A day of drama, back stabbing, ungraceful banter. A day of stubbornness, sheer arrogance, and greed. Nevertheless, this is no Eastenders episode.
This unfortunate soap is the 1St September 2008 and deadline day. Thankfully, the transfer window is firmly shut, so we have no chance of another nasty return for Dirty Den.
The day was a revelation, to say the least. We now have a new boy on the block, Robinho. Whilst the red half, wheeled and dealed and practically kidnapped Dimitar Berbatov.
City even put in a rather hopeful attempt to put one over on their rivals and steal the stroppy striker’s signature, but Berbatov moaned and whined until he got his way.
Sir Alex Ferguson you appear, in most cases, above the law and it is a real shame Daniel Levy does not have a strong backbone to shred you into pieces. At least you have Frazier Campbell on loan for the season, and Spurs fans you remember the last time you sported Campbell on the back of a replica shirt don’t you?
Ferguson always gets what he wants. It does not matter when or how, he will get what he wants, or do as his pleases. You cannot questions his motives and he is the most successfully to grace the Premiership and Europe in recent years, but you cannot conduct the way he acts.
Tottenham just enhanced their justification of being a feeder club, a stopgap even where every player who destined to join spurs are also destined to move on. Sol Campbell, Michael Carrick, Robbie Keane, Berbatov, Rohan Ricketts (HAHA), Jermaine Defoe, Teddy Sheringham, etc.
That is why I have a lot of respect for Martin O’Neil at present as he stuck to his guns in Liverpool’s pursuit of midfielder Gareth Barry and he won. Rafael Benitez will not be happy having that ‘Barry’ void within his squad. Well done O’Neil you can occupy Tottenham’s position as the best of the rest. Bringing good young hungry English players in the form of James Milner, Steve Sidwell, Nicky Shorey, and Luke Young will make your squad more intense as they will strife to work together. No big egos, one squad, I like O’Neil’s thinking.
As for Liverpool, shocking transfer window, shocking. I was encouraged by the signing of Keane, in fact, I was almost in heaven, but it did cost us. Bringing in another 8 million player in Albert Riera is a mistake; again, he is just a stopgap. It is a left-winger but to be honest I would have preferred Milner. Last year we had Fernando Torres, we had an edge, and it seems Liverpool has taken another step sideways as Manchester United and Chelsea step further forward. Even Villa and City are slowly catching.
I am glad it is all over and we can solely concentrate on the football first hand but first we have to put up with two England games. Eastenders do not sound that bad now.
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1 comment:
I didn't hear any complaining about Daniel Levy's backbone when we sold you Robbie Keane. Double standards tut tut.
If Spurs are a 'feeder club' as you put it because we sell players then surely everyone else in the Premiership is? We buy players, some leave soon, some leave later, is this not the circle of Premier League life? Robbie Keane was at Spurs for 6 years before he left!
We sold Berbatov because he wanted to leave and we didn't want an upset player. Besides, which team outside the top four could say no to £30 million? The Barry and Berbatov instances are so, so different - Berbatov had two seasons at Tottenham whereas Barry had grown up at Villa for TEN YEARS! Therefore it is likely that when he was told 'no', Barry simply accepted it and didn't kick up a fuss in the manner of Berbatov or his agent.
I think it's a disappointing view to label Spurs a feeder club simply on the basis that we have sold our two best players for a combined £50 million. Bottom line - teams will always cash in on their best players for inflated amounts of money at some point. Examples - West Ham sold Joe Cole to Chelsea, Man City sold Wright-Phillips to Chelsea, Fulham sold Louis Saha to Man Utd, Walcott to Arsenal, Benayoun to Liverpool, Mascherano to Liverpool, etc, etc, etc.
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