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Monday, 31 January 2011

Busy last day of the transfer window

By: Shaun | January 31st, 2011
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torres carroll Well, for our competition anyway. Not so much for us. At time of writing this, it appears that Chelsea have signed Fernando Torres for something in the neighborhood of £50m.

As a replacement, Liverpool have agreed to pay Newcastle £35m for Andy Carroll.

Surprisingly, City have stayed relatively quiet after their early capture of Dzeko and haven’t jumped back into the market.

Liverpool look to instantly be better with a front pairing of Suarez and Carroll (pending a physical and the sale of Torres) over the unhappy Torres + whoever else. There’s no doubting the Spaniard’s talent or clinical finishing in the box. But why keep a player who would only spend his time on the pitch being unhappy and uncommitted to your cause?

Chelsea with Torres, Drogba and Anelka will make up one of the scariest and most lethal frontlines out there. Wonder how Balotelli will rates that trio versus the City trinity.

I expect Spurs to pull off a last ditch transfer seconds before the deadline, then wait to see if the proper paperwork gets approved by the league. That would mean all of our rivals (with the exception of Arsenal) have strengthened their squad considerably heading into the second half of the season.

As for us, our “flurry” of activity on the final day of the window has been the sale of Cameron Stewart to Hull (loan move being made permanent) and Cleverly being allowed to stay at Wigan till the end of the season. Not exactly the stuff that would strike fear at the Bridge, the Emirates or Anfield.

I guess there’s always the possibility of a last minute deal going through, but I’m not holding my breath for it.

Some Related Man United Posts:News/rumors from around the web – Jan 2ndMy Christmas wish listMore post Arsenal game thoughtsWhere we belongMisc postgame thoughts

Category: Man Utd Ramblings, Manchester United

Tags: Carroll, Fernando Torres, Man Utd Ramblings, Manchester United, Transfer Speculation
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Tuesday, 25 January 2011

Wigan Athletic Shopping List: Top Ten Potential January Transfer Window Targets Analysed

2 comments by Adam Davies on January 25th, 2011

Is progress being made at the DW Stadium?

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Thursday, 30 December 2010

Liverpool Secure Early January Transfer Window Signing

24 comments by Steven Constable on December 30th, 2010

Left sided option set for Anfield.

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Monday, 30 August 2010

Wolves, the weekend, the window

By: DJ | August 30th, 2010

SOCCER Wolves 7 Wolves go into the International break unbeaten after 3 games and sitting in a very healthy 7th place in the league. And they have done this with plenty of unused armoury with Fletcher, Hunt, Kightly, Mouyokolo and Edwards ready to add to the squad when fit. So it has to be a pleasing start and even the bookmakers have changed their tune with the odds for relegation. At the start of the season they were tipping Blackpool and Albion to go down with Wolves and Wigan vying for the third place. Wolves have now left Wigan behind in the odds to survive and have also climbed above West Ham and Stoke.

It wasn’t a great performance on Saturday against a Newcastle team that look a different cup of tea to the team that went down in 2008/9 and hats off to Chris Hughton for getting much more out of largely the same set of players. And in Andy Carroll they have a player who got more aerial success against Craddock and Berra than any other player has so far in our 12 months in the Premier League. So the geordies also look all set to remain in this division.

It was certainly a highly physical game on Saturday with some good old fashioned hard tackling exemplified by Karl Henry. But I didn’t think there were so many bad fouls to warrant 12 bookings and this was more a case of the referee not controlling the game effectively. He was appalling and clearly not up to this level.

Wolves defended well overall, with a few momentary lapses, and look likely to keep a settled back 4 now barring injuries although there is a decision to be made on Foley or Zubar for right back. Both are perfectly good enough and I am not sure we gained anything from the first substitutiion on Saturday when Zubar came on to right back and Foley moved to midfield. I think Zubar gives us more in terms of height and powering forward, but Foley has shown now he is well up to this level so either can do the job fine.

In midfield Wolves didn’t gain the upper hand on Saturday. Henry fought hard to win us the edge but Jones was largely anonymous and Van Damme struggled to make an impact. As a result Jarvis hardly got into the game.With the next two matches away at Fulham and Spurs I expect Mancienne to partner Henry in the centre and I would like to see Guedioura get a chance on the right with Jarvis moving back to his familiar left wing position.

Up front we have the luxury of three good strikers and Ebanks Blake has defied his critics of last season by being the pick of the three. He has taken his goals well and could have had more, and his work rate and hold up play have been excellent. So big money signing Fletcher will just have to wait his turn. Doyle in the meantime is not quite at his best yet and a couple of games for Ireland next week will help him get back to peak form.

The transfer window closes on Tuesday evening and the squad of 25 then gets named on September 1st. I still expect a new striker to come in before the window closes but am not expecting any major outlay as it is a 4th choice guy we are looking for. Two players linked with Wolves at the weekend were Heskey and Vennegor of Hesselink, but I gather it will not be either of those. If a new man arrives it means two of the senior squad will miss out on being named in the 25. It is generally assumed Matt Hill will be one of those as he is 4th choice at best for a left back spot, so we just have to hope he finds himself a club. There are growing rumours that the other one to miss out will be Nenad Milijas. The Serbian has undoubted ability but doesn’t do enough over 90 minutes to help a team that needs to battle for every point. There are teams on the continent evidently showing an interest, and so either for a loan or a transfer he might move out of the Wolves picture this week.