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The Premier League will fall back in line with Europe next season as clubs look set to change the end of the transfer window back to the end of August.
In the past two summers the Premier League have closed their transfer window the day before the season has started but with other European leagues failing to follow suit that will change next year.
Manchester City and Manchester United had already wanted to change back to an end of August/beginning of September date and, according to the Times, Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal are now on board too.
The issue will be brought up at a league meeting on September 12th and it requires just a simple majority to change the date back in line with the rest of the continent.
Clubs voted to change the closing date of the transfer window two years ago, with the integrity of the league seen as one of the main reasons, but it has put teams in England at a disadvantage.
No other league in Europe has moved for an earlier end of the window allowing them to make bids for players without English clubs being able to replace their players.
United have seen Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez leave this summer with little or no time to replace their forwards whilst the Red Devils and Spurs have had potential moves for Paul Pogba and Christian Eriksen hanging over them for nearly a month.
Ed Woodward has spoken about being against the early closure at previous Premier League meetings and City have also been against it.
Liverpool were for it but Jurgen Klopp recently said, “I don’t care when it closes, but it must close at the same time [as Europe].”
Equally Spurs have been for the early closure at board level but Mauricio Pochettino described it as a ‘big mistake,’ and Arsenal’s agreement came from former manager Arsene Wenger.
Part of the reason for the change in the transfer window date originally came from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain playing for Arsenal against Liverpool, in a 4-0 loss, before moving to the Reds just days later and Wenger questioning the integrity of the league because of the move.
On Monday clubs around Europe were still able to do business with Mauro Icardi and Keylor Navas’ moves to PSG and Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s move to Roma amongst the headlines.
With a later transfer window this season we may have seen both Pogba and Eriksen leave England with their teams replacing them.
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