Much ado about nothing as summer transfer window fails to ignite

You know it’s a quiet time in the world of football news when the banning of the vuvuzela by a handful of Premier League clubs makes the press. This is the situation in which we have found ourselves however, as the effects of a post-World Cup lull and a three and half week wait before the start of Premier League football begin to take their toll. With a distinct lack of anything meaningful happening in the transfer market, it appears that a plastic trumpet is one of the more newsworthy items on editors’ desks.

The tabloids are still trying to persuade us that there is a lot is going on of course, but there isn’t much in the way of evidence to support that. The Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona rumour rumbles on, Manchester City continue to be linked with any player in Europe considered to be worth more than £20 million, whislt everybody is waiting with baited breath as Fernando Torres decides his future. In terms of cold hard transfers in which money has exchanged hands however, there is not much to write about.

Joe Cole’s move to Liverpool this week is about as big as it has been so far, with newspapers even seeking to use that as a way to generate more speculation on the futures of Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Javier Mascherano. Gerrard now wants to stay by all accounts, Mascherano very clearly doesn’t, whilst Torres has yet to declare his hand. One thing is for sure, for what was effectively a swap of Yossi Benayoun in return for Cole and £5 million, Liverpool have got the better deal than Chelsea.

Much of the recent inactivity may be due to the lack of funds that the top clubs have at their disposal. Sir Alex Ferguson has declared that he sees little value in the existing market and is isn’t proposing to spend big ahead of the new season, but would he be in a position to do so even if he wanted to? At Liverpool, Roy Hodgson has found himself very much in a ‘sell to buy’ situation, with Emilio Insua heading out of the exit door and the likes of Sotirios Kyrgiakos and Albert Riera also set to make way.

Money is no issue for Manchester City of course, with David Silva and Yaya Toure both brought in for more than £20 million, whilst Jerome Boateng was bargain basement by their standards at £11 million. Mario Balotelli is increasingly looking like their next signing to add to an ever expanding collection of strikers for a figure around £23 million. However, talk of a move to Eastlands for Didier Drogba appears to be nothing more than the Ivorian’s agent trying to get better terms for his client at Chelsea.

The champions themselves have been particularly quiet, with Benayoun, Matej Delac and Tomas Kalac being Carlo Ancelotti’s only summer captures to date. With an assault on the European title so coveted by Roman Abramovich surely at the top of Ancelotti’s list of priorities, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the owner’s cheque book opened again, although it remains to be seen whether he is prepared to fund the kind of transfers for which he became synonymous when he first arrived at the club.

Elsewhere, Harry Redknapp has proved to be remarkably restrained with just Sandro Ranieri having arrived at Tottenham, Martin O’Neill hasn’t brought in any players at Villa Park to date, whilst at the other end of the Premier League spectrum, the promoted sides are yet to make the kind of investment which might be needed to retain their place in the top flight, with Blackpool, Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion having made just five signings between them.

As the season edges nearer, we are likely to see a steady increase in transfer activity as managers get to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of their squad in pre-season, although with funds increasingly limited there may not be the blockbuster signing that everyone is agitating for. So perhaps now is the time to enjoy the summer and a break from the game, but somehow picking over the finer details of Titus Bramble’s move to Sunderland still seems more appealing. Roll on the new season.

July 21, 2010