Lennart Johansson and Sky Sports News have got a lot to answer for. The former Uefa chief executive was the man who pushed for the introduction of a transfer window in football 21 years ago, since then few have done as much to promote it as every gym’s favourite TV channel. Over time what was once an instrument of employment law has become a lurid, frenzied and utterly inescapable part of footballing culture. The transfer window does strange things to people.

So to Malaga, where supporters of a team which once reached a Champions League quarter-final under Manuel Pellegrini are mad as hell and not going to take it any more. Now in the Spanish third tier, Los Boquerones (The Anchovies) have failed to strengthen sufficiently in the eyes of their supporters this off season. Just the 10 or so arrivals, all on free transfers, but this is seemingly not enough for fans reared on an ultra-processed diet of Ultimate Team, Football Manager and loneliness.

The sky blue and white-shirted hordes flocked to Malaga airport and found an unsuspecting tourist, astonishingly not called Kevin and sunburned after a week of AM pints and fry-ups on Costa del Sol. He was surrounded and presented with a not-very-official looking shirt with the number 69 scrawled on the back. He looked, as you probably would expect, a mix of highly confused and fairly concerned.

#football #malaga #spain

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