Deadline Day Review

Firstly, wow!!!! The excitement of the final day transfer window is nothing short of breathtaking! The rumours, the bids, the rejections, the hope, the pain, you name it, every emotion under the sun comes out during this final day of transfers. And that's just from the fan's! Imagine the stress and tensions of the managers and of those players that are desperate to move clubs? Harry Redknapp when interviewed late last night looked absolutely shattered, and not surprising either. I'm sure most managers were feeling that if they had business still to do.

Where to start....



Stoke City. Not mentioned too much of Stoke in this blog this year and I'm not a huge fan of the team and their style of football. They play an aggressive style, play a lot of long balls and look to bully teams, not something I want young children to emulate. However, it is effective. I am certainly not disputing that, and what a transfer window for the Potters. Tony Pulis has signed Peter Crouch, a fantastic signing for their club and still a very underrated player, with a heap of Premier League experience and of course perfect for Stoke's style of play. Wilson Palacios also another solid signing and some depth up front with the arrival of Canreon Jerome. Add that to the experience of Matthew Upson and Woodgate, you have a very strong Stoke side this year that will be extremely difficult to beat.

QPR have literally brought a new team in this transfer window, including the final day deals for Shaun Wright-Phillips and Anton Ferdinand. Very good signings for a club that looked like they were going to be the whipping boys after their first day of season defeat to Bolton.
Bolton will be delighted to have kept hold of wanted man Gary Cahill, which will feel like a success in the transfer window. They have also added David N'Gog to their ranks as a final day deal, which will help bolster their attacking prowess.

Arsenal fan's (like me) delighted with the work put in to the transfers to finally secure some experience throughout the team. Arteta is a great signing and well help fill a creative void in the Arsenal midfield that looked completely bare after Sundays defeat. Santos looks an exciting attacking left back and Benayoun on loan for a year is a positive signing who will slot straight into the team's style of play. The big one for Arsenal fan's and he is a big one at that is the 6'6 German defender, Per Mertesacker. An absolute quality experienced center back that will toughen up the frail Arsenal defence. Very positive transfer window for Arsenal, just the one question, why so late for Arsenal and Arsene Wenger in particular to finally bring in some experienced and quality faces to the club? Did Arsene Wenger seriously believe his squad was capable of competing at the top before the United game? Worryingly I think the answer to that question is, yes he did.

Liverpool were very busy and managed to capture Craig Bellamy on a free, returning to his former club and what I believe a fantastic signing for the club. He wears his heart on his sleeves and still has a lot to offer for a top club and should fit in very well to strengthen the Liverpool sign. Joe Cole left to go to French club Lille, a good move for Joe who can look to resurrect his career again and fall back in love with the game. One last minute problem for Liverpool however was the surprising loss of Raul Meireles to rivals Chelsea. Chelsea will be extremely pleased with their business throughout this window and also lie in the positive section.

Fulham managed the capture of Bryan Ruiz from FC Twente, a much sort after striker that will help offer some assistance to Bobby Zamora up front. They will be very happy with their capture.



Top of the list by a country mile is Newcastle. There will be some angry fan's this morning who will be furious with the way the clubs finances have been dealt with. Where is the money received for Andy Caroll? Then they sold Nolan and Barton, their 2 best players from last season and have not replaced them in the market. More importantly no striker brought in. I would be extremely disgruntled if I was a fan and I would be asking a lot of questions to Mike Ashley and Alan Pardew.

Everton another club that will be frustrated with the state of affairs at the club. David Moyes has done a great job at Everton, but unfortunately not a lot he could do to hold on to Arteta and with no money available to spend they could only bring in two players on loan for the season. Difficult to take when Jermaine Beckford also left the club to leicester and Yakubu headed to Ewood Park, leaves them extremely short. It's going to be a very tough season for the Toffee's this time around.

Now Tottenham. A mixture from Spurs and I am putting them in the negative because I know the reaction of the fan's have been negative towards their transfer window activities. Worryingly is how many players left the club, notably Crouch to Stoke, but palacios, Jenus, Hutton and Bentley all departed. The arrival of Scott Parker will help soften the blow for the fan's and the loan signing of Adebayor is positive, but a lot of departures and the failure to sign Cahill is a disappointment to the club.



Finally, Luka Modric. What a saga it has been. He will remain a Tottenham player, but are Spurs fan's happy? He clearly wanted to leave the club and has openly been very unhappy with the behaviour of Daniel Levy. Arsenal sold the players who didn't want to be at the club and we shall see if that works out for them and if it works out for Tottenham in keeping a player that doesn't want to be there. I'm not so sure it will for Tottenham and believe Modric will be gone in January when the saga's and the drama's start all over again.