The Athletic.

Hello, I'm Mark Chapman.

Welcome to the Business of Sport podcast on The Athletic, as ever.

Matt Slater with us will reflect on what was meant to be a quiet summer transfer window

because of COVID, but has ended up being the most interesting four years.

There's a lot to discuss here, but particularly the maths, Matt.

Yeah, I sometimes think that the amount of chit-chat and attention and hysteria around transfers,

I'm a bit grumpy about it, to be honest, is out of all proportion, really, with the wider game.

Certainly transferred deadline day, but I think I even have to admit that this was a significant and interesting transfer window.

Proper players moved.

The spend was was higher than expected. And I think the reasons it was interesting are because

of the stuff we talk about every week, that what happens on the pitch is really a result of how

well run these companies are and who buys

them and why they buy them and what they're trying to achieve and the and the trends in the game,

the commercial side, the broadcast side. And I think so much of what has happened over the last

few weeks just absolutely is our bread and butter on this pod. So I could

take or leave the transfer saga and people being, you know, I don't know, race to the airport

and spotted at all this sort of stuff. But you'll take a spreadsheet anytime, right?

Well, I'll take a spreadsheet and I'll take a sort of,

I'll take a sort of chin stroking moment about what it all means. So forget tracking private jets on

radar systems online and forget who's been seen in a restaurant in a South Manchester suburb.

For Matt in particular, it's all about spending and visas and post-Brexit.

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