yellow tickers, Jim White’s tie, and breathless countdowns to midnight, transfer deadline day was a quieter, stranger beast. It wasn’t a twice-yearly

jackarmy.net

 

[Dr. Winston]

Enjoyed this read.

Was a better system for me. All transfer windows have done is push up prices and wages as desperate clubs have less time to make deals happen.

 

[Ronald Parp]

I’m not sure it was better back then. I remember well the Ceefax/Teletext thing but that was a product of its time and nothing to do with the transfer window.

My recollection is that only a handful of clubs made significant signings on deadline day - it was clubs like Man Utd in particular that seemed to just hoover up anyone in form in the last seconds, inflating prices and using as weapon to weaken their opponents more than actually improving the squad. The rest of us were just hoping that we weren’t going to lose a Torpey or Hodge to the likes of Northampton or Bristol City. We were more likely to land a dud from somewhere like Halesowen or Merthyr.

I’m not saying the system is better now but there is something of a leveller in it, even it just stops big clubs snaffling up all the prospects from the likes of us whenever they feel like it.

Best moment on Ceefax was seeing that Andy Cook who hardly ever played for us jumped up a division to join Pompey who were a decent first division club back then. Just remember thinking WTF?