There have been very few signings as opposed to last year largely due to the credit crunch. Apart from Manchester City’s high profile singings there have been some other significant transfers. A number of proposed moves fell apart and some others preferred to join Spanish or Italian clubs. Frank Ribery, Luca Toni, Marouanne Chamakh, Andrea Pirlo, Gennaro Gattusso, Ben Arfa are some of the big names that were linked to various clubs in England but couldn’t make it.
Chelsea brought in the highly rated Russian playmaker Yuri Zhirkhov from Zenit St.Petersburg and Manchester City discard Daniel Sturridge for 8 million pounds, an amount that seems way too high for a player who only made a handful of appearances for City last year. Spurs boss Harry Redknapp was reunited with Peter Crouch and Niko Krankcar who were both signed from Portsmouth. Harry also signed the talented French defender Sebastien Bassong from Newcastle United. Everton have had a woeful start to their campaign in the absence of their Spanish talisman Mikel Arteta and the late departure of their central defender Jolean Lescott to Manchester City. Yakubu is still recovering from his nagging injury and the other two strikers Jo and Saha have both struggled upfront. In a bid to add strength and stability to his squad David Moyes signed defender Johnny Heitinga and midfielder Diniyar Bilyaletdinov from Atletico Madrid and Lokomotiv Moscow respectively.
Last year’s ‘success story’ Fulham were not so lucky in the transfer window. A number of big names were linked with the London based club but Roy Hodgson failed to bring them to Craven Cottage. The Cottagers, though did manage to sign ex Chelsea star Damien Duff from Newcastle United and Robert Greening on a year long loan deal from Wes Brom. Swedish forward David Elm was signed in a last minute frenzy from Kalmar FF to add strength to the depleted attack.
Aston Villa’s manager Martin O’Neill is still sticking to his theory of having a small squad and therefore he has only brought players as replacements for the ones he lost. He has gone about strengthening the club’s leaky defense by bringing the experienced trio of Richard Dunn, Steve Warnock and James Collins from Manchester City, Blackburn Rovers and West Ham respectively. The other two notable Aston Villa signings are defender Habib Beye from Newcastle United and the highly rated English prodigy Fabian Delph from Leeds United.
Niall’s Quinn’s Sunderland had been busy in the transfer market. The new look Mackems are now headed by the very talented Steve Bruce who has completely revamped the premiership strugglers by signing a string of talented and experienced players. Steve’s first major signing was the Albanian international and ex Marseille captain Lorik Cana followed by the highly gifted duo of Darren Bent and Frazier Campbell from Spurs and last season’s Hull’s player of the year Michael Turner, who turned down offers from big clubs to sign for the Black Cats.
Last year’s newcomers Stoke City and Hull City were also busy in trying to woo players, although a number of them rejected these two premiership minnows. Before the transfer deadline Stoke City’s manager Tony Pulis signed Turkish playmaker Tuncay Sanli and defender Robert Huth from Middlesbrough. These two could play a major role in Stoke’s bid for survival this season. Phil Brown’s Hull City signed Seye Olifinjana from Stoke, Jose Altidore from Villareal and Kamel Ghilas from Rayo Vallecano. In my opinion, Phil Brown made the ‘signing of the season’ when he brought the Dutch goal scoring machine Jan Venegoor of Hesselink from Celtic for free. Jan Venegoor comes with a big reputation of a proven goal scorer and together with Ghilas the pair is capable of tearing apart any defence. Phil Brown deserves a pat on his back for bringing such a talent to the K.C Stadium.