Friday, September 2, 2011

The top five summer transfer deals in England

Phil Jones (£16.5 million)
Blackburn to Manchester United
Sir Alex Ferguson’s swift capture
of the teenage defender had all
the hallmarks of a mistake.
United had not wanted to sign
the player this summer –
preferring to wait a year – but
found their hand forced by
interest from Arsenal and
Liverpool. Jones has already
proven he is more than capable
of handling the step up in class,
looks every inch a United player
and is likely to be handed his
England debut before the end of
the campaign.
Yohan Cabaye (£4.8 million) Lille
to Newcastle
A deal that barely caused a ripple
in the Tyne, let alone elsewhere,
but Alan Pardew’s purchase of
the French midfielder looks a
canny one. Economical in
possession and full of energy,
Cabaye was the lynchpin of the
Lille side that won the French title
last season and seems destined
to form an impressive central
midfield partnership with Cheikh
Tiote.
Joey Barton (free) Newcastle to
QPR
Speaking of irascible, volatile
genius, Joey Barton’s free
transfer to QPR was the perfect
way for Tony Fernandes to
announce his arrival and his
ambitions at the west London
club. The prospect of the former
Newcastle midfielder and
Wittgenstein enthusiast sharing
a dressing room with Neil
Warnock is an enticing one, but
Barton has the quality to ensure
QPR are a cut above the
relegation scrap this season.
Charlie Adam (£7 million)
Blackpool to Liverpool
Clearly not as glamorous as the
likes of Sergio Aguero or Juan
Mata, but while the Premier
League’s two best imports are
both great players, they are not
great buys. Their talent was
obvious and their prices are
around market value. Adam, on
the other hand, is a player who
has improved at Liverpool after
bearing all the hallmarks of a
one-season wonder, and is
thriving at a club rejuvenated by
a summer of total revolution.
Unfair deals of the summer
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (£12
million rising to £15 million)
Southampton to Arsenal
It is far too early to suggest that
Oxlade-Chamberlain is not of the
required quality; indeed, should
he fulfil his very obvious
potential, he is likely to blossom
into an England international.
This was a poor deal, instead, for
the amount committed by
Arsenal to a player they simply
did not require. Faced with the
prospect of a season without
Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri,
Arsenal needed proven quality, as
well as the defensive leadership
they have been lacking for so
long. Signing another youngster
was not addressing the problem.
Mikel Arteta (£10 million) Everton
to Arsenal
The Basque is not the player he
was – a worry, given that the
player was, essentially, a poor
man’s Fabregas – but £10 million
remains a good price for a
talented, experienced Premier
League midfielder. This is a bad
deal, though, for Everton. The
funds will head straight to
Barclays to pay off Goodison
Park’s debt, but not in sufficient
substance to make a huge
impact, and David Moyes’s side
must toil without their creative
hub.
Anton Ferdinand (£4.5 million)
Sunderland to QPR
No takeover of a Premier League
club by a foreign benefactor
would be complete without
signing Shaun Wright-Phillips –
the diminutive winger is
effectively an owner’s Bar
Mitzvah – but it is the capture of
Ferdinand which best illustrates
that Tony Fernandes is now
perfectly at one with the
hyperinflation and the ludicrous
overestimation of his new
surrounds. Ferdinand has
consistently been proven to be a
below-par Premier League
defender. Fattening hoops will
not change that.

No comments:

Post a Comment