Big deals fail to materialise as window slams shuts

The Premier League title race is pretty much ‘as you were’ following a transfer deadline day in which most of the top eight — even super-wealthy Manchester City refused to pay overinflated prices and saved their money instead for the summer market.

The winter window has always been something of a game of poker but January 31, 2014 may well be remembered as the day when the top clubs gambled on saying ‘stick’, leaving Manchester United — who did spend a club record €45 million on Juan Mata last week — as the only real winners.

Whether the shadow of Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules hung over chairmen is difficult to say — perhaps it was just a good old fashioned desire to get value for money — but certainly there seemed a reluctance to gamble in the search of an advantage in the title race.

City, for instance, pulled out of a deal for Porto pair Eliaquim Mangala and Fernando when the asking price reached almost €50m; not too much of a gamble given the strength and depth of their squad, but still a surprise for a club that has spent so many hundreds of millions in recent years.

But for Arsenal, who balked at the fee being asked by Schalke for Julian Draxler and saw loan moves for Lille’s Salamon Kalou and Lazio’s Miroslav Klose rebuffed, it could prove a more controversial call should they fail to hold off City’s challenge in the title race come May.

The move for Klose came particularly close, with Arsenal contract fixer Dicky Law sent to Italy, encouraged by the player’s willingness to move, only for the clubs to find it impossible to agree a deal; and that summed up Arsenal’s deadline day experience.

Manager Arsene Wenger also found Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin and Newcastle’s Papiss Cisse overpriced but did at least secure one target, experienced Swedish international midfielder Kim Kallstrom, 31, who has signed on loan from Spartak Moscow until the end of the season as cover for injured Aaron Ramsey.

Perhaps he will also be encouraged that City and Tottenham opted not to buy on deadline day while Chelsea spent only €14m on defender Kurt Zouma from St Etienne — despite a clear need for more goals — and promptly loaned him straight back to France.

“If we don’t do it now, probably we can’t do it in the summer because other clubs were also very strong on him,” Jose Mourinho explained, before hinting strongly that has gambled on sticking with his current squad this season in the hope he can secure first-choice striking targets in June.

“Many people don’t understand why we don’t do business; but, in the summer, you will understand. We know what we want,” he added.

“We won’t sign a striker now as an emergency plan to score half a dozen goals to give us half a dozen extra points.”

Chelsea did of course sign Nemanja Matic and Mohamed Salah earlier in the window but appear to have saved plenty of dry powder for the future — as have Liverpool, who battled until the end to sign winger Yevhen Konoplyanka from Dnipro in Ukraine but who have also targeted the summer as a more realistic time for recruitment.

Even United manager David Moyes — on a roll following Mata’s arrival — told television reporters early on Friday: “You can stand your cameras down. I don’t think they will be required. We have done our business.”

But it is, of course, likely to be an extremely different story in the summer when United are predicted to make three or four big-money signings to complement the arrival of the Spaniard, who has the potential to lift the dark clouds that have been hovering over Old Trafford.

Spurs, by contrast, refused to buy a single player with manager Tim Sherwood saying: “I don’t need anyone else. Chairman Daniel Levy asked if I want to strengthen, but I’m confident in the players we’ve got. It’s not always the right way, to buy players.”

In fact much of the real transfer action took place lower down the Premier League; at Fulham for instance, who brought in Olympiakos striker Kostas Mitroglou and defender Johnny Heitenga from Everton, but allowed Dimitar Berbatov to join Monaco on loan, and at Crystal Palace who made a string of signings, including keeper Wayne Hennessey, winger Tom Ince and defender Scott Dann.

So perhaps Arsenal may reflect that despite all their frustrations in the market, everything in the title race remains stable following a game of transfer poker in which it seemed nobody blinked and nobody wanted to gamble. Whether that proves to be a clever call or an opportunity missed, however, only time will tell.