 Wednesday, 1st Sep 2010 10:36 by Clive Whittingham A summer of brinkmanship paid off for Neil Warnock on transfer deadline day with two very decent signings added to his summer arrivals. Right down to the wireIt’s a miracle I ever passed my science GCSE. I started the coursework required for it the night before, at about 11pm, on my bedroom floor between the bed and the wall by torch light. I’d left it until the last minute as usual, always finding some football match to watch or tree to fall out of instead, and in the end had forgotten about it – until the moment I checked my diary for the following day and realised with some horror that it was due to be handed over in about 12 hours time.
I’ve rarely wasted my time doing things that can be put off for another day. Why do now something that can be done in ten minutes time? Besides, I tell myself, I work better under pressure.
Whether it’s this preference for working right on a deadline, a childish sense of excitement at the danger of it all, brinkmanship in trying to get the best deal or a case of ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ Harry Redknapp decided last night at about quarter to six that he quite fancied Rafael van der Vaat from Real Madrid. Note my choice of words there – not needed, or even wanted, just quite fancied. A moment of folly presumably brought on by the withdrawal symptoms of not doing much business on deadline day. The league will decide whether Spurs’ flagrant abuse of the 6pm deadline to sign a player they scarcely need will be allowed and the signing completed.
I like Harry Redknapp. I know many don’t and I fully appreciate that there are plenty of skeletons in his closet but I think after making many, many mistakes at West Ham he learnt from that and did a superb job at Portsmouth and now Tottenham. But when it comes to deadline day, he is a little bit mental. Give a six year old ten pounds in a toy shop and chances are they’ll buy stuff they don’t really need or want that will soon be cast aside when they get it home. But the money is there, the toys are there, and that’s all they see. At quarter past five yesterday Harry offered cash plus Robbie Keane to Everton for Stephen Pienaar and Louis Saha. I’m not sure what surprises me more about that – Redknapp thinking he needs Louis Saha or Redknapp thinking Everton might go for that deal. He just enjoys the drama of it all.
So to it seems does out own Neil Warnock who has been saying for six months now that QPR are short of options in attack but only rectified that, and like Redknapp he must wait for league approval, at the very last second of the transfer window yesterday. The official text from QPR confirming the deals for Rob Hulse and Tommy Smith came through just before 7pm, almost an hour after the deadline had passed. In the past the league has been quite lenient on these things – if Andrei Arshavin signed for Arsenal before the deadline my cock’s a bloater – but wouldn’t it be just our luck to be told no and have to scrabble around trying to do loan deals for Smith and Hulse before tying the deals up in January? Hopefully not.
As usual, whatever Sky Sports News (now in HD you know, just in case you hadn’t had it rammed down your throat in the last 30 seconds) tell you deadline day was an anti climax. Most of the summer business had already been done, Sunderland were forced into paying way over the odds for Gyan by the news that Fraizer Campbell was injured for six months but that was about it. In the Championship only a handful of deals stood out, and QPR did two of them. With Hulse and Smith joining Orr, Kenny, Taarabt, Derry and Hill through the Loftus Road entrance at reasonable prices and on permanent deals rather than loans I make Rangers the clear winners in the Championship transfer market this summer. Every problem pinpointed by supporters at the end of last season has been addressed – and addressed with good quality, experienced, Championship players. Neil Warnock I to be congratulated and even I am now starting to believe we may be a top six side – while still lacking a bit of pace.
Elsewhere there was good news and bad news for Reading with the departure of Gylfi Sigurdsson. The good news is they got £6m for a player they developed themselves. The bad news is Sigurdsson has been carrying that side for 18 months now and with the window now closed Brian McDermott had no time to spend the cash on reinforcements. It’s interesting that it is now Bundesliga clubs splashing the big cash – Sigurdsson went to Hoffenheim for £6m, Huntelaar to Schalke for £13m – after years of financial prudence. I said in the LFW season preview that I wasn’t convinced Brian McDermott could keep the Reading form going from the end of last season and with Sigurdsson gone I’m sure of it now. Yesterday Reading brought in Zurab Khizanishvili (0 to 60 in a day and a half) from Blackburn and Ian Harte from Carlisle – despite already signing two other left backs this summer. Midtable for them at best this season unless that £6m goes on some quality.
The pressure is on at Leicester who are without a win in their first four games. Questions are already being asked of Paulo Soua with Mandaric’s itchy trigger finger hanging over his head like the Sword of Damacles and the sight of several City players going down with cramp early in the second half against Reading on Saturday doesn’t exactly say a lot for his fitness regime. They did good business yesterday though – Martyn Waghorn excelled there on loan last year and although City have overpaid at £3m the basic swap of Waghorn for DJ Campbell, who never wanted to play for the Foxes and has now gone to Blackpool, strengthens them considerably.
Much of the day’ action took place at Portsmouth. Pompey, already nursing the smallest squad seen in the Championship for years, lost David Nugent to Blackpool and Tommy Smith to QPR late in the day. They did however get the deal of the day through at the eleventh hour. Managing to get Stoke to part with cash, Liam Lawrence and Dave Kitson for a mediocre player in Marc Wilson was a stroke of sheer genius. I can understand Stoke wanting rid of Kitson, a high earner producing nothing at the Britannia, but Lawrence is a full Ireland international who always did a good job for Stoke when I saw them play. Both have won promotion from this league before although the task for Pompey remains one of survival on and off the pitch this season. Cotterill is unlikely to see much of the £5m they brought in yesterday from three deals and will be delighted to have escaped with a good swap deal for Wilson.
Elsewhere Leeds did a bit of business without really catching the eye, Derby replaced Hulse with Alberto Bueno on loan from Valladolid which could be a masterstroke or could be the moment they cemented their place in the relegation battle. Palace’s leaky defence, three more at Scunthorpe on Saturday, is unlikely to benefit a great deal from the arrival of Anthony Gardner from Hull – Nigel Pearson immediately replaced him with Cardiff’s Anthony Gerrard and definitely got the better end of that deal.
Memory failNow correct me if I’m wrong, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time, but my recollection of why the transfer windows were introduced in the first place means I fail to see how they can still exist, or why they were allowed in the first place.
If I recall correctly the transfer windows were one of four measures brought in to ward off action from the European Commission back in 2000. Five years after the EU ruled in the case of Jean Marc Bosman and said that clubs could no longer maintain a player’s registration and demand a transfer fee for him if his contract had expired the commission had football in its sights again. This time the case would have even more far reaching consequences than Bosman because it challenged the whole legality of football transfers.
If I walk into work tomorrow and resign I will have to work four weeks notice, then I will be allowed to leave. Some people can be put on gardening leave for a period and people are often sued for breach of contract but essentially anybody is free to quit a job they don’t like and go somewhere else for more money or a better job or whatever. In football that is obviously not the case. Players hold a value to their clubs and however unhappy and grumpy they get clubs are able to hold on until they receive an offer for the player which I acceptable. In European Law that is illegal.
In 2001 FIFA sought to ward off this action by introducing four measures. The first ensures that clubs are paid compensation, often decided by tribunal, if a player under 23 who they have paid to train up leaves at the end of his contract. John Bostock is the most recent example of what a nonsense this is because the compensation decided rarely reflects the true market value of the players involved – Bostock would have been worth ten times what Tottenham paid for him had his Palace contract had another two years to run. The second was protection for clubs in the first three years of a player’s contract – any player ‘resigning’ and walking away would be banned from playing for four months and compensation relating to the time left on his contract and wage must be paid. Paul Cooke’s controversial move from Hull FC to Hull KR where he simply walked out one day and turned up at Hull KR the next is an infamous example of this in another sport. The third was the creation of an independent panel to rule on any disputes.
The introduction of two transfer windows was the fourth measure. Now, forgive me if I’m being dim, but how on earth can action being taken by the EU against football restricting the movements of footballers be repelled by FIFA further restricting the movements of footballers? I just don’t understand. The EU said it was unfair that footballers can only go when clubs get a transfer fee and they were therefore restricted more than other workers, and the solution to this was to keep that system in place over a shorter time frame. Now not only can players only move when their club receives a transfer fee, but they can only do it in the summer or January.
The last thing football needs is the EU sticking its nose in and sneezing employment law all over it. A team sportsman is not a job, it’s like no other profession on earth, and attempts to impose the same laws that apply to joiners, plumbers, bankers and chief executives are futile and unwanted. Sadly I fear Manchester City may be about to move us into the courts again if they are not very careful.
The money washing around there means Man City can sign players they don’t really need to stop their rivals getting hold of them, and pay them many millions of pounds even if they’re not playing them themselves. We have seen with Craig Bellamy that they are quite happy to take a huge financial hit and prevent an unwanted player joining a rival. Spurs wanted Bellamy, Man City would rather pay £60k a week for him to play for Cardiff City then go to a potential rival. Luckily Bellamy quite fancied playing for hi home town club and everything has passed off quite peacefully. But City now have Shay Given, Emmanuel Adebayor and Roque Santa Cruz to name but three all well out of the first team picture, and all unlikely to be allowed to join the Premiership clubs that would want and can afford them. How long before a City player challenges this situation in the courts and changes the face of the transfer system forever?
Done DealsGylfi Sigurdsson [Reading - Hoffenheim] £6m Martyn Waghorn [Sunderland - Leicester] £3m Tommy Smith [Portsmouth - QPR] £1.5m Yuki Abe [Urawa Red Diamonds - Leicester] Undisclosed DJ Campbell [Leicester - Blackpool] Undisclosed Adam Clayton [Manchester City - Leeds] Undisclosed Ian Harte [Carlisle - Reading] Undisclosed Rob Hulse [Derby - QPR] Undisclosed Marc Wilson [Portsmouth - Stoke] Undisclosed/exchange Dave Kitson [Stoke – Portsmouth] Exchange Liam Lawrence [Stoke – Portsmouth] Exchange David Nugent [Portsmouth – Blackpool] Undisclosed Alan Sheehan [Leeds - Swindon] Free Ramon Nunez [unattached - Leeds] Alberto Bueno [Valladolid – Derby] Loan Anthony Gardner [Hull - Crystal Palace] Loan Anthony Gerrard [Cardiff – Hull] Loan Jermaine Grandison [Coventry - Tranmere] Loan Jonathan Grounds [Middlesbrough - Hibernian] Loan Ben Hamer [Reading - Brentford] Loan Zurab Khizanishvili [Blackburn - Reading] Loan Arnaud Mendy [Derby - Tranmere] Loan Lubomir Michalik [Leeds - Carlisle] Loan Marlon Pack [Portsmouth - Cheltenham] Loan Josh Payne [Doncaster - Oxford] Loan Andrew Taylor [Middlesbrough - Watford] Loan Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
You need to login in order to post your comments |
   Blogs 31 bloggersQueens Park Rangers Polls[ Vote here ] |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.We in turn value your personal details in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
