Analysis: How and where to buy your players

As the transfer window has drawn to a close, it is obvious that the numbers involved make this part of football ripe for statistical analysis. There was close to a billion pounds spent by Premier League sides this summer, as they tried to recruit the best talent from around Europe and even further afield.

Yet the biggest stories of the summer were arguably the lack of transfers in two areas. Real Madrid failed to buy the player they had briefed that they were desperate for, for months on end using the propaganda tools of sympathetic newspapers. Arsenal failed to buy a single outfield player, despite being told by pundits, people with eyes, fans and all parts of the universe that they needed to improve their squad to have a hope of doing anything more than securing third. Arsene Wenger has elected to believe that he is a cleverer man the universe, and in that respect, you have to credit him for self-confidence.

Where goalkeepers are useful on the pitch

Wenger started the transfer window exceptionally well. It’s exceptional, well, because he managed to address an obvious flaw in his squad, quickly and without fuss, without spending a fortune, and swiftly improved the first XI not just in the position he bought, but those around it would be ameliorated too.

The presence of Petr Cech, after all, meant that Arsenal now had one of the best goalkeepers in the world, a goalkeeper who would not look out of place in sides that could win the Champions League or Premier League. A goalkeeper who had won everything in the game, and was almost faultless in his reliability. Once more, he had weakened a rival’s squad at the same time. Even better than that, his back four would also improve as they would no longer have to worry about Wojciech Szczesny’s propensity to throw the ball into his own net. Instead they could concentrate on their own roles, and play a more sophisticated style of football.

For that, Wenger should be congratulated. Having got that done, he then had two months to make sure he could focus on the rest of his squad’s shortcoming. A senior central defender, a defensive midfielder and a striker were all needed to elevate his squad to potential title winners, and perhaps just a striker and midfielder would have sufficed.

Instead, Wenger appears to have become confused about something, and believes that signing just one goalkeeper is all that would improve his side. As a result, we’ve done some analysis of a goalkeeper’s presence on the pitch, and sent it to Wenger for his consideration. Using the graphic below, Tactics Bored has highlighted that far from improving the central defence, midfield and attacking elements of his side, a goalkeeper can only operate in a limited area of the pitch throughout a match.

Analysis of when the transfer window is, and for how long it is open

Real Madrid also failed in the transfer window. They had talked with De Gea over the summer transfer window, and he was obviously confident of a deal being arranged. There were certainly stories in the last week that a final set of negotiations could occur. It seems that De Gea might even have a deal with Real Madrid in place that were a move to fail this year, he’d be compensated for it when he finally does move. Or if he does move, perhaps.

There must now be a slight element of doubt for any future move. While still overwhelmingly likely - his girlfriend remains in Madrid, after all - you would imagine that De Gea does not appreciate the hapless, perhaps cynical manner that Real took to the transfer, causing it to fail.

Real gave themselves little over a 12 hours to negotiate the transfer for De Gea, even though it included discussions to persuade Keylor Navas to make the switch to Old Trafford. It appears that Real then started making late alterations to the contract they had agreed with Manchester United, and the time it took to resolve such shenanigans meant that, ultimately, Real gave United too little time to finish their admin. It could even be that Real did not actually carry out their side of the paperwork. It might not even have been a question of mere tardiness.

Of course, there’s no great reason to believe Manchester United’s reasons over Real Madrid’s. They are two huge organisations, earning millions of pounds, who are both hampered by the endemic incompetence of those who run the business side of football, who only ever carry out masterstrokes by fluke rather than by design. However, it is Real who have failed to get their man, and as a result, Tactics Bored has created a handy graphical guide to periods in which they can bid for players next summer, so as to avoid any similar problems in future.