Transfer Deadline Day Musings.
Transfer Deadline Day (TDD as Sky Sports News should surely call it, something of such import in their heritage
merits an acronym) passed off with a bit of a whimper today. There were no monster deals, no Robinho, no
Berbatov. There were though still a few nuggets out there to pique one's interest.
The starting point is surely Portsmouth, that haven for irritating bell tolling and potentially deluded Arabic owners.
The sale of Niko Kranjcar means that David James is the only marquee name left at Portsmouth; and James
would have left if Daniel Levy hadn't vetoed his purchase on age grounds. Their team is really now a pitiful shadow
of what it was at their FA Cup victory last year. They have managed to assemble at least little glimpses and bits of 'a team', but that's about as far as it goes. James is a solid keeper, Ben Haim is a reasonable centre back,
Brown and O'Hara will battle in midfield, but that really is as far as it goes.
The loss of Kranjcar, their last decent attacking player, may well constitute the final nail in their relegation coffin.
This could be the last we see of Portsmouth for some time at the top tier.
Vanden Borre looked shockingly out of his depth against Manchester City on Sunday; the likes of Vanden Borre, Boateng, Finnan, Mokoena will surely not be good enough to lift Portsmouth off the base of the table.
Spurs were, naturally, one of the other big(-ish) movers on TDD, intertwined with the aformenentioned Portsmouth. The signing of Kranjcar is yet another attacking midfield option for Spurs, ever more overstocked in attacking
departments, but still shallow in defensive midfield and defence (some things will never change at the Lane). The
loaning of O'Hara and Boateng to Portsmouth, went through today, but were part of the deal that brought Crouch
to Spurs. O'Hara must feel a little neglected and unwanted by Redknapp, he looks a good little player who could
do well in the Premier League.
In the closing days of the window, Everton splashed some of their Joleon Lescott cash. Diniyar Bilyaletdinov looks an extremely skilful attacking midfielder, Distin will be a much-needed solid centre back option (presumably,
Jagielka and Distin will be first choice) and Heitinga will be futher experienced personnel for the defence. A handy
trio of players in exchange for the Lescott cash. A shame that the Ever Banega deal never went through, would
have been interesting to see how he got on the Premier League (but that deal could be resurrected in January, if
Banega does actually want to come).
One curiosity of the TDD was the story of Savio Nsereko. One could be forgiven for having never heard of Savio.
Remarkably, Savio is West Ham United's all-time club record signing. They bought him in January 2009 for £9m
from Brescia (who their General Manager, Ginaluca Nani, used to be the manager of). Savio's £9m signing was
very curious. He was bought when the club and its Icelandic owners realy truly looked on the brink of extremely
serious financial problems, with all kinds of potential punishments being levied at the club for the financial
insecurity.
The signing of Savio was hailed by the West Ham board as being indicative that they were still a serious and
significant football club with secure foundations and lofty ambitions. They made big play of the record transfer fee, and really felt this proved that they wre still a force to be reckoned with. However, there was a strong suspicion
throughout football that the £9m tag they had stuck to Savio was not genuine, and they had vastly exaggerrated
the fee so as to disguise ther crumbling financial position and show that they were still one of the big boys.
Nobody really believed them. The fact that Savio has now been bundled out of the door (after 10 appearances and 0 goals) in exchange for Manuel Da Costa, really does show that he was probably only bought for a million or two. Da Costa is also a player of zero pedigree. He was bought by Fiorentina 18 months ago, but they have only
played him once. They loaned him to Sampdoria for 6 months, who also only played him once. It really does not
look like they have got a marquee player in exchange for Savio. Da Costa is 23, but has only played 28 games of professional football, this does not mark him out as a top draw defender, but West Ham have given him the
number 5 shirt and hailed him as a significant addition, all very odd indeed.
Aston Villa also signed much needed centre backs: Richard Dunne from Manchester City (who one assumes will be first choice, and will possibly be given the captain's armband) and James Collins from West Ham (who for £5m will offer some overpriced cover).
Sunderland did a few bits of business; Steve Bruce is sometimes a wheeler-dealer to rival Harry Redknapp.
Michael Turner was signed for a fee in the region of £12m, which could prove to be money well-spent, time will tell
whether Turner fulfills his great potential. Bruce also got rid of what he must perceive as some of the endless deadwood from the Roy Keane regime. Danny Collins went for £3m to Stoke (a lot of money for a not very good player). Bruce also sold Leadbitter and Edwards, who are good players, but must not be part of Bruce's plans, and have
hence washed up at Ipswich with Keane again. Sunderland have now shipped out 20 players this summer, such
was the largesse of Keane's regime. Hull signed the aforementioned Danny Collins, in addition to Ibrahima Sonko and Paul McShane. Phil Brown obviously plans for those mediocre defenders to shore up his defence, whilst the
Beyond that, there really was no transfer activity of note in the English Premier League - the transfer window shut with a whisper.
There had been theories that one or two of the big four or Manchester City would go out with a bang and slap down a huge wedge of cash for somebody like Ribery or Villa, but none of that ever came to pass. Many of the Premier League squads at the top of the table will be disctinictly unaltered from last season (with the exception of one or
two big name departures at certain clubs - Alonso, Ronaldo, etc).
Barcelona paid £22m for a Ukrainian centre back from Shakhtar Donetsk called Dmytro Chygrynskiy, who will
probably turn out to be very good. Eidur Gudjohnsen moved to Monaco, a more appropriate arena for his gradually dwindling talents. Kerlon (he of the seal dribble) was loaned from Inter Milan to Ajax, he has so far only made 4
appearances in Italian football, not a success as yet. Rangers signed the decidedly mediocre Jerome Rothen from PSG. Celtic signed Zheng Zhi (ex-Charlton), who may grab a few handy goals from midfield, whilst selling a
shedload of shirts. Evander Sno (ex-Celtic) joined Bristol City on loan, because they just love any player with a
Scottish connection (at least 8 of their players do, around a third of the squad). Darren O'Dea went on loan from
Celtic to Reading, a regressive move for a very good young player. Hameur Bouazza signed on a free for madcap
Ian Holloway at Blackpool, after his aborted move to Sivasspor in Turkey this summer.
And that was about it!
Roll on the football (after the rather yawnsome international break)!
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