Transfer News/Updates: Desperation signing time!

Less than 12 hours to go, we take a look at Premier League title contenders’ last minutes probable signings. And out of the six from the Manchester clubs, and the London’s top clubs (Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspurs), Spurs, Chelsea and City had done their signings – the bulk of them. Only Arsenal and Manchester United are now frantically working out last minutes deals.
Arsenal with two free signings could be busy chasing Real Madrid’s players – now that Gareth Bale is officially a Real Madrid player. With Bale on board at Bernabeu players like Kaka, Mesut Ozil, Angel de Maria and even Karim Benzema were reportedly deemed surplus to requirements. It is also worth noting that Real Madrid has the knack of selling one or two key players once they had a mega spending summer, take the example of Wesley Sneidjers and Arjen Robben when Cristiano Ronaldo was signed back in 2008. This is presumably an effort to balance their books – after all Real Madrid is not cash-rich, rather a debt-laden club, the only difference being that the money comes from tax payers!.

 

Arsene Wenger has done in before although he recently denies that Arsenal will go into ‘panic buys’. Maybe the man should be given the benefit of doubt, he is after all the longest serving manager in the Premier League now. Maybe this time around he had learnt his lesson. Although Mathieu Flamini was a free transfer, it was a good piece of business done for Arsenal. Flamini knows the Premier League well, he knows Wenger well too and he is a good midfielder, someone Arsenal could use. With Arsenal’s performance now back on song after a shock defeat at home to Aston Villa (especially after beating the top shopper Spurs 1-0), it would not be surprising if there is no highly fancied players coming through. Wenger is known to be prudent like Sir Alex Ferguson – he will not pay over the odd for a player no matter how highly rated the player is – especially now that the Gunners is doing well enough on the pitch to silence his critics. Having said that Wenger is smilingly confident on new signings after the London derby win over Spurs.

 

For Manchester United, as David Moyes stresses on many occasions that he is happy with his current squad and there may not be any new signing. He after all inherited the title winning squad and right now seems to be operating a massively upgraded squad compared to his Everton’s day. Still, with dateline looming, Everton’s Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines, plus Roma’s experienced Italian international Daniele De Rossi as well as Athletic Bilbao’s 24-year-old Ander Herrera midfielder continue to be linked to Old Trafford. Any signings, especially after Moyes’ statement may end up being seen as a move to appease certain sections of United’s supporters or/ and sponsors. It can also be a move to silence critics during the management transitional period of David Moyes-Ed Woodward.

 

This is the time full of excitements for most supporters, as well as despair. It seems that a lot of signings during this short, last minutes period – will be done out of desperation and Arsenal and Manchester United seem to be the leader of the pack. Watch this space closely!