I apologize for the delay in getting past the first team
transfer summary. We are using the
international break for a nice rustic vacation in Maine. I’ve been trying to generally stay away from
the internet, email, and the other things that I tend to use for both my day
job as well as staying up with current events in the Premier League and posting
to the blog. That lasted for a solid 3
days before I felt the pull of the laptop – I guess that’s why I’ve gotten
involved in writing a blog on top of a day job.
As it appears that I’m not going to get to every team, I’m
going to start with the ones that have made the most substantial changes and
move downward toward the ones that didn’t do much toward the end of
window. Since we’ve already covered Arsenal,
I’ll move on to Chelsea.
I LOVED what Chelsea did toward the end of the window. They had the type of window that Arsenal used
to have. Pick up a few very high end
kids and throw in a very strong continental veteran. The difference? The price of the high end kids that used to
be Arsenal’s stock and trade has increased by a factor of about ten since this
was Wenger’s strategy. I don’t know all
the details but my guess is that Chelsea ended up paying Mata and Lukaku (and
their previous clubs) like they were already established stars rather than
rising talents with the potential to be the “next” someone good. The
economics aside, the moves look excellent.
The only downside is that they probably won’t payoff in huge measure for
another couple years.
