| Newtown want transfer windows scrapped |
| Wednesday 03 February 2010 |
 NEWTOWN chairman Mike Jones has called for the scrapping of transfer windows for the Welsh Premier League and labelled them a restriction on trade. "The January transfer window is an anomoly that should be done away with," Jones (pictured) told the Robins' website. "It is an appalling restriction of trade and I can think of no other industry that suffers such regulation. "Can you imagine an office or factory manager who loses an employee to a rival company in August being told they cannot recruit a replacement until January. "And by the way - if you don't get a suitable applicant within four weeks then 'tough', you'll now have to wait until next May". "You could'nt make it up, could you? "In the meantime, every team outside of our own league is free to pick off players at any time and there is not a thing we can do about it." Jones says the end of January brought an end to "four weeks of frantic activity, excitement, frustration, disappointment and every emotion you can think of." Newtown boss Darren Ryan was frustrated in the transfer market, missing-out on targets John Leah from Rhyl and Lee Hartshorn from Merthyr, who fell foul of the 'three clubs' rule. "Darren is delighted with the signings he has made but suffered major disappointments in the last few days when losing Richie Harris for the season just two minutes into his debut," added Jones. "This blow was quickly followed by the news that the agreed transfer of an influential midfielder had been blocked by his club at the eleventh hour. "Just when we thought it could'nt get any worse, the transfer of a new defender was ruled out by the FAW as the player was discovered to have played for two clubs already this season." |