Transfer Deadline Winners and Losers

Every deadline day it's the same set of Spurs players who move around the league.  Three from this line-up alone, and you could add Kaboul to the list.

The obligatory, but in this case excellent and fantasy relevant, transfer window winners and losers post.

Winners 

West Ham - I don't know if it will be enough to save them but they needed strikers and they got strikers.  It is my prediction that Benni McCarthy will forge a nice partnership with the newly healthy Carlton Cole with Diamanti playing a supporting/play-making role behind them.  Mido and the Brazilian Ilan will provide some depth.  Oh yeah, they also kept Matty Upson.  Losing out on Eidur may not have been great from a PR standpoint but Benni and Mido have had more success more recently.

Sunderland - Alan Hutton and Benjani were both nice temporary fixes to major problems.  From a fantasy standpoint, Hutton (very cheap) should be a nice potential pick-up now that Sunderland's central defenders are back and healthy/not suspended.  This new-found solidity at the back should place them back among the top half teams not only in the standings but in their ability to put on a representative show from week-to-week.  Something that has been lacking for the better part of 2 months.

Stoke - Nice deal on a pretty good 'keeper in Begovic - not sure why others in need (Mr. Wenger... paging Mr. Wenger) didn't capitalize on Pompey's financial distress.

Spurs - I don't like the switch of Eidur for Keane (definitely a downgrade) but getting Kaboul back gives them 3 solid CBs to go along with their two very-good-but-too-frequently-injured ones.  On the days where King and/or Woody are healthy, they have an embarrassment of riches in the middle of their defence.  On the days when those two are hurt they now have Dawson (pretty good but limited upside), Kaboul (seems to have finally adapted to the Prem and should rate as above average), and SeaBass (who probably rates as average right now but has upside).  Not a bad situation when compared to 6 months ago when they didn't know if they'd have any healthy center backs.

Wigan - See West Ham above.  Not sure if they dramatically improved themselves immediately at striker but in getting Moses they improved their prospects for the future at a price that wasn't too bad.  I don't know enough about Moreno to make an intelligent comment on his acquisition but as Wigan were light on strikers and they didn't spend too much on either of them, it can't be seen as a bad thing.

Bolton - Lots of potentially decent midfielders coming in between Wilshere, Holden, and Weiss.  Holden probably needs to get into shape AND adapt to the Prem so that's probably a signing more for next year but Wilshere could really make an impact behind the strikers and Weiss is great cover for Matty Taylor.  Will be interesting to see how Coyle blends the traditional physical style of Bolton with his desire to play an attractive style.  These acquisitions all seem to push Bolton toward Coyle's vision.

Chelsea - Did they acquire anyone? Nope but with their main rivals for the title - ManYoo and Arsenal - failing to do anything meaningful Chelsea stay positioned ahead of the pack with little reason for any neutrals to think that the second half of the season will play out differently than the first half.  Getting the ANC contingent back without any new injuries is an added bonus to Chelsea's title claim.

Everton - Donovan has been a nice pick-up and getting Senderos (who isn't as bad as his match-ups with Drogba would have you believe) was great for depth.  Both moves done for little to no money.  The type of efficient work we've come to expect from Moyes.

Losers
Arsenal - Clearly in need of a target striker and presumably with money to spend.  I don't know if that would have made the difference between 3-1 and, say 2-2 last Sunday but don't underestimate the psychological value to a team of management doing SOMETHING to support a title challenge in any sport.  Even if the answer had been a centre back or a reserve holding midfielder to ensure that an injury to Verm/Gallas/Song wouldn't cripple the team's title chances, that might have been enough.  Likewise, a stop-gap at striker along the lines of a Benni McCarthy or a Benjani wouldn't have solved any long-term needs but would have provided some alternatives that were lacking with the current squad.

ManYoo - While they soundly beat Arsenal on Sunday, don't let that result fool you.  Unless Nani has somehow made the permanent leap to being The Next CRon, ManYoo have too few match-winners and not enough quality.  It is more down to Wenger's tactical stubbornness than the talent of the ManYoo squad.  ManYoo should have admitted that the Anderson/Hargreaves/Carrick experiments have all been failures and spent some money on both another winger and another holding midfielder.  The fact that Citeh were the ones going after Gago is sort of shocking - ManYoo are the team in Manchester with the need there.

Wolves & Birmingham - Both have to be a bit surprised to be where they are in the standings and both could have used a little fortification to maintain their places.  Birmingham has the dubious possibility of being this year's West Ham/Reading/etc who went straight from promotion to competing for a spot in the UEFA Cup/Europa League.  Might be best for them if it doesn't happen since that didn't work out so well for any of the previous high fliers.  For Wolves, the task was more about survival than playing in Europe and the downside was that it confirmed that even if they stay up that they will struggle to attract players to a fairly remote footballing outpost.

Citeh/Villa - Liverpool is down which leaves a golden opportunity for both clubs to double down in an attempt to win the 4th Champions League spot.  Neither team is incredibly deficient anywhere in the first team but both are incredibly vulnerable at a few spots if the injury bug strikes.  Villa would be pretty well sunk if Gabby Agbonlahor goes down and Citeh would be in equally dire straights if Given they lose any of their first team defenders.  In both cases, there are young/fringe replacements available who have talent but with so many experienced players changing addresses, it seems to me that Villa would have been smart to add a Benjani or McCarthy while Citeh should have pried a utility defender from somewhere.

So, that's my take on January 2010.  Not a terribly exciting time in terms of high profile player movement but what stunned me was the lack of even lower profile changes aimed at making the fractional difference between relegation and salvation, mid-table and Europa League, or Europa League and the 4th Champions League spot.  I guess we'll see how it all works out over the next few months.

Cheers - Neal