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“After a storm comes a calm.”
31st August, 2012 epitomized madness like no other day for all the football fanatics as the transfer deadline cast a pale shadowy gloom upon the world. On this day any deal is possible. So many classic ‘deadline day swoops’ to be done and so little time. Many deals were expected to fall through. Micheal Owen’s cell phone needed dusting as he had a couple of hours left to find a club and of course Emile ‘GOD’ Heskey’s name floated down the alleys of a very busy transfer market followed by that occasional snigger closely. Arsenal fans seemed to be the most disgruntled ones as experience taught them to bring in a bag of popcorn and a nice pillow to snuggle and keep them company.
Danish model Nicklas Bendtner packed his polo shirt collection and joined the Turin giants Juventus. Like Arsenal, Manchester United seemed to have done most of their business early in the window but, nevertheless, the fans were hoping for one last signing. It was a bit saddening to see the departure of Dimitar Berbatov to Fulham for most of the fans, but the Godfather has a lot of football left in him, and he thoroughly deserves another opportunity after enduring a frustrating time at Manchester.
The blue half of Manchester seemed to be the most excited lot as Sheikh Mansour decided to lighten his purse strings after missing out on the marquee signing of RvP. Ex-Chelsea and current Swansea winger Scott Sinclair, Benfica’s Javi Garcia, the highly rated Serbian defender Matija Nastasic were found house-hunting in Manchester. Apparently Maicon made his way into Etihad to fix his reputation which, when last seen, was pulverized by a certain Welsh winger. Nigel de Jong was sold to A.C Milan and Savic was offloaded much to the relief of the City fans. Chelsea had already bolstered their squad and it was a surprisingly quiet window for the Londoners. After the $6.5 billion lawsuit victory, signings on deadline day were expected but never happened. The only exception being Bison’s (Essien) departure to Real Madrid on loan, which was as unexpected as an Andy Carroll goal.
Liverpool fans had something to cheer for as Charlie Adam was finally offloaded to Stoke City. The last time Liverpool fans were this happy was when West Ham decided to pay Andy Carroll’s wages. Also Jay Spearing slipped into the squad of Bolton, unnoticed by many. Nevertheless the Liverpool squad looks all revamped now and pose a serious threat to all the big guns.
All eyes were on Tottenham Hotspur on the final day as a number of deals were expected to happen. After a prolonged Modric saga, Levy was at his tactical best. Having already raided Craven Cottage for the talented Belgian Moussa Dembele, Levy wasted no time bringing in the highly established Lyon goal keeper Hugo Lloris, Fulham’s Clint Dempsey, Sunderland’s Kieran Richardson, and deftly offloading Van Der Vaart and loaning out Danny Rose on the deadline day. The only disappointment being missing out on Joao Moutinho. Having played Football Manager in real life the whole summer, Mark Hughes finally managed to offload problem child Joey Barton (a swap deal involving Stephen M’Bia) to French outfit Marseille. Celebrations erupted all over England following Barton’s departure. QPR’s squad looks pretty strong on paper having brought in players at literally every position.
The Toffees have made quite a lot of clever signings this summer and have managed to retain most of their star players with the exception of Rodwell. Having already made a blistering start to the season, Everton have already added enough ammunition in the form of Naismith and Mirallas. Deadline day saw Costa Rican full back Ovedio, the towering Belgian Ofoe and the promising youngster Matthew Kennedy made their way into Goodison Park. Now the squad has more depth than Fellaini’s hair.
Swansea managed to pull off a club record signing for Pablo Hernandez. The David Villa lookalike will be keen to make his mark for the swans, who have started the season brightly under their inspirational manager Michael Laudrup. Stephen Dobbie also joins the team from Brighton. Gaston Ramirez stunned the footballing fraternity by snubbing Liverpool to join newcomers Southampton. The highly rated Uruguayan will be looking to make his mark on the EPL for the Saints. American shot-stopper Cody Cropper signed a permanent deal while Billy Sharp headed to Nottingham forest on a season long loan.
With so many new faces to look forward to, this season is going to be a cracker!
