This week saw the transfer window close with a late flurry of activity bringing great excitement to football fans all around the country. The headlining grabbing deal was a move away from the Premier League with the long awaited transfer of Welshman Gareth Bale to Spanish giants Real Madrid for a world record fee of 100million euros. But which clubs in the Premier League were winners in the transfer market and who were the losers this time round?
There was a lot of interest in what the big name clubs in the league were going to do in the transfer market. Arsenal arguably provided the most eye catching signing with Mesut Ozil arriving from Real Madrid for a club record £42.4million fee. This will be of great excitement to Gunners fans as they finally got their wish of Arsene Wenger bringing in a big name to the Emirates. However, there will also be many who believe that although this is a great signing for the club, a striker may have been a bigger priority if they are to challenge once again the likes of Manchester United at the top of the league.
United themselves also made a big money move for Marouane Fellaini from Everton. The Belgian international has arrived at Old Trafford for £27.5million, a figure which many will see as on the high side considering a previous bid of £28million for both Fellaini and Leighton Baines was rejected earlier on in the transfer window. The champions also failed to push through a deal for Portuguese left back Fabio Coentrao, meaning that Fellaini was the only deadline day signing for the club. However, keeping a hold of Wayne Rooney will be seen as almost as good as a big name signing and may prove pivotal come the end of the season. United’s local rivals Manchester City had already made their moves in the transfer market before deadline day with Fernandinho, Jesus Navas, Stevan Jovetic, Alvaro Negredo and Martin Demichelis already arriving at the Etihad this summer.
Chelsea also got most of their business out the way before the deadline day rush bringing in players such as Andre Schurrle, Samuel Eto’o and Willian to add to their already very strong squad. Their London neighbours Tottenham also brought in a number of players with Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen, Vlad Chiriches, Etienne Capoue, Roberto Soldado, Nacer Chadli and Paulinho all arriving at White Hart Lane this summer, but the departure of star man Bale will be a big void for even this many players coming in to fill.
But for me, the two big winners when it comes to the transfer market this year are the two Merseyside clubs, Liverpool and Everton. Liverpool have already had a fantastic start to the season and appear to have bought very well to further improve their side. Explosive forward Victor Moses has arrived at Anfield on a season long loan from Chelsea, and defenders Mamadou Sakho and Tiago Ilori have also arrived from PSG and Sporting Lisbon respectively. Brendan Rodgers has also managed to keep hold of star striker Luis Suarez who had been tipped to leave the club for most of the summer. Liverpool’s local rivals Everton have also added to their squad bringing in James McCarthy from Wigan and Romelu Lukaku and Gareth Barry on season long loans. McCarthy and Barry are two good quality midfielders and I believe will more than replace new Man Utd man Fellaini, whose £27.5million move seems to be a great piece of business by Everton manager Roberto Martinez. The addition of a Lukaku, a proven goalscorer in the Premier League with West Brom last season, will surely bag the team a good number of goals this season. Although they have not been the biggest spenders, both the Merseyside clubs seem to have been the wisest spenders in this year’s transfer market.
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