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Transfer Round-up 2011/12

An eye-watering £485m was spent this summer as the clubs of the English top flight replenished their squads for the 2011-12 season. Now that the window has closed, the rumour merchants will quieten down until Christmas; fantasy team managers on the other hand will be experiencing selection headaches. Sandeep Sharma kicks off with the winners and losers…

WINNERS:

Liverpool

Kenny Dalglish moved early in the summer to strengthen his midfield options. Charlie Adam, one of the star performers in the league last year, arrived from relegated Blackpool. Wingers Stewart Downing and the youthful Jordan Henderson will provide natural width while Craig Bellamy adds to their attacking threat. Uruguayan centre-back Sebastián Coates joins international team-mate Luis Suárez, Newcastle United’s Jose Enrique looks good value for that tricky left-back position and Goalkeeper Doni will be an experienced backup to Pepe Reina. Offsetting that roster (among others) is the departure of Joe Cole and Paul Konchesky; there also was a surprise late exit of Raul Meireles to Chelsea.

Total spent = £62,000,000

Manchester City

Winning the FA Cup last term is likely to be the springboard to more silverware this season, but it is hardly difficult to acquire talent with a blank cheque. The richest club in the world captured a quality striker in Sergio Agüero, and interestingly, Carlos Tévez went precisely nowhere. Samir Nasri, pinched from Arsenal, adds yet more skill to an impressive array of offensive talent which should mean plenty of goals in the blue half of Manchester. Supporting the rearguard are Gäel Clichy and Stefan Savić, the former also being pried from the Emirates. Owen Hargreaves was a bemusing signing on deadline day but it is unlikely we will be seeing much of him.

Total spent = £78,000,000

Manchester United

The champions elected to conduct their business ahead of time, the advantage being a settled squad that has already picked up the Charity Shield and thumped 8 past Arsenal. Hot prospect Phil Jones is a talented acquisition and will keep the first-choice pairing of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand on alert. Ashley Young has integrated quickly with 2 goals and 5 assists in 3 games and 20 year old goalkeeper David de Gea arrived from Athletico Madrid to inherit the number 1 jersey from the retired Edwin van der Sar. Perhaps the hole left by Paul Scholes’ retirement is the only glaring omission, Wesley Sneijder proving to cost a bit too much.

Total spent = £51,300,000

Queens Park Rangers

Before new owner Tony Fernandez arrived, QPR seemed doomed but after some savvy business the future could be bright. Shaun Wright-Phillips, rarely seen on the pitch at Eastlands, could add a touch of magic while both Joey Barton and Anton Ferdinand have plenty of top flight experience. If Adel Taarabt can show the form he did last term one feels they have the best chance of staying up of the three promoted clubs.

Total spent = £12,000,000

Stoke

Signing another tall target-man in Peter Crouch from Tottenham is maybe what is required for the team that possesses the long throw specialist Rory Delap. Also from White Hart Lane comes Jonathan Woodgate on a pay-as-you-play deal, a shrewd bit of business from Tony Pulis. Wilson Palacios, another experienced Premier League player, fits the Stoke City mould and, amidst the firesale at Birmingham City, the Potters also managed to secure Cameron Jerome.

Total spent = £22,000,000

Sunderland

Steve Bruce, using his Manchester United connections has brought in veterans John O’Shea and Wes Brown from Old Trafford to add a bit more steel to his defensive lineup while Arsenal loanee Nicklas Bendtner and Ipswich starlet Connor Wickham may tackle the club’s inability to regularly hit the back of the net. Bruce will be particularly chuffed at fighting off competition from the cream of English football for the highly rated youngster.

Total spent = £27,450,000

Tottenham

Although their outlay is comparatively small to the other clubs in the top six, the achievement was in retaining their playmaker, Luka Modric, for whom Chelsea reportedly offered £40m. As for additions, a loan deal for Manchester City’s Emmanuel Adebayor, gives a bit more potency to the strikeforce, while West Ham United will be aggrieved to lose Scott Parker, their player of the year for the last three seasons, to the North London team. As Heurelho Gomes is prone to calamitous goalkeeping errors, Brad Friedel was snapped up on a free, playing at the same age that van der Sar retired at last season (40).

Total spent = £6,000,000

LOSERS:

Arsenal

Keeping faith in his youthful methodical team-building approach, Arsène Wenger purchased the Ivory Coast forward Gervinho for £10.5m and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain of Southampton. The 2-year “will he, won’t he?” saga that shadowed Arsenal’s talismanic skipper, Cesc Fábregas, and consequently the team around him was concluded two days into the new season as he committed himself to his boyhood club of Barcelona. Unfortunately for Wenger, it appeared to trigger an exodus of Emmanuel Eboué then Nasri. Prompted by a 8-2 demolition at the hands of Manchester United,Wenger left it to the last 48 hours to draft in several players, chief among them Mikel Arteta, who will go some way to pleasing the fans. Captains for their respective countries, Park Chu-Young and Yossi Benayoun supplement their options going forward. Fans will be disappointed not to have a league-hardened centre-half with potential deals for Phil Jagielka, Gary Cahill and Christopher Samba all going south. However, André Santos and Per Mertesacker will attempt to plug holes in a leaky defence.

Total spent = £56,000,000

Aston Villa

The fans of both sides were unhappy when Alex McLeish decided to take on managerial responsibilities from local rivals and recently relegated Birmingham City. Losing two of their most effective players on either wing, Charles N’Zogbia is a decent replacement but still leaves the midfield short. Shay Given, relegated to Manchester City’s bench last season due to Joe Hart’s impeccable performances between the posts, is possibly one of the best deals of the summer.

Total spent = £17,000,000

Blackburn Rovers

Blackburn Rovers are another Premier League side to be blessed with the loose change of a wealthy owner, but although Steve Kean welcomed in 8 players and saw 12 leave, privately he will be frustrated that his expenditure is low and that several big name players that the Lancashire club was linked with failed to materialise. Unfortunately, in the tradition of the men holding the purse-strings, Kean may find himself out of the hotseat come the end of the season if instant success is not beckoning. Scott Dann was the stand-out signing here, an effective player at the back for Birmingham City last year.

Total spent = £11,500,000

Everton

One can’t help but feel sorry for the blue half of Merseyside; consistently finishing in the top 8, despite a squad that could be said to have an injury fetish and a lack of serious investment. Bill Kenwright, the chairman, declared a fortnight ago that their bank refused to lend any more money before saying “but at least we have been able to keep our best players”. Come deadline day Arteta, the team’s Spanish heartbeat, had moved to Arsenal for £10m, while two unknown quantities Royston Drenthe and Denis Stracqualursi signed season-long loan deals.

Total spent = £0

Newcastle United

First Andy Carroll went in the January window to Liverpool for an astonishing sum of money, then followed Enrique in this one. Barton, for all his passion, soon became a casualty prompted by his outspoken manner, and displeasure at goalscorer Kevin Nolan being sold to West Ham United. Although Demba Ba came the other way, along with Manchester United’s surplus-to-requirements Gabriel Obertan, the Geordie fan-base will be unsatisfied with the state of footballing affairs at St James’ Park. A deadline day signing of defender Davide Santon from Inter Milan provided little comfort.

Total spent = £12,000,000

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