Johnny Nicholson on the transfer window: Surprises, bargains and one for the Insta followers
Man United will generate Cristiano Ronaldo's wages in shirt sales, his transfer fee in media exposure, and have some leftover. But will they get that defensive midfielder they actually need?
It’s just a few months since Chelsea fans denounced Roman Abramovich and the Chelsea board with cries of “you greedy bastards, you’ve ruined our club” and declared “we’ve saved the Premier League” after the European Super League collapsed.
Even so, they are now celebrating the arrival of £97.5m (€113.5m) striker Romelu Lukaku. It’s like they can’t or won’t join the dots, don’t have the first clue what they’re talking about, and are hypnotised by big money transfers.
But football-wise, if any deal makes perfect sense, it’s this one. The club needed a Lukaku-shaped striker for a title push and they got a very expensive one.
How on earth did Danny Ings only cost Aston Villa £25m? Getting a stone cold superb striker for that money — he scored 46 in 100 appearances for a poor Southampton side — is very crafty, under-priced business.
Anyone would think Southampton was in Scotland the price is so low. OK, he’s 29 but has spent a lot of time getting rubbed with hot soap in the treatment room (do they not do that any more?) over the years, and you might say he’s injury-prone, but at £25m, he’s worth the gamble as that overhead kick last week has already proven.
Signing a player from Japan’s JLeague has got an appealing hipster cool to it. After all, most people know little about it or its players.
However, the £4.6m Celtic handed over to Vissel Kobe for Kyogo Furuhashi may prove to have single-handedly transformed Celtic’s season. He’s already set the Parkhead crowd alight, scoring seven in nine games and generally looking very good indeed. He’s in the great tradition of Celtic ball-players and has strolled through most games with the sort of grace and ease fans love.
Move over Shunsuke Nakamura, there’s a new Japanese hero in Glasgow.
Yes, it was a shock. The last thing Manchester United needed was another striker. As everyone knows, they actually need a defensive midfielder, so the late signing of Cristiano Ronaldo must have thrown all other squad plans into disarray.
We can only conclude he’s been signed as much for the money he’ll generate, via merchandise and social media, as for his contribution on the pitch.
They’ll generate his wages in shirt sales, his transfer fee in media exposure, and have some leftover. But are they clever enough to spend the rest on Declan Rice? It seems unlikely at the moment.
Demarai Gray’s move from Bayer Leverkusen to Everton for just £1.7m seems an absolute steal for a 25-year-old. His six-year career at Leicester, across 169 appearances, included the small matter of one Premier League title win — though he only played 14 games that season — but was marked by the sort of inconsistent form which ended up dividing fans.
When he’s good, he’s very good and when you’ve only paid pennies for a player, he’s a gamble worth taking. So far, it has paid off, with four strong performances and two goals. Maybe Uncle Rafa is his kinda guy.
Daniel James’ exit from Old Trafford into the high-pressing but loving arms of Marcelo Bielsa was a genuine surprise.
There were no rumours, no speculation, no amateurish family member acting as an agent and making a fool of themselves in the press. This move caught us all by surprise. And what an ideal move for both clubs it is.
The speedy wideman will work perfectly in the high-energy intensity environment of the Leeds system, in a way he never quite did in Manchester. He’ll also be fitter than he’s ever been. Enjoy the three-hour murder ball sessions, Dan.
Tammy Abraham, 23, is now Jose Mourinho’s £34m man. After being touted — mostly by some of the one-eyed English pundits (and Frank Lampard) who overrate English players almost instinctively to be the next big thing, he’s only shown good runs of form in the second tier.
Fair play to him for taking the chance to play in front of 70,000 at the Stadio Olimpico, but those Roma ultras are a buttock-stabbing, unforgiving mob.
Is he any good? A future at Stoke City awaits if he’s not.
Reading were Tuesday night trying to sign the former footballer, the always injured pony-tailed warhorse, Andy Carroll. The club is under a transfer embargo because it can’t be trusted with money after paying out 119% of its income in wages and still being rubbish. The Football League wagged its finger and said it’d be very cross if it kept doing this so incomers have to be loans or free agents on a maximum contract of a year.
Scott Dann, Tom Dele-Bashiru, Baba Rahman, Junior Hoilett, Alen Halilovic, and Danny Drinkwater have arrived, costing the square root of nowt.
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