Why covering this chaotic post-relegation transfer window has been my most difficult challenge yet

For this month’s article I thought I would explore how hard this window was to report on and how it’s gone compared to others.

So I posed myself the following question: Has this transfer window been hard to report on?

The window shut at the start of September and I’ve had a few days to take stock. People keep asking whether this one felt different. It did.

Relegation Realities and the Transfer Domino Effect

Relegation changes the whole job. You’re no longer reporting on Premier League-level deals with the same level of official noise and media pack.

You’re dealing with a Championship club that just sold Mateus Fernandes to Tottenham for £85m, Crysencio Summerville to Al Hilal for a huge fee, and El Hadji Malick Diouf to Brentford.

Those sales created the domino effect I talked about throughout August: We needed bodies out and wages off the books before we could properly move for replacements.

We also needed to get rid of bad eggs that no one really wanted either at West Ham or at their clubs.

Late Pivots, Deadline Day Scrambles, and Ownership Uncertainty

Targets shifted late. Talks that looked promising one day (Melvin Bard) collapsed the next when he chose Leeds.

Deadline day became a scramble for loans and alternatives – Adama Boiro from Athletic Bilbao and Morato from Forest because their availability only came up at the end of the window.

Ownership uncertainty sat over the whole summer too. Sullivan’s situation, the Gold family stake, Kretinsky increasing his share to become the largest shareholder just after the window closed – it all created extra caution and extra questions from sources.

You can’t report what isn’t happening, and a lot of what fans wanted to hear simply wasn’t on the table in the way it used to be because as a Championship club it had to change.

Necessary Squad Rebuilding Under Nuno

The brief was clear enough: give Nuno a squad that can get promoted at the first attempt. That meant a mix of a Championship-record outlay on Arne Engels from Celtic, cheaper permanent deals like Manor Solomon and Edvin Austbø, freebies, and loans. Not glamorous. Necessary.

Cutting Through Internet Noise and Online Rumours

The noise was louder at the start. A few accounts and “ITKs” made the usual early-window mess – rumours that never existed, stories that appeared the moment I posted something exclusive.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: most of the window is spent knocking down rubbish rather than breaking news. That part never gets easier, but I’ve got better at laughing at the average troll.

The organised pile-ons at the beginning still grate. This was due to a very unstable individual but it created more tension.

Accuracy, Sourcing, and Final Squad Balance

Accuracy is the only thing that matters. If a source tells me something isn’t happening, I report that even when supporters don’t want to hear it.

Was it harder than a normal Premier League window? In some ways yes. Less money flying around for big names, more last-minute pivots, more reliance on loans, and a club still finding its feet after dropping.

In other ways no. The sources didn’t dry up. We still got the first word on the players who actually arrived and the ones who didn’t.

The work is the same: talk to people who know, wait until it’s solid, put it on Patreon first, then let the rest of the internet catch up.

I’m not going to pretend every signing is a masterstroke or that the squad is now perfectly balanced.

Depth is still a question. A couple of deals we wanted didn’t land. That’s football. However, I do believe the recruitment team did a good job and have given Nuno a squad capable of promotion.

The job now is the season itself – Championship football at the London Stadium, Nuno’s side trying to go straight back up. I’ll keep doing what I’ve always done.

Thanks for following through another window, over to you Nuno.

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