Transfer Tales: Who got it right on deadline day

For some reason, I am glad my team is not caught up in all the deadline day mystery. I used to enjoy it at a particular time, maybe a few seasons ago, most notably the Dimitar Berbatov signing season, but with this year’s crop already yielding good results and an early foray into the market being the idea for Sir Alex, the quiet on 31st August has been a good change for a United fan. For the rest, and especially for a Gunner fan, it was nail biting stuff. Off to the capital of England then, and Arsenal were in panic mode after finding themselves in the bottom zone of the table. Leaving their transfers late into the season with the procrastinated transfers of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri was a big mistake. If that money would have come in earlier than it did, maybe Arsene Wenger would have had more time to choose between options up front. Chu Young Park maybe a good player, but the Premier League is a completely different ball game. Andre Santos looks like strong but personally, there was absolutely no need to let Carlos Vela, Nicklas Bendtner, Armand Traore, Emanuel Eboue and Gael Clichy all go at the same time, leaving a void in experienced full backs and strikers. [caption id=“attachment_74367” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Arsenal’s manager Wenger finally made a move on the transfer market. Reuters”]  [/caption] Wenger continues in proving his eye for young players, with Alex Chamberlain and Jenkinson looking alright but the major addition to his squad could be the tall Per Mertesacker and maybe Gervinho if he can stay out of the referee’s book. Losing their skipper was always going to be a massive blow but Wenger made his moves on the last day and finally got his hands on Mikel Arteta, a player he has been chasing since a long time and the £10 million fee was enough to convince the Toffees, who have had little to do in this market. Yossi Benayoun can add one more top team in his CV as he too shall play for the Gunners on loan from Chelsea. Wenger, boy oh boy, you have done some top business given the situation… better late than never. There has been quite some movement in London with Chelsea of course being the big players. Romelu Lukaku looks to be a top class signing along with Juan Mata, both of whom showing some glimpses of class against Norwich City, but the swoop of the night was getting Raul Meireles from Liverpool on their roster. Luka Modric will still wear white, but may find himself paired with Player of the Year of 2011, Scott Parker. Spurs have looked jaded in their first few games, and Harry Redknapp will hope Emanuel Adebayor will be much more clinical in front of goal compared to Crouch and Pavlyuchenko. Offloading players was one of Harry’s priorities and David Bentley has been shipped off to West Ham, Jermaine Jenas to Aston Villa and duo Wilson Palacios and Peter Crouch will now ply their trade for Stoke City. Personally, I think Liverpool have done some quality business this year. Charlie Adam, Jose Enrique and Jordan Henderson ripped apart Bolton last, but the surprising news is that Craig Bellamy finds himself back in red after spending a year there in 2007. I still rate him as a top player, and much better than Maxi Rodriguez. On top of that, he may also get the number 10 jersey after Joe Cole left for Lille on loan. This policy of buying suitable players was something Rafa Benitez could never achieve, making a fool out of himself especially in the Robbie Keane and Bellamy transfers. The best part though will be getting rid of expensive fringe players in the form of Cristian Poulsen, Milan Jovanovic, Emiliano Insua and Sotirios Kyrgiakos. Liverpool fans, of course, hate Chelsea at the moment after snatching away Torres last year and now successfully getting another good performer of theirs, Meireles, late into the night. Meanwhile, Owen Hargreaves could basically star in another ‘Welcome to Manchester’ poster in the city centre of the usually overcast north-west city of England. The defensive midfielder joins Nigel de Jong, Yaya Toure and Gareth Barry in that area of the park for the citizens and the Champions League winner will have to fight for his place. It also looks as if Carlos Tevez’s imminent exit now looks impossible, at least till January. Looks like Roberto Mancini has allowed Roque Santa Cruz head off to Spain to Real Betis, ending his nightmare in sky blue and Shaun Wright Phillips making a move to Queens Park Rangers. QPR have made some cool transfers themselves, with wheeler dealer Neil Warnock at the helm. Fiery battler Joey Barton, winger SWP, left back Armand Traore and centre back Luke Young will surely go some way in securing Premier League status for them. Newcastle meanwhile have lost Ben Arfa to an ankle injury again, but have added Gabriel Obertan and highly rated full back Davide Santon from Inter Milan. They did, however, lose out to Fulham in the race to sign striker Bryan Ruiz from FC Twente, for around £10 million. Venky’s owned Blackburn Rovers dipped their beaks in the transfer pool by signing, who I shall call pretty good players in Yakubu from Everton and much wanted defender Scott Dann from Birmingham. Lancashire’s Bolton Wanderers added two youngsters in their team and Owen Coyle has done well to secure deals for David Ngog and Gael Kakuta from Liverpool and Chelsea respectively, the latter being a loan move, but the real news being that marquee centre back Gary Cahill remains at the club. No especially big money moves in the market last night, but a lot of deals folded within the English Premier League itself. Raul Meireles, Mikel Arteta and Craig Bellamy being the surprise deals and clubs like Everton and Tottenham cutting down on their wage bills. I consider this deadline day as one of the smart ones in quite some time.