Countdown to the start of the next transfer window:
The latest Premiership, Championship, European and International football transfer rumours. All the news and views that are fit to print plus some fairly spurious fun stuff
Jose Mourinho is evidently not content with the capture of Mesut Ozil alone, and would love nothing more than to knock Barcelona off their perch, thus completing a hat trick of title wins in each of Europe’s “top three” leagues.
To add Real Madrid to the honours achieved with Chelsea and Inter Milan would be a gold standard distinction for the self appointed “Special One”, and now the …
French striker Loïc Remy appears to be England’s most wanted with five premier league clubs all apparently vying (to differing degrees) for his signature. Should this state of affairs continue until we are within a week of deadline day, there is no doubt that the more attention seeking bookmakers will start a “Remy Special”. Remy played in the 2-1 defeat to Norway on Wednesday night and although he did not produce …
Following Everton’s sixth win out of six in pre-season, hopes are high on Merseyside that this form can continue into the Premier League season which kicks off in nine days time. Unfortunately, while the futures of midfielders Mikel Arteta and Steven Pienaar still hang in the balance, it is very unlikely that any further transfer activity will take place without a bit of wheeling and dealing.
Roy Hodgson has to be credited for resurrecting Fulham and turning them into a genuine top half side. In Europe and flying high in the Premier League, he has also made a number of excellent signings, Damien Duff being one of them. A £2.5 million signing from Newcastle United, Duff has shown this season he can terrorise defences just as he used to in his Blackburn and Chelsea days.
Joining Blackburn as a trainee in 1996 after playing for Leicester Celtic, St. Kevin’s Boys and Lourdes Celtic as a schoolboy in Republic of Ireland. He made his Blackburn debut at the age of 18 against Leicester City on the final day of the 1996-97 season.
After being relegated, Duff helped Blackburn achieve promotion back to the Premier League in 2000-01 and then win the League Cup the following season. In the 2002-03 season he finished top goal scorer for Rovers with 11 league goals.
A £17 million transfer to Chelsea followed and he started his Chelsea career well but was somewhat disrupted by injury. The arrival of Jose Mourinho threatened to put an end to Duff’s Chelsea career as he signed Arjen Robben, though Duff found solace on the right-wing and formed a great partnership with the Flying Dutchman as Chelsea went on to win two League titles and a League Cup. Injuries plagued Duff during the latter stages his career and was eventually transferred to Newcastle United for £5 million in 2006.
Duff’s Newcastle career can be summed up with one word; injured. He spent most of his time in the northeast on the treatment table. In the final match of the 2008–09 Season, against Aston Villa in a crucial relegation decider, Duff unluckily scored the deciding own goal that sent his side down. He voiced his intention to help Newcastle back into the Premier League but Hodgson and Fulham stepped in and brought the Irish winger back to London and back to the Premier League.
The transfer can only be described as a bargain; Duff has regained some of the form that led Chelsea to pay £17 million for his services an age ago. Reunited with his first boss Roy Hodgson, it seems he is happy playing once more and with 21 games so far this season for Fulham, it seems his injury problems are behind him. Hodgson has employed Duff mainly on the right-wing allowing him to cut inside more often and with a tremendous work rate he fits into the Fulham system extremely well.
At £2.5 million he could well prove to be the bargain of the season.
When Ryan Shawcross joined Stoke on a season long loan for the start of 2007/2008 season in the Championship, the defender was relatively unknown outside of the confines of Manchester United’s training ground. Fast forward, a couple of years and the player has been the subject of interest from former club Man Utd, Liverpool, Everton and Tottenham.
The Stoke defender certainly seems to be one who slipped through the net at Old Trafford and after impressing Tony Pulis so much during his first five months on loan at the Britannia stadium, the Stoke manager bid to buy the player permanently in the January transfer window in 2008. Shawcross had scored 2 goals in his first two games for the Potters and at 6ft 5, the then 20 year old was a tremendous threat at opposition set pieces as well as being commanding in his own penalty box.
The £1million transfer, a fee that rose to £2million after Stoke gained promotion during Shawcross’s first season at the club, has turned out to be a tremendous bargain. All in all, during his first campaign in the Championship, he scored seven goals, a fantastic return for a centre half, but it has been his defensive play which won him admirers during his first season in the top flight.
His leadership skills at the back and his ability to win aerial duels with strikers, commanding on crosses and comfortable with ball at feet, are all skills that belie his relatively young age and at 22, he only will develop into a more composed and assured centre back. Relative to his height, Shawcross is also tremendously quick which makes him a very promising candidate to become a top class international defender
After making his debut for the England Under 21s under Stuart Pearce, Shawcross is also no doubt on the radar of England boss Fabio Capello and he could be in line for a squad call-up in the not too distant future. Back in August, Pulis certainly thought the young defender had the potential to step up to international level:
“I have no doubt about it that one day Ryan will play for England. It isn’t just the fact that he is big, but he is also extremely fast and I think that is vital if you are to go on and play for your country at the highest level. We brought him here as a relatively unknown player, I don’t even think he had played that many games for Manchester United’s reserve team. The amount he has come on over the past few years is unbelievable really, but he knows he has to keep his head down, keep on working hard and keep on doing the things he is doing.”
Whether his future lies with Stoke is another question and although Stoke manager Tony Pulis has said he is determined to keep hold of the player, in recent days stating it would take ‘an absolute fortune’ for him to sell the player, Shawcross’s future may lie at one of the big four. The Daily Express have revealed that Shawcross’s price tag maybe as big as £20million, but in any case, any potential sale would dwarf the small £2million fee Stoke paid for him 2 years ago.
In a league where average central defenders are bought for over £20million, bargains are that much more important. At the time, Gary Cahill’s £5million move to Bolton 2 years ago seemed like a lot of money for a player who was far from established at the top level. With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that it was most definitely a shrewd piece of business by former Bolton manager, Gary Megson.
Cahill is now 24 and is one of the most highly-rated defenders in the league. He has been called up to a couple of England squads though is yet to earn his first cap, and is valued by his club at around £18million to ward of interest from the likes of Manchester United.
At Aston Villa, Cahill was very highly rated; a product of their youth setup, he was predicted to have a bright future in the game but at the time there were a number of players who played in his position and it was difficult to give him the games he needed to develop as a player. Birmingham showed strong interest in buying the player after he impressed during a loan spell at Sheffield United, but it was Bolton who won the race to sign him as they matched Villa’s asking price and offered Cahill an attractive contract.
With Bolton, he has developed his game and is an increasingly mature player. He has always had pace and power, but under the tutelage of Megson, he has grown into an intelligent player and is the lynchpin of the Bolton defence. He is accomplished with the ball at his feet but is also strong in the air, making him a very complete player. Though he is yet to be capped by England he is likely to be a key member of the squad for the European Championships in 2012.
At the time, it seemed as if Bolton had overspent on Cahill, but even if they do not keep hold of the player for too much longer, Bolton seem set to make a tidy profit on the defender and it must go down as an intelligent purchase by Megson.
As most of the European Leagues reach the midway point it is time to reflect in this New Year about transfer bargains. One that springs to mind is Lucio’s transfer from Bayern Munich to Inter Milan in the summer. Coming somewhat out of the blue, the Captain of Brazil was snapped up by Jose Mourinho for an undisclosed fee, believed to be in the region of £4.5 million.
You may consider a player who cost around £25m to sign from Atletico Madrid, may not really be considered a bargain price. However if you consider that this player is called Fernando Torres and that he is arguably the best striker in world football at the moment, then £25m for a player represents excellent value for money.
It is not just the money that makes Torres such an important signing for Liverpool. Prior to his arrival in the summer of 2007, Torres was a legend at his first club Atletico Madrid. Club captain and revered by the Vicente Calderon faithful, the club had rejected approaches from Chelsea and Newcastle United in the past in order to hang on to their prized asset. Torres scoring record for Atletico was good, in 243 games he scored 91 goals. However the feeling was that with better players around him, Torres would easily surpass that ratio.
The move to Liverpool gave him that chance and teamed him up with Steven Gerrard. His impact was immediate, 33 goals in his first season at Anfield was followed by 17 last season in an injury hit campaign. This year however, despite injuries once again punctuating his season, Torres has notched 12 goals in just 17 games. His record at Anfield is an incredible 62 goals in just 103 games.
To put that achievement in perspective, he is the quickest ever Liverpool player to reach 50 league goals for the club. Faster than Roger Hunt, Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalglish and even Ian Rush. That is illustrious company.
Perhaps what makes Torres special is that he scores all kinds of goals. Like Roger Hunt and Ian Rush, Torres displays the penalty box predator skills that made them household names, however like Dalglish he is capable of moments of sheer brilliance that can inspire a team, as witness by this stunning strike against Blackburn last season;
In addition to his goals, what makes Torres such a bargain at £25m is his attitude. Although he may have a quiet demeanour in contrast to say, Didier Drogba, Torres has a fierce will to win. His workrate is exceptional and no cause is lost for him. Furthermore as he did with Atletico Madrid, he has shown unstinting loyalty to the Liverpool cause, repeatedly rebutting fiercely any rumours linking him of a big money move to Chelsea or Manchester City.
Finally, what makes Torres such a bargain buy is quite simply, his net value. In the press recently it has become something of a fashion to speculate on Torres leaving Liverpool. Certainly if the Reds fail to make the Champions League at the end of this season there are going to be plenty of wealthy suitors more than ready and willing to pay the asking price to land the striker and therein lies the real reason why Torres is a bargain in monetary terms. He cost Liverpool £20- £25m to sign in 2007.
For any club to sign him in 2010, the bidding would have to start around the £60m mark. If Cristiano Ronaldo is worth £80m, then you can bet a bid of £40m for Torres would be roundly laughed out of Anfield.
Not that Liverpool would consider selling him of course. Some players are priceless and some clubs won’t sell their best players, regardless of the money offered or the price they paid.
£25m for Fernando Torres? I don’t think you’d find a club in the world that would not have snapped Atletico Madrid’s hand off at this price.
Bellamy following his goal at Old Trafford this season
Many managers are reluctant to splash the cash in January for a number of reasons. Inability to bed into a new team, ineligibility in competitions, outrageous prices, etc.
Some January transfers do not quite workout as expected. Manucho joined United in January 2008 following a good showing at the 2008 ACN, whilst Zoran Tosic’s move …
As the January transfer window opens, it seems appropriate to look back at last year’s transfer window and the bargain deal that Manchester City pulled off. It seems strange to talk about a bargain and Manchester City in the same sentence given their recent proclivity for overspending on average players, but amidst the massive fees they have spent in the last 18 months, City’s purchase of Shay Given must …
You may consider a player who cost around £25m to sign from Atletico Madrid, may not really be considered a bargain price. However if you consider that this player is called Fernando Torres and that he is arguably the best striker in world football at the moment, then £25m for a player represents excellent value for money.
As the January transfer window opens, it seems appropriate to look back at last year’s transfer window and the bargain deal that Manchester City pulled off. It seems strange to talk about a bargain and Manchester City in the same sentence given their 
Escapini, LOL! Point taken! Got a little carried away (removing bug from ze a**)! Craig, mate, no offense!
