Winners and Losers at the Transfer Deadline...

Read it here...or at Football365.com...

So, the transfer window has finally closed and what did we learn? That Newcastle made a mistake by letting Nobby Solano go? No, we already knew that. That David Moyes may be an excellent motivator but he, or someone at Everton, is clearly a lousy sales person? Apparently, everyone wants the chance at playing in Europe…unless it means coming to Everton. Seriously, has anyone who qualified for the Champion’s League ever had THIS much trouble attracting talent? That Michael Owen doesn’t have very good advisers or just doesn’t think strategically about his career? His move to Madrid should have taught us that. OK, maybe we didn’t learn anything but at the very least, this gives us the opportunity to speculate on who came out better and who came out worse as transfer activity came to a close until January…

Winners
Newcastle – Luque wide on the left, Solano wide on the right, Owen running all day long while Shearer positions himself for headers and one-time shots with Emre providing a creative spark in the middle and Scott Parker holding the line in front of the leaky defense. That almost sounds like a Premiership team. The additional offense will certainly take some of the pressure off the defense by keeping the ball in the offensive end more regularly. If there’s any money left for a defender or two in January, Newcastle might finish in the top half of the table with a strong second half run.

Arsenal – No, not for getting Poom although he can’t be much worse than Almunia. No, they win because Tottenham saved them from spending any money on Jermaine Jenas and because they managed to load out David Bentley rather than selling him outright. Loaning out Justin Hoyte so that he could get some first team experience at Sunderland was also a good thing. This has the feel of a third place season for the Gunners as they turn over at least half of their midfield with Vieira gone and Pires having aged 10 years in the last 12 months. I’m sure this won’t go over well with Gooners (myself included) but there wasn’t anyone available who was going to change this from being a 3rd place team into a 2nd or 1st place team. In the absence of any major talents on the market, Arsenal were wise to save their money rather than spend it on a mediocre replacement like Jenas who has great potential but hasn’t shown himself to be any better than Flamini or Fabregas with his play on the field. Not a huge win, but a win none-the-less.

Blackburn – Anytime they add a skilled player, it has to be considered a win – on the off chance that anyone agrees to televise another one of their matches there is now the possibility of 3 skilled players being on the pitch at the same time with loan signing David Bentley joining Mort Gamst Pedersen and Brett Emerton. If Bellamy is ever healthy again, that number goes to 3.5.

Villa – Getting Wilfred Bouma to fill the gap in the center of defense created by the injury to Martin Laursen was a great move and not that expensive. Losing Solano will hurt but David O’Leary knows more about James Milner than anyone else and the combination of Milner and loan signing Bakke from Leeds will give Villa enough on the right wing to compensate for losing Nobby. Baros has obviously started to pay dividends already.

Pompey – Who knows if either of their signings – French Midfielder Frank Songo’o and Uruguayan Striker Dario Silva – will make a meaningful difference but anything would be an improvement over what they’ve shown so far. Lauren Robert and the ten dwarves have had Pompey firmly on track to join neighbors Southampton in the Championship next season. The new guys certainly can’t hurt and by all reports, Songo’o has a great deal of potential. Hopefully, Pompey will be back in the Prem by the time he realizes that potential.

Norwich and Palace – The deadline has come and gone and they still have Ashton and AJ respectively. Now, the clubs have to prove that keeping their star strikers was the right move by at least getting into the top half of the Championship standings. Heck, Norwich would do well to win one. If things continue at this pace, expect both to be gone in January with Everton, Man Citeh, West Ham (if they have a chance to stay up) and Newcastle (if there’s any money left) the likely bidders.

Chelsea – Neither ManYoo or Arsenal got any closer to challenging them at the deadline. With the acquisition of Essien in the bag, there was really nothing to do to improve their squad.

Losers
Boro – Nothing against new signing Fabio Rochemback but it looks like they’ll be losing Stewart Downing for some amount of time and the rest of the team looked very old against Charlton last time out getting crushed at the Riverside. It’s going to take more than one fairly anonymous Brazilian midfielder to change the way things are going at Boro. They needed at least two central midfielders and some cover for Downing while he’s out. Trading in either JFH or Viduka for the cash to buy some younger talent wouldn’t have been a bad idea either. They’re essentially the same player and Boro should cash in on one of them before they lose their value.

Robbie Keane – Spurs signed ANOTHER striker ahead of him but did so late enough that Robbie wasn’t allowed to go to Everton where he would have been sent straight into the starting XI – something he’ll have a hard time doing as Jermaine Defoe cements his place as a top striker in the Prem and Martin Jol makes sure that Defoe has a target player as a strike partner.

Jermaine Jenas – This is a guy who hasn’t been able to hold down a starting spot at Newcastle where, until recently, there haven’t been more than 3 or 4 competent midfield players on the roster. Now he’s headed to Spurs where he’ll have to get past Edgar Davids, Michael Carrick and every up-and-coming English central midfielder under the age of 23. File this with Michael Owen-to-Madrid in the category of “all-time bad career moves”. I won’t be shocked if he moves again in January. Next summer at the latest.

Everton – I’m a big Andy van der Meyde fan and have high hopes that he will follow Dennis Bergkamp’s career path – success at Ajax, crap at Inter, excellence in the Premiership. However, Everton needed more than just he an Matteo Ferrari before the transfer window closed. With only the flabby James Beattie, the ancient Duncan Ferguson, and the injured Marcus Bent at striker – they needed at least one more quality player up top given the extra fixtures that they’ll presumably face in the UEFA Cup. Likewise, Ferrari fills the void left by Pistone’s injury but they were short of depth in defense before that injury. That signing was just treading water. These guys are in deep trouble in the second half of the season unless they fortify in January.

Man United – They’ve started off brightly but I’m still convinced that they need another central midfielder who can be groomed to take over for Roy Keane when his legs eventually fall off. Alan Smith can replace Keano’s bad temper and occasional rash tackle but I can’t see him offering the leadership, passing, or high quality defending in front of the back four that Roy got right 98% of the time when he was in his prime. Maybe there was no one available, but it seems obvious by the lack of even a rumor over the last week that there's no $$ to shore up the midfield. Not good times at Old Trafford.