QPR fans celebrate a goal at Cardiff. Photo credit: Jon Candy
- Resurgence of transfer spending. English Premier League clubs spent £485m in the summer transfer window, business analysts Deloitte told the BBC. Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United each topped £50m of transfer spending this summer. Spending by the 20 English top-flight clubs was up £120m, or 33 percent, on last summer’s outlay, Deloitte added.
Read The Daily Mail ’s exhaustive club-by-club guide to all the summer transfer deals here.
- Meireles to Chelsea happened in a flash. The last few hours of deadline day always throws up one out-of-the-blue surprise and last night was no different. At 22.00, Liverpool revealed that Portuguese midfielder Raul Meireles had handed in a shock transfer request. Under and hour later, he was announced as a Chelsea player. The speedy deal proves that despite the fact that sports reporters camp out at every Premiership ground on deadline day, some deals can still fly under the radar.
- Arsenal add to firepower. After the humiliating 8-2 defeat to Manchester United, Arsenal were under enormous pressure from their fans to spend some of the transfer funds generated by the sales of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri on reinforcements. While Arsenal made no real ‘wowser’ signings, the captures of Israeli playmaker Yossi Benayoun from Chelsea and Spanish midfielder Mikel Arteta from Everton roundly placated restless supporters. “Arsenal, usually the models of caution in the transfer market, went on a wheel-spinning trolley dash,” observed The Daily Telegraph’s Henry Winter. The capture, on Tuesday, of Per Mertesacker, Andre Santos and Park Chu-young amounted to a reasonable start but Wednesday’s efforts smacked of desperation,” adjudged Matt Lawton of The Daily Mail.
- QPR make triple-swoop. Premiership new boys Queens Park Rangers were forecast to make some power moves on transfer deadline day and they did not disappoint. New co-owner Tony Fernandes opened his wallet to bankroll the signings of Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips, Sunderland defender Anton Ferdinand and Southampton forward Jason Puncheon. The triple-swoop late on Wednesday meant QPR have now signed 12 players in the transfer window. Pundits concur that the additions, especially those of Joey Barton and Wright-Phillips give the superhoops a fighting chance of avoiding relegation in their first season back in the Premiership for 15 years.
Do QPR now have enough quality in their squad to stay up?
- Stoke City were the surprise package on deadline day. Tony Pulis’ side, who reached the FA Cup Final last season, turned heads with the signings of combative Honduran midfielder Wilson Palacios and gangly England striker Peter Crouch from Spurs. The signing of Crouch, for a club-record £10 million transfer fee, was a major coup for the potters as Crouch had attracted the interest of a number of other big-spending clubs.
“I think West ham, Stoke + QPR done best business (after us!!) in the #transferwindow agreed??! Biggest surprise for me was joe cole to Lille,” tweeted Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand.
- Spurs miss out on Cahill. Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has built a reputation as a canny operator in the transfer market. But Spurs missed out on their number one target yesterday when they were unable to prize Bolton’s highly-rated centre-back away from Bolton Wanderers. While Redknapp will be delighted to have retained the services of Croatian Luka Modric, who was repeatedly linked with a big-money move to Chelsea, and brought in West Ham’s Scott Parker (for £6 million), he’ll still likely be frustrated at not having bolstered his defensive line which shipped five goals at home against Manchester City last time out.
