Clubs, players – The REAL Transfer deadline day Winners and Losers
As the dust settles on a quiet final day of the transfer window, let’s take a look at the main winners and losers of the final day’s action.
Winners
Birmingham City – A busy deadline day for Birmingham say them acquire Alexander Hleb, Jean Beausejour and Martin Jiranek, to go along with their earlier purchases of Nikola Zigic, Ben Foster and Matt Derbyshire. But what was most pleasing, is that the club failed to be held to ransom by the demands of want away Wigan winger Charles N’Zogbia, who has yet failed to match his supposed price tag of around the £9m mark with either his consistent ability on the pitch or his commitment to any given club. As a side they look stronger and with more options all over the park and although another season of mid-table mediocrity beckons, this should be seen as a season to consolidate and build towards next year, and in that respect Alex McLeish’s charges remain right on track.
West Ham – If you’d have said by January that by September 1st the club would still retain the services of Messrs Parker, Upson, Cole and Green, you’d have been laughed out of most rooms around most of east London, but yet they all still remain at Upton Park despite the innumerable odds. West Ham look to be heading for a relegation battle this term by what we’ve seen so far, but retaining the aforementioned players above could well yet to prove more important than any transfer dealing that they have concluded this summer, especially in the case of Parker.
Manuel Almunia – Arsene Wenger remains a brilliant manager yet a stubborn old goat at the same time. Everyone knows that Arsenal need a new goalkeeper and that they are not likely to challenge for the title without one, that Almunia saves very little, inspires little confidence amongst his defence and is worth very little to anyone but Arsenal, yet he still remains as their number one man between the sticks. Mooted moves for the likes of Shay Given and more seriously Mark Schwarzer failed to materialise and so the Spaniard has been dealt the managerial equivalent of the dreaded vote of confidence. The fact no reinforcements were brought in is a massive bonus for Alumunia and he’s surely a winner in this situation.
Stoke City – Adding a little verve to their play could work wonders for the Potters. Gudjohnson, Pennant and Marc Wilson all arrived with only the unsettled duo of Liam Lawrence and Dave Kitson departing. As I alluded to in an earlier article, these signings have to be seen as a real statement of intent and it would appear that Pulis is no longer content with just making up the numbers and with the league in such flux this season, now is the right time to strike.
Football News 24/7
Surely man city have to be up there!
£100million+ spent and still lost to us in a match we dominated second half!
I mean their two subs cost as much as our starting line-up and look how far that got them….
Reply
Newcastle could be argued as being a loser on deadline day due to the none sale of Steven Taylor. If Taylor doesn’t sign a contract in the next couple of months he will be able to talk to other clubs in January and ultimately one of the best players to come from the academy in the past 5 years will leave for nothing!
Reply
Okay I am a Newcastle fan but I object to you saying N’Zogbia escaped his newcastle nightmare. He did at NUFC exactly what he is now doing at Wigan but with us he was off to Arsenal the whole time. He went to Wigan! Yes it showed he was a decent player but once again his attitude has gotten in the way and he thinks he is better than his station. In 6 months Stoke will offer him a lifeline from his nightmare situation at Birmingham…you watch
Reply
I like the idea of this article, but feel there could be a lot more made of it. I esp like the comments about N’Zogbia. Perhaps the rest of the league has some idea now of what NUFC and its fans had to put up with for so long. Interesting to note your comments on Given & Parker. Both NUFC old boys, whose careers are in a bit of a flap. Pity, they both deserve better. Unlike the Zogerspaniel, I’ld have those two back in a jiffy.
Reply