By Freddie Nathan
We’re nearing the end of the January transfer window, and in typical fashion, as clubs from the Premiership down to the Conference attempt to bolster their league position, young rookies, journeymen pros, overseas stars and everyone else in between change hands for money, for free or on a temporary deal. The Premier League has had its fair share of intrigue so far, although to date only two big money signings have occurred, involving Manchester City, perhaps unsurprisingly; the Blues are still spending massively while their 19 rivals on the whole have struggled to shell out sizeable transfer fees.
Sheikh Mansour splashed out with £32 million for Edin Dzeko to add to the plethora of strikers already at Eastlands. Transfers of this expense never fail to raise eyebrows, but 66 goals in 111 league appearances for Wolfsburg, a strike rate better than one in two, is top-notch. Added to the fact that Carlos Tevez could vanish off the face of the earth at any time, perhaps a new talisman was in order. The depth of City’s squad is superb, to the extent that Shay Given, for some the best keeper in the division, is warming the bench. Indeed, that Roque Santa Cruz, a player signed for £17.5 million, has returned to previous club Blackburn after only 20 appearances shows that money is no object at all for City.
Although January has yet to come to a close, the most surprising transfer of the month has to be Darren Bent swapping upwardly mobile Sunderland for Aston Villa, relegation strugglers. How Gérard Houllier has managed to attract him to Villa is beyond me. Similarly unlikely is his bringing highly rated, Makelele-style defensive midfielder Jean Makoun in from Lyon, although in both cases Villa’s history and fan base cannot be argued with.
Bent’s fee could extend from £18 million, already very dear for a player who can go missing in games, to £24 million, over double the amount he arrived at Sunderland for from Spurs. He will score goals where Emile Heskey and John Carew, Stoke City’s brand new loan acquisition (and very shrewd one at that, up front with Kenwyne Jones), have struggled to do so, but asking him to effectively save Villa’s season singlehandedly may be one bridge too far. Speaking of the Black Cats, shouldn’t Sunderland go out and sign everyone’s favourite handballing South American, Luis Suarez, to partner Africa’s darling, Asamoah Gyan, up front? World War Three on Wearside might be a distinct possibility.
Steven Pienaar chose Tottenham over Chelsea, which a season or so ago would have seemed wholly improbable. Not, though, when one sees how far Spurs have come recently. Chelsea, by contrast, seem to be stagnating. Possessed of a new youth policy that’s not really paying dividends and an indifferent chairman, perhaps Spurs was the right move, for by far and away the most talented footballer to come out of South Africa. That, and the fact that even Roman Abramovich would not stump up to meet his extortionate wage demands.
Everton are a team that do need to strengthen, but with their chairman Bill Kenwright wanting out, and not willing to spend very much, David Moyes has a very thin squad, albeit with a smattering of quality youths such as Seamus Coleman. With the loss of Yakubu, and with Tim Cahill away at the Asia Cup, a striker is surely needed as soon as possible.
It’s very rare these days that premiership teams sign lower league talent. Yet Wolves, with the acquisition of Adam Hammill from Barnsley, have plucked one of the Championship’s brightest prospects and hope to catapult him into top flight action, as they have done with Matt Jarvis. Hammill, a former Liverpool youth teamer, has ripped up defences for the last couple of seasons and has already made his debut from the bench against Liverpool. The question is, will the Premier League prove too fast paced a league for him. Unfortunately, Hammill might well find himself back in the championship next season, Wolves being second favourites with the bookies for relegation this season.
The above are the main dealings of the Premiership transfer window so far this January. David Bentley has gone to Birmingham and David Wheater to Bolton (a shrewd move by a superb manager, Owen Coyle), but a mention has to be made to the ‘Manchester City of the Championship’, Leicester City. Since former City manager and serial womaniser Sven took over at the Walkers Stadium, he has used new owners King Power’s money very wisely indeed, signing a host of Premiership calibre players, namely Curtis Davies, Darius Vassell, Kyle Walker and, extraordinarily, the proverbial ‘Yak’, Yakubu. City’s form is still patchy, but given that they were pretty much bottom of the table until Eriksson took over, players like these cannot but help to aid their cause.