6 things that could happen if IPL had a transfer window like European Football clubs

The 2017 summer transfer window came to an end in most of the European countries last night and the Spanish window is set to get over later tonight and in Portugal, after another three weeks.

Almost all the clubs did a fantastic job in the last two months (Arsenal and Barcelona be like, seriously?!). The biggest buy of the window was Brazilian forward Neymar, who was signed by PSG for a whopping €222 million. Apart from him, Kylian Mbappe to PSG, Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United, Alvaro Morata to Chelsea, Ousmane Dembele to Barcelona were some of the high-profile signings.

The excitement among the football fans during this two-month period is as much as the buzz cricket fans (at least a majority of the Indians) create during the Indian Premier league (IPL).

However, wouldn't it be great if the IPL had a transfer window like the Football clubs as well?

What all could happen? The Feeder clubs, the club that will buy success, the costliest player, free agents, transfer fee etc. Several unimaginable things in the cricketing circles will become a reality.

Let us take a look at six things that could happen if IPL had a transfer window like the Football clubs.

Note: IPL has a two-month long transfer window where teams can transfer players from some other franchises. But, the number of transfers (all low-profile ones) taking place throughout the IPL transfer window is probably less than the number of transfers that take place in the last one hour of the transfer deadline day in Football.

#6 Delhi Daredevils doing an Arsenal

Time to spread the message #WengerIn

The ones who follow both IPL and EPL/Champions League (this season, Europa league) will know that both Arsenal and Delhi Daredevils are the laughing stocks of their respective leagues. Reason? Not one, we have "four" reasons for it.

#1 Perennial under achievers of their respective leagues

My nephew has the same number of European Cups and IPL titles as Arsenal and Delhi Daredevils respectively. And while we are still waiting to welcome him/her to this world, both these teams have been just making the numbers in their respective tournaments for quite a few years now.

#2 Tactic? What is that?

Left back playing in the central defence in spite of having a CB on the bench, one of the best right backs in the league playing as a left wing back, playing a 'jack of all trades, master of none' player as the lone striker despite having a proven striker and a new signing (say goal machine). These were the so-called tactics employed by Arsene Wenger in Arsenal's recent game against Liverpool which they went on to lose 4-0.

Delhi Daredevils have the knack of doing the same thing as well, thanks to the team management. They have the habit of shuffling the team combination and batting order often, making their best batsman bat down the order, not using the resources properly etc.

Coming back to the theme....

Delhi Daredevils released someone like David Warner in the past

#3 Incomplete Home Work by the team management in the off season

If you are writing your tenth standard exam, you have more chance of signing for Arsenal, as their manager, Arsene Wenger has the knack of signing young kids to play for his team. In the past, Arsenal have sold all their big players (to end the club's debts) and have signed a bunch of inexperienced kids to take the club forward. This is something that has been in place still in spite of backfiring on many occasions.

Likewise, Delhi Daredevils sold all their big players and are running the franchise with a lot of upcoming talents. Delhi will also be a part of the bidding (just bidding) for almost all the big names in the auction, something that you can relate to the Arsenal boss *Remember, I almost signed him when he was 16*.

Both Arsenal and Daredevils don't do their job at during the player trade window (transfer window/auction). So, one can expect Delhi to do what Arsenal do, who knows, they might even better the North Londoners when it comes to taking decisions about buying or selling a player.

Oh, yeah, we said four reasons, right? What could be the fourth one?

#4 'What else, but Arsenal'

#5 Yusuf Pathan, the free agent

Kolkata Knight Riders signed Yusuf Pathan in 2011

What is a free agent? If a player's contract with his team ends and he doesn't sign an extension, he will become a free agent. It means the player is free of cost and team that wants to sign him need not pay any money to his previous club as a transfer fee.

In football, you will see a lot of free signings, that of free agents obviously, being made during a transfer window. Similarly, in cricket, you will get a lot of players who will be free agents after being released by their clubs.

One name that strikes my name immediately is Kolkata Knight Riders' Yusuf Pathan. If someone knows 'why he was picked by the franchise in 2011 and is still a part of the team without being released and still playing almost all the matches in spite of scoring runs occasionally?', then that person deserves a Nobel prize.

There are more chances of the Baroda Blaster (long long ago, so long ago....) being a free agent and there are even more chances of him being one throughout as other teams might not risk picking him in the transfer window.

Hi, Kolo Toure (was released last year and no one signed him. He, later became one of Ivory Coast's coaching staffs).

#4 Rajasthan Royals being the feeder club

Rajasthan Royals, IPL's own feeder club

Feeder club is one that sells all their players to the other clubs, basically, acts as an academy to the other clubs.

Anyone who follows football will know how good Southampton would have been had they managed to keep all their players instead of feeding them to their rival clubs. Gareth Bale, Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain, Theo Walcott, Sadio Mane, Dejan Lovren, Adam Lallana etc. have left Southampton and moved to other clubs in Britain. These examples are evident enough to term Southampton a feeder club in EPL.

When it comes to the IPL, Rajasthan Royals were doing the role of Southampton, ie. producing some young talents and then selling all of them. Now, the Royals have just made themselves available for the IPL after missing the last two seasons due to a suspension. However, in the past, they have had produced talents like Ravindra Jadeja, Yusuf Pathan (yes, seriously), Naman Ojha, Kevon Cooper, James Faulkner, Sanju Samson, Ajinkya Rahane etc.

Instead of sending them to the auction pool, the Royals might have sold the players had there been a transfer window like they have in Football.

#3 The costliest IPL player, Virat Kohli, maybe?

1 Neymar = 86 Virat Kohlis

The world went berserk when French Football giant$, Pari$ $aint-G€rmain signed Brazilian star Neymar from FC Barcelona for a whopping €222 million last month. It was the costliest buy in the history of the sport as the sum made the previous costliest buy, Manchester United's €90 million to land French midfielder Paul Pogba in 2016, look like a joke.

Who can be Neymar's equivalent in IPL? Who will be IPL's most expensive player? There will be few names that might fetch a big sum, but no one can be as costly as the poster boy of the Indian team, Virat Kohli (without a shadow of a doubt, he will fetch the highest amount if he enters the auction pool).

Had IPL had a transfer window, we can see all the teams fighting for Virat Kohli's signature. At the same time, the transfer won't cost more than 20 crore INR (€2.6 million approx.) as the costliest player in the history of IPL is Yuvraj Singh, who was acquired by Delhi Daredevils in 2016 for 16 crore INR (€2.1 million approx.).

Even if Kohli fetches €2.6 million, i.e. 20 crore INR, that will be €219.4 million less than Neymar's fee.

In simple words, 1 Neymar = 86 Virat Kohlis.

#2 Royal Challengers Bangalore buying all the players, still.....

When will RCB win an IPL? Or will they?

There are some feeder clubs in Football and at the same time, there are some clubs that just buy players irrespective of how expensive he is. The main motto behind this is to win everything.

Real Madrid, who are not doing it anymore, started it and they were followed by Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, PSG etc. Without a doubt, the same thing will happen in IPL if there is a transfer window and the franchise that buys all the good players will be Royal Challengers Bangalore.

They already are the strongest team on paper for the last few years as they had (still having few of these names) the likes of Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Mitchell Starc, Yuzi Chahal, KL Rahul, Yuvraj Singh, Shane Watson, Tymal Mills etc. Adding to this, the RCB think-tank like to splash their money on players they don't need and in spite of that, how many times their captain has lifted the IPL trophy?

TEN TIMES IN TEN SEASONS, yes, ten times in ten seasons. Sensational record, isn't it? But unfortunately, the only time their captain managed to touch the IPL trophy was during the opening ceremony before the start of the tournament.

There is no denial that RCB do the same thing as the above-mentioned clubs. But, the only difference is the Football clubs win something regularly whereas RCB choke regularly. Even if they spend more money and land the best players in the business, there are more chances of a team like Real Madrid getting the franchise ownership of a new team, buying players, forming a team and winning the IPL than RCB winning it.

Winning is temporary, Choking is permanent.

#1 The Zlatan Ibrahimovic of IPL

Zlatan Yuvrahimovic?

If you guess what this is all about, there is something called loyalty. There are few players who have played a single club throughout their career and then, there are players who have changed clubs every two seasons. Zlatan Ibrahimovic falls in the second category.

From Malmo to Ajax to Juventus to Inter Milan to Barcelona to AC Milan to Paris Saint-Germain to Manchester United, eight different clubs were lucky to have Zlatan play for them in his 18-year long glorious career.

Though there are players who have played for more clubs than the Swede, he is being considered because he is Zlatan (actually, no one cares about the rest). Similarly, in IPL, we have players playing for multiple teams over the last ten seasons.

The likes of Parthiv Patel, Thisara Perera (do you actually care about him?) and Aaron Finch have played for six different teams in the last 10 seasons. Coming to more prominent names, Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh has played for five different teams as the franchises like to play hot potato with the dashing southpaw.

Kings XI Punjab, Sahara Pune Warriors, RCB, Delhi Daredevils, Sunrisers Hyderabad and most likely a new team in the next IPL, Yuvraj Singh is no less than Zlatan (Shouldn't Yuvraj be blessed to be in the same sentence as Zlatan?) when it comes to changing teams.

If he has played for five different teams in ten seasons (basically nine seasons as he missed one season due to Cancer), just imagine how many teams he would have played for if there was a trade window in the IPL like the transfer windows for the Football clubs.

All hail ''The King' Zlatan'. But, why? Because he is Zlatan.