January has arrived and football has sailed out of the festive season and into silly season. The transfer window is well underway and we’ve already seen some bold moves from Premier League managers. But whilst the transfer window can throw clubs a rope to climb to safety, or a leg up on the competition for those prized European qualifying places - it can be a cruel mistress, leaving some clubs red faced and scrambling for excuses. Clubs raise the stakes by paying inflated prices for players who aren’t guaranteed to do what they supposedly say on their tins, for the spectator it’s entertaining to see clubs slip up or strike gold but for the manager it can mean the difference between employment and footballing limbo.
Chelsea and Liverpool always put on a good show in the transfer window at this time of year; they both get walked into the sweet shop by Daddy and told that they can have anything they want. We all remember when Chelsea strode in holding Dadbramovich’s hand and pointed at the most expensive and fancy striker in the shop, a split second later and Roman had burned £50 million and Chelsea paraded Fernando Torres out of the shop. Liverpool sprinted in wide-eyed with their Torres money and sprayed it all in one go on the exciting young demi-giant Andy Carroll and controversial defence-wriggler Luis Suarez.
The fanfares soon turned to groans of despair for Chelsea as Torres began his journey into goalscoring exile, his hefty price tag still hanging out of the back of his shorts. The situation was very much the same for Liverpool who saw Andy Carroll’s exciting 2010/11 season splutter to a £35 million halt; on the flip side, Suarez proved to be a superb buy and has carried Liverpool in one hand whilst casually kissing the other in his many celebrations. But at £22 million you would expect something along those lines…
There are plenty of examples of great January buys, Darren Bent saved Villa’s season two years ago and Nikica Jelavic proved deadly up front for Everton a year ago. Newcastle decided they wanted another Demba Ba so they went and bought one in the shape of Papiss Demba Cissé who even came from the same country, sure enough Cissé proved to be perhaps the best signing of last January proving that there are gems out there to be found.
Rodgers’ recent acquisition of Dan Sturridge is a puzzling one, for a manager who has made his name on possession-based passing football it does seem a little odd to buy a player who has never actually passed the ball… That said, playing him down the middle will make or break him as a striker who never got his chance for Chelsea. Much more interesting is the purchase of Senegalese powerhouse Demba Ba by Chelsea, Ba has proven himself to be up to scratch whilst at Newcastle, Ba with service provided by Mata, Hazard, Oscar and co is potentially spectacular. Let’s hope he spices up the title race from the Manchester monotony.
Manchester does seem to be a little quiet on the transfer front. Let’s be honest, you would need a crow bar and a lot of lube to find space for another star signing at City now, that or a new home for circusclownotelli (good luck on that one Roberto). City have a top-class squad, they can only really work on making it tick now. United have been crying out for a dominating central midfielder to play alongside the understated yet effective Michael Carrick for years now, but once again it’s looking unlikely. It seems that Ferguson wants to stick with players closer to his own age with Giggs and Scholes also approaching their 70th birthdays this year.
Strangely nobody at Arsenal seems to have told Arsene Wenger that you can sell and also BUY players in the January transfer window. The Gunners are just hoping they can keep hold of the player who recently applied to change his name to Thierry Walcott.
January transfers come at a highly inflated price and a great deal more expectation, making them high-risk strategies that should really only be last resorts for clubs sliding towards relegation or injury riddled teams in need of patching up. The window can leave hasty clubs with an under-performing star and a sore hole in their pocket, which is why Michu is best left to prove himself at Swansea for a full season before the bids start flying in for the clinical Spaniard. The best bet is to buy safe and not to buy Fernando Torres.
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Click to ClaimJack produces topical blogs for Howtobet4free tackling the key issues in the world of sport. Jack also publishes articles for a number of publications each week, and can be found on Twitter by following @JWinterr.
