After The Dust Has Settled, Bargain Hunters Survey Their Haul

Thankfully no one has had to endure watching Tim Wonnacott during this transfer window, but teams have ended their bargain hunting, with varying success. Manchester City will draw interested if sceptical gazes from Wonnacott as he surveys their expensive trolley full, but will they be successful when it all goes to auction though?

Overall spending of £450m in this transfer window is down ten per cent on last years record total and would have been even lower had City not shelled out a whopping £120m to keep the money in the Premier League flowing.

The notable departures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid for a total of £120m have added to the bulging transfer kitty’s of their teams, even though Liverpool and United might be poorer without them. Despite the exaggerated and bloated fees some players commanded, there were still bargains to be had, with Niko Kranjcar’s switch from Portsmouth to Spurs for a reported £2m the pick of the bunch in my opinion.

The frugal have certainly be rewarded this summer, with Michael Owen’s free transfer from Newcastle to United possibly being a shrewd piece of business by Ferguson, but the former England man will need to re-discover his goal scoring boots now he’s playing at the sharp end of things with the big boys.

Also the lure of Lancashire was too much for Michel Salgado as he left behind life at the ever dull Real Madrid for the excitement of Blackburn. Hull have brought in American hope Jozy Altidore on loan from Villarrael and the striker looked sharp on his debut last weekend.

Whilst Stoke City have been busy cementing their position in the league as the new Bolton, they have also been busy in the transfer window, signing the skilful Turkish attacker Tuncay for a mere £5m, adding some much needed guile and skill to their brute force approach to the game.

After getting knocked out of Europe’s big league by giants of football Rapid Vienna, Villa have looked to the future with the signing of teenage midfield star Fabian Delph for £8m from Leeds, but he will need to improve beyond his two nervous outings so far if he is to realise his potential.

United, Chelsea and Liverpool were relatively quiet during the window and were the epitome of male shoppers, getting what they needed and getting out as quickly as possible. Clearly content with the main structure of their teams and life in their collective bubble at the top of the league, with Arsenal even making a £31m profit.

Being frugal though can be boring and Manchester City boss Mark Hughes has been throwing money at his very own fantasy team and has brought in quality in the form of Gareth Barry, Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor, but like someone who has got caught up in the moment and overspent when bidding on ebay he also shelled out a staggering £24m on Joleon Lescott.

The inflated prices of footballers has to be taken into account here of course, but that makes Lescott the third most expensive defender in the world, a mantle which surely flatters the distinctly average defender.

It gets worse too. Thanks to Lescott’s arrival at Middle-Eastlands and that of Kolo Toure from Arsenal, former captain and current king of the own goal Richard Dunne has signed for my beloved Villa, so I’m bracing myself for excitement and goals at both ends this season.

Posted By Dan Mobbs - Wednesday September 2, 2009.
Tags: , Premier League