Leicester City boss Steve Cooper will approve as major transfer change plotted

Leicester City boss Steve Cooper would broadly be in favour if the mooted change over the summer transfer window deadline came to fruition.

The Sunday Times report that Premier League clubs are ready to discuss a plan to close the summer window before the season begins. For next term, that would see August 15 as the final day of business.

It was a plan brought in a few years ago, but only lasted one summer, principally because the rest of Europe didn’t follow suit. It meant there were three or so weeks where Premier League clubs could lose players without being able to bring in replacements. However, it seems this time, everybody on the continent would be in line.

For City manager Cooper, there are pros and cons. But it seems he would prefer if transfers were wrapped up prior to the first game of the campaign.

Asked in the summer if he’d rather the window closed before the season started, Cooper said: “It depends which players you sign! Sometimes you think: ‘Oh, I could have done with another week there!’

With the current set-up, where teams play their first few games of the season before the transfer window shuts at the end of August, there is time to assess how the team is getting on in competitive matches. It means transfer plans can change as clubs do business they never intended to do.

Cooper added: “Sometimes there’s a reaction from the first two or three games, with maybe injuries or things you learn from the team that you feel you need to add to or change. That can happen. But in an ideal world, you’d like to be done and dusted and be happy before the start of the season, and maybe there is a call for that.”