Five Best/Worst Transfer Deadline Day Signings – January 2012

Chris Wright

1st, February 2012

13 Comments

By Chris Wright

‘Twas a bit of a slow one yesterday as anyone who spent 11-and-a-bit hours ‘glued’ to the live feed will tell you, with the total spending across the English leagues failing to surpass the £50 million that Chelsea spaffed on Fernando Torres this time last year – let alone the ludicrous £225 million that was spent in total in January of 2011.

There’s not an awful lot to go at vis-a-vis blockbuster moves, but we thought we’d give all of yesterday’s transfer comings and goings the once over – starting with the five best deals to go through in our eyes…

5. Curtis Obeng, Wrexham to Swansea, undisclosed: We’ve heard good things about 22-year old, Man City academy graduate full-back Obeng though, granted, we’ve never actually seen him play. Non-league to the top flight is an awfully large jump, but put it this way, we’ve ‘earmarked’ young Curtis. One to watch.

4. Sotoris Krygiakos, Wolfsburg to Sunderland, loan: A grizzled, hard-working centre-back that provides a very real threat from set-pieces, playing in a side with Seb Larsson on deadball duties? What’s not to like? Sure to become a fans’ favourite, just as he did at Liverpool.

3. Seb Bassong, Tottenham to Wolves, loan: While he isn’t the man to keep Wolves in the Premier League, Bassong is an adept centre-half desperate to prove his worth. You get the feeling that he could’ve joined a much better-placed side either here or abroad, so it stands to reason that Wolves have pulled off a bit of a coup here.

2. Nikica Jelavic, Rangers to Everton, £5.5 million: I still have my reservations over Jelavic in so far as was ‘free-scoring’…but in the SPL (that added caveat is a bitch) but signing a confident, in-form striker in January is just what Everton needed to do and seeing as though they’ve basically just reinvested the £5 million they recouped for Diniyar Bilyaletdinov – a disenfranchised bench-warmer at best – it’s not a bad little ‘swap’. Getting Steven Pienaar back on loan wasn’t bad business either!

1. Bobby Zamora/Djibril Cisse, Fulham/Lazio to QPR, £8 million: Mark Hughes has gone out and pinched himself a brand-new, Premier League-standard ‘big man, little man’ strike force that is almost certain to work. With Zamora holding and linking and Cisse legging it around like a scalded cock, I foresee goals – important goals. Poor old Heidar Helguson, eh?

And the five worst…

5. Louis Saha, Everton to Tottenham, loan: “If he can keep himself fit…yadda, yadda, yadda…”. History tells us repeatedly that he can’t.

4. Pavel Pogrebnyak, Stuttgart to Fulham, £3 million: Apparently the Russian striker has been told he’ll have to “bulk up like a beast” by Martin Jol if he’s going to get on in England. Bearing in mind Pog’s reported to have only joined Fulham on an initial six-month contract, how long will that take precisely?

3. Ravel Morrison, Manchester United to West Ham, £600,000: The English Taarabt, i.e, an imploding star waiting to happen at a club where he’ll be surrounded by leeches as soon as you like. In short, if he was going to straighten himself out anywhere, it would’ve been United. As someone (apologies, I don’t remember who it was) put it on Twitter yesterday: “Morrison? Walking around East London? With money in his pocket? What could possibly go wrong?”. A small-scale Apocalypse, that’s what could go wrong.

2. David Pizarro, Roma to Manchester City, loan: I could’ve got excited about Pizarro coming to the Premier League a few years ago. A wily, deep-lying playmaker with an eye for the magnificent – but he wasn’t getting in Luis Enrique’s Roma side for a reason: He’s almost completely immobile these days. We predict a couple of run-outs in the Europa League before he toddles back to Italy in the summer.

1. Wayne Bridge, Manchester City to Sunderland, loan: Pray tell, when is spending any money on former footballer Wayne Bridge ever a good idea?

* * * * *

Any other transfers catch you’re eye yesterday for one reason or another? Here’s the full deadline day list (blatantly copy-and-pasted from the BBC) for you to peruse to your heart’s content…

Nicky Ajose  [Peterborough – Chesterfield] Loan
Keith Andrews   [Blackburn – West Brom] Free
Kwesi Appiah  [Margate – Crystal Palace] Undisclosed
Patrick Bamford  [Nottingham Forest – Chelsea] £1.5 million
Sebastien Bassong  [Tottenham – Wolves] Loan
Ryan Bennett [Peterborough – Norwich] Undisclosed
Wayne Bridge  [Man City – Sunderland] Loan
Kevin de Bruyne  [Genk – Chelsea] £6.7 million
Clarke Carlisle  [Burnley – Northampton] Loan
Michael Chambers  [Dulwich Hamlet – Crystal Palace] Undisclosed
Djibril Cisse   [Lazio – QPR] £4 million
Jorge Claros [Motagua – Hibernian] Loan
Billy Clarke  [Blackpool – Crawley] Undisclosed
Matthew Connolly  [QPR – Reading] Loan
Vedran Corluka  [Tottenham – Bayer Leverkusen] Loan
Lee Cox  [Inverness – Swindon] Undisclosed
Graham Cummins  [Cork – Preston] Undisclosed
Stephen Dawson  [Leyton Orient – Barnsley] Undisclosed
Matt Doherty [Wolves – Hibernian] Loan
Robbie Gibbons  [Unattached – Scunthorpe]
Ben Harding  [Wycombe – Northampton] Free
Karl Hawley   [Notts County – Crawley] Loan
Martin Hansen [Liverpool – Viborg FF] Undisclosed
Danny Higginbotham   [Stoke City – Nottingham Forest] Loan
Kallum Higginbotham   [Falkirk – Huddersfield] Undisclosed
Will Hoskins  [Brighton – Sheffield United] Loan
Gonzalo Jara Reyes   [West Brom – Brighton] Loan
Nikica Jelavic  [Rangers – Everton] Undisclosed
Andy Keogh  [Wolves – Millwall] Undisclosed
Neal Kitson   [Rochester Rhinos – Northampton] Free
Pa Saikou Kujabi [unattached – Hibernian]
Sotirios Kyrgiakos  [Wolfsburg – Sunderland] Loan
Alex MacDonald  [Burnley – Plymouth] Loan
Ben Marshall  [Stoke – Leicester] Undisclosed
Joe Mattock   [West Brom – Brighton] Loan
Nicky Maynard   [Bristol City – West Ham] Undisclosed
Paul McCallum   [West Ham – Rochdale] Loan
Donal McDermott  [Huddersfield – Bournemouth] Undisclosed
Jordan McMillan [Rangers – Dunfermline] Undisclosed
Anthony McNamee  [MK Dons – Wycombe] Free
David Mirfin   [Watford – Scunthorpe] Loan
Ryo Miyaichi  [Arsenal – Bolton] Loan
Ravel Morrison  [Manchester United – West Ham] Undisclosed
Oliver Norwood  [Manchester United – Coventry] Loan
Curtis Obeng   [Wrexham – Swansea] Undisclosed
Luke O’Brien  [Bradford – Exeter] Undisclosed
Roy O’Donovan [Coventry City – Hibernian] Loan
Marcus Olsson  [Halmstads – Blackburn] Free
Bradley Orr  [QPR – Blackburn] Undisclosed
Jon Parkin  [Cardiff – Scunthorpe] Loan
Jim Paterson  [Unattached – Bristol Rovers]
Steven Pienaar [Tottenham – Everton] Loan
David Pizarro   [Roma – Manchester City] Loan
Pavel Pogrebnyak  [Stuttgart – Fulham] Undisclosed
John Potter [Dunfermline – Queen of the South] Loan
Scott Rendell  [Wycombe – Oxford] Loan
Liam Ridgewell  [Birmingham – West Brom] Undisclosed
Fabien Robert  [FC Lorient – Doncaster] Loan
Chris Robertson  [Torquay – Preston] Undisclosed
Louis Saha   [Everton – Tottenham] Free
Paul Slane  [Celtic – MK Dons] Loan
Louis Saha [Everton – Tottenham] Free
Adam Smith  [Tottenham – Leeds] Loan
Akpo Sodje [Hibernian – released]
Marvin Sordell [Watford – Bolton] Undisclosed
Michael Symes   [Bournemouth – Rochdale] Loan
James Tavernier  [Newcastle – MK Dons] Loan
Juvhel Tsoumou  [Preston – Plymouth] Loan
Daniel Uchechi [Dender – Aberdeen] Free
Ricardo Vaz Te  [Barnsley – West Ham] Undisclosed
Frederic Veseli  [Manchester City – Manchester United] Undisclosed
Murray Wallace  [Falkirk – Huddersfield] £300,000
Murray Wallace  [Huddersfield – Falkirk] Loan
Matty Whichelow  [Watford – Wycombe] Loan
Ryan Williams  [Portsmouth – Fulham] Undisclosed
Lewis Wilson   [Newport Pagnell Town – Northampton] Free
Mark Wilson  [Doncaster – Oxford] Free
Scott Wootton  [Manchester United – Nottingham Forest] Loan
Bobby Zamora  [Fulham – QPR] Undisclosed

Posted in Featured, Opinion, Top 10s & lists, Transfers & Rumours

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13 Comments

  1. Archbishop Betty Snagcock says:

    I have a feeling this window’s dealings could be moyes’ breaking at everton, if gibson doesn’t improve (despite the imbeccable “going nowhere but luckily deflected into top corner” wundergoal) and jelavic becomes another boyd people are gonna remember that he spent £9million on Bilyaletdinov and £15million on Fellaini.
    They’re also gonna remember that he let pienaar go for £1.5mil and saha (a striker that got nearly 1 in 3) for free and with that the job at spurs when harry goes is gone.

    an i think spurs have done well actually, gettin rid of pav for a fee an gettin some experience for free in saha and nelsen. if they get rid of defoe for the inflated price he’ll command (probably from liverpool) and buy a world class striker the “wheeler dealer” http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/tottenham_hotspur/40990/harry-redknapp-tells-sky-sports-to-fk-off-after-wheeler-dealer-jibe.html strikes again.

  2. Archbishop Betty Snagcock says:

    and with defoe i mean this summer

  3. syndex says:

    @Archbishop Betty Snagcock, Really you want to believe that getting the basically imobile and functionally useless Saha who was out of contract in summer for the midfielder hole we have had problems filling until the end of the season was bad business. Gibson has been strong, assured and creative whilst playing for us, Donovan has been nothing short of excellent and getting shut of danny dyers stand in for the having some competition up front for the first time in year was a stunning piece of business. If it was a the January transfer window was a competition we are joint winners with QPR (zamora and cisse nice work hughes)

  4. syndex says:

    jesus that was some bad sentence structure and grammer, my apologies

  5. Mizman says:

    Wayne Bridge was awful when he went to West Ham a while ago. his attitude is shocking and he isnt getting any younger either – cant see him doing much at all.

    Signing of the Window is Billy Sharp Doncaster to Southampton. Can see he him being a big hit at St. Marys. Looking forward to him and Rickie Lambert together!! COYR

  6. Harry says:

    Saha has had it, although he was good against Aston Villa. Gibson and Fellaini were very good against Aston Villa too. controlled and cleaned everything up. Pizarro is poor now too. There does seem to be a lot of clubs buying into experience for the rest of the season. As I write this I am sort of thinking that it makes sense. Best signing this January was Zamora for £4 million. Proven over last few seasons, good experience, can play as a poacher or a holding player and has good discipline. As an Aston Villa fan I’d have liked to have seen a few loans come in.

  7. Connor says:

    Pizarro may not be a good signing, but honestly, what bad can come of it? Surely he’ll only be playing in the europa league or to spell gareth barry (a similar player) and his experience will likely help in the title race. I thought vieira going to city was a bad deal but if this works out like that, well done mancini.

  8. doubledemba says:

    Zamora doesn’t seem so great a signing if you believe the reports that hes on 90 GRAND A WEEK.

    • Chris says:

      @doubledemba: Got it on fairly good authority that those rumours are greatly exaggerated. He’s on closer to £50k-a-week by all accounts – which is still ludicrous, just slightly less ludicrous.

  9. sex god says:

    i think milans new creative midfielder/trequartista Mr. X takes the cake.
    i present to you sulley ali muntari: if it werent sad enough this video comes up first when searching muntari on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOXDqeosDvg wat a legend!!

  10. Alex says:

    de Bruyne could turn out to be a great signing, if AVB chooses to play him. Could free up Mata to play in the middle.

  11. Nik says:

    I think you missed Cisse to Newcastle… Could be effective pairing with demba ba

  12. Sam says:

    Shall we count de Bruyne a summer signing? He’s not here until the summer at any rate.
    Cisse to Newcastle could be good, but £10 million in January is a risk.
    At last someone to defend Zamora. He may lack goals, but anyone who’s watched Fulham over the past 3 years will know that he’s simply brilliant at hold up play and actually has two great feet. That plus Sparky knows how to get the best out of him, shown in our brilliant form at the end of last season.
    Oh God Sully Muntari!

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