Summer 2013 Transfer Window Awards

Earlier this week I wrote a piece reviewing the transfer window from an Arsenal fan’s perspective, which ended up being a lot longer than I intended it to.  I was going to review the window as a whole, but having to split it in to two pieces has worked out well and made more sense. So, without further ado, the second half of my transfer window review… The Awards.

Best signing: Maybe this is my Arsenal bias showing, but I like to think I’m pretty objective, but I genuinely believe that Mesut Özil is the best signing this summer (covered here). In terms of value for money, who can say, but looking at the other Premier League transfers, it’s hard to argue.

Most envy-inspiring signing: I’m going to give this to Liverpool, and the transfer of Mamadou Sakho. I’ve highly rated him for years, and I really thought that we needed to strengthen the defence. I’ve spent the last few days telling all my Liverpool supporting friends they’ve got a real player in their hands there.

The Kevin Phillips Award for most typical signing by a promoted club: Goes to Crystal Palace for signing … Kevin Phillips! Phillips just seems like one of those guys that always joins a newly-promoted side for ‘one last year in the Premier League’. Not only did they sign Phillips, but Palace also signed Dwight Gayle, one of the most standard newly-promoted club signings you can think of: young striker who played one season in the Championship and scored a few goals. He also played for Stansted a few seasons ago, meaning every commentator covering a Palace game this season will say “This young man was playing in the ninth tier of English football just a few seasons ago; now he’s scoring in the Premier League”. Tidbit: no-one seems to know when he was born. Other players Crystal Palace signed: Stephen Dobbie, Cameron Jerome, Elliot Grandin, Adrian Mariappa and Cameron Jerome. They clearly think they’re staying up.

Best name for a new Premier League signing: Cardiff City’s Kevin Theophile-Catherine. They strengthen their case with the acquisition of Maximiliano Amondarain.

The Francis Jeffers Award for the club that Arsenal fans want to thank most for taking an awful striker off their hands: Crystal Palace are again successful for signing Marouane Chamakh. I was surprised we actually received some money for that guy.

Best all-around business: This is a close one between the two Merseyside, but Everton edge it for me. Signings James McCarthy to play alongside the burgeoning Ross Barkley should create a good midfield partnership, and, despite the fact that they are only on loan, Romelu Lukaku and Gerard Deulofeu are very good players. Deulofeu is a Barcelona product who will only get better playing on a regular basis and Lukaku should become a 15-20 goals (if not more) a season striker. Liverpool did well to keep Luis Suarez, Simon Mignolet has played very well so far this season in goal, Mamadou Sakho and Tiago Ilori are good defensive pieces and Victor Moses, on loan from Chelsea, should get game time and replicate his form from Wigan.

Most incomprehensible business: Chelsea, who surprisingly (to me), loaned Lukaku and Moses to Everton and Liverpool, respectively. I’ve spent all summer telling anyone who’d listen that Lukaku was going to be Jose Mourinho’s new Drogba, yet he hadn’t started a game for Chelsea before being loaned out, despite the fact that Fernando Torres only scores in Europe and Demba Ba can’t seem to buy a goal for Chelsea. They obviously weren’t expecting Liverpool to play as well as they have done either, and usually a top club only loan to a lower team. Strange business.

BIggest WTF: About halfway through deadline day, rumours starting coming out of Spain that Manchester Utd were negotiating a deal for Athletic Bilbao’s Ander Herrera. Not long after this, rumours then began circulating that the 3 Man Utd ‘representatives’ were in fact imposters. According to the club, they backed out of the deal because they didn’t want to match Bilbao’s fee. Both sides are rejecting the hoax claims, but the reports in the press would lead one to believe otherwise.

Worst manager/staff hire: Newcastle signed Joe Kinnear as director of football, for his apparent contacts throughout Europe. The only player he managed to sign was Loic Remy on loan from QPR. As usual, Newcastle fans were furious, seemingly their only emotion since Mike Ashley took over the club.

Most desperate signing: After a summer of disappointment, which flew under the radar a bit because of Arsenal not signing anyone, Manchester United finalised the transfer of Marouane Fellaini from Everton right at the deadline. Man Utd tried to sign multiple midfielders to improve their squad but failed with all bids. Fans were calling for a creative midfielder to come in to create chances for their front line; however, new manager David Moyes went to his old club and paid over the odds for Fellaini - a player he could have signed a month or so earlier for around £5million less. Fans, and neutrals, were also disappointed that Moyes was refusing to play Shinji Kagawa - the creative midfield type they were desperate for.

Summer Transfer Window Review

Well, now that the summer window is over it's time for a little review. As an Arsenal fan, I had a particularly frustrating and underwhelming summer. It started with our wonderful Chief Exec, Ivan Gazidis, telling the world that we finally had money to spend and that we would make major signings.

Good move, Ivan. First, every club is going to add £5-10 million to the price tag of any player Arsenal enquire about. Second, to go almost the whole summer making low bids for players and then missing out on top-level players when the fans know how much money there is, is no way to win the fans - a number of whom were already disillusioned with Gazidis and the board - over.

However, what an ending to the window. The signing of Mesut Özil is an incredible one for Arsenal, on many levels. First off, a player of his calibre agreeing to join Arsenal shows that someone behind the scenes must have been very convincing about the trajectory of Arsenal's future. Secondly, we always hear that great players want to play with other great players, so hopefully his signing will attract other top players to join in January or next summer, the way it did all those years ago when the surprise signing of God (aka The Non-Flying Dutchan, aka Dennis Bergkamp) did; within a few years we had signed the likes of Vieira, Henry, Overmars and Anelka, to name but a few. Finally, he is without doubt a top quality player. Özil ties Lionel Messi in having the most assists in Europe's top leagues since joining Real Madrid; imagine the chances he'll create for Olivier Giroud. He inspired the Germany U21 side to victory in the 2009 European U21 Championships and has a decent goal-scoring record at international level (14 in 47 games for Germany's senior team; though only 32 club goals - but it's not the goals we signed him for).

The re-signing of Mathieu Flamini after 5 seasons in Italy was a bit of a shock at first. I wasn't sure how to react. I always liked him as a versatile player before he left for Milan, but I wasn't sure going back to an ex-player was the best idea. Then he came on in the 43rd minute against Sp*rs and absolutely bossed the midfield. He was strong in the tackle, chased opposition players, barked out orders to his defence and, most importantly of all, showed passion for the club. It's early days, but he's been encouraging so far and will go some way to filling in the defensive midfielder role.

A small word on Emiliano Viviano here: a good signing. No transfer fee committed to yet and genuine competition for Szczesny, perhaps even an alternative should the Big Pole lose some form. He seems to be Italy's number 2 or 3 keeper, and started most of their qualifiers for Euro 2012 when Gigi Buffon was injured. And for me, a huge, huge upgrade on Flappy-hand-ski. Looks a bit like Almunia though.

Oh, almost forgot Yaya Sanogo. I've seen so little of him in preseason and the season so far that I have nothing to comment on - other than he was touted as a wonderkid on Football Manager a few times, so here's hoping!

In my opinion, though, we have missed failed in a few areas. None of us can really know what goes on behind the scenes during a transfer, or who a club is really making a bid for (anyone who claims to be "in the know" is talking out of their arse, as far as I'm concerned); however, there were some sagas for Arsenal this summer. Luis Suarez, in my opinion, is a top quality striker: the goals speak for themselves, but the guy is a nutjob. I have no idea why someone so talented would insist on ballsing up their career by talking to fellow players in racist terms, and biting others. Overall, though, I would have welcomed the signing had Arsenal finalised... I think. Looking back I'm not so sure now... Anyway, another player that I definitely would have been happy signing was Yohan Cabaye. I've seen quite a lot of him over the years, having lived in Lille for a year when he played there and followed the team since then, and I was genuinely shocked when Newcastle signed him - I thought it was a real coup. He's very similar to Mikel Arteta, more of a deep-lying playmaker than a midfield-enforcer (one of which I think Arsenal could do with), but he's still a good player. The Cabaye bid was a very odd one, though: why make just one bid for a player that you allegedly want? If the Club really wanted him, surely they would go back with another bid; if not, why bid at all? Missing out on Gonzalo Higuain is a shame, as it seemed he wanted to join, but Real Madrid starting asking for more money than we were willing to pay so we backed out. Imagine having the luxury of rotating Higuain and Giroud! That's a strikeforce most Premier League defences would be scared of.

Finally, I thought we needed reinforcements in both central defence and in the defensive midfield position (though as mentioned above, Flamini has impressed). A central defender would have been nice, and I'm quite jealous of Liverpool snapping up Mamadou Sakho. who I think would have fit in nicely. Also, a striker as cover for Giroud would have been perfect, though now we have Özil I can see Podolski being used through the centre more often. And we always have Sanogo and the Great Dane as backup - every silver cloud, eh?

Later this week I'll be dishing out awards for the summer transfer window. I'm sure all the top clubs will be on the edge of their seats.