Transer Window Winners and Losers in the Premier League, Pt. 1

By: Daryl | February 1st, 2008

Transfer window closed SLAM! The January transfer window is officially shut. Nothing gets in or out until June 1st now. So time to take stock and see which Premier League clubs made good use of the self-improvement opportunity that is January, and which let it pass them by.

Below is Part One of the Transfer Window Winners and Losers in the Premier League. The first ten alphabetical clubs are listed, their January transfer activity summed up (just the highlights) and then we decide whether each club is a winner or a loser in January. Bear in mnd this is all opinion. If you disagree then it’s all good. No need to put your fist through the screen if you feel your club’s been unfairly branded a January loser. New computer screens are expensive.

Arsenal - Recent form suggests Arsene Wenger didn’t really need any new faces. He’s got Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue to come back from Ghana in 10 days max (and Alexandre Song, if Wenger even noticed he was gone) and also offloaded complainy pants midfielder Lassana Diarra to Portsmouth. Maybe Wenger will regret not reinforcing, but right now it seems like he’s all good.
Verdict: WINNERS

Aston Villa - One of the smallest squads in the Premier League + a billionaire owner + 31 days of transfer window (should) = a bigger squad. But somehow Martin O’Neill made a net loss of players. He brought in Spurs reject Wayne Routledge for £1.5m, but let Gary Cahill go to Bolton for £5m and sent three youngsters out on loan. Word is that O’Neill desperately wanted Jonathan Woodgate, but was too slow.
Verdict: LOSERS

McFadden to Birmingham Birmingham City - If they want to stay in the Premier League this time, Birmingham need to make the squad Premiership standard. Alex McLeish has let go a few players who were never going to cut it - Rowan Vine (QPR, £1m), Neil Danns (Crystal Palace, £600,000), Neil Kilkenny (Leeds, £150,000) - and brought in one who already can by paying £5.25m for James McFadden (pictured.) Left back David Murphy (£1.5m from Hibs) may be a sound long term signing too.
Verdict: WINNERS

Blackburn Rovers - Needed reinforcements in midfield, but despite losing Robbie Savage to Derby (where he plans to prove himself, or something) Mark Hughes brought in no new faces.
Verdict: LOSERS

Matty Taylor Portsmouth to Bolton Bolton Wanderers - It would be easy to label Bolton as losers because they entered January with Nicolas Anelka and left January without him. But Gary Megson never really had a hope of keeping the born-again (career-wise) striker, so it’s all relative and £15m is a decent price. But Megson has reinvested that money in what could be described as average players - Gary Cahill (Aston Villa, £5m) Matt Taylor (pictured, Portsmouth, £3.5m, £3.49m of which is for his hammer of a left foot), Gretar Steinsson (AZ Alkmaar, £3.5m), Tamir Cohen (Maccabi Netanya, free), Grzegorz Rasiak (Southampton, loan). It’s all very tentative, but for at least spending the money and getting in reinforcements…
Verdict: WINNERS (but it was close)

Chelsea - Avram Grant’s first go with Roman Abramovich’s credit card yielded a quality striker who could form a deadly partnership with Didier Drogba (Nicolas Anelka, £15m) a much needed extra central defender (Branislav Ivanovic, £9m), and a quality young striker (Franco di Santo, £3.5m.) Grant also let Adrian Pettigrew go on loan to Stoke, but should be able to cope without him.
Verdict: WINNERS

Robbie Savage derby Derby County - Were always going to struggle to attract really high quality signings. If you’re a player trying to reach the top floor, you don’t step into a lift (or elevator) that’s had the cables cut and is plummeting towards a fiery crash in the basement. But Paul Jewell did make use of the transfer window by bringing in a striker (Emanuel Villa, £2m,) a long-haired midfield pest (Robbie Savage, £1.5m,) a lazy Frenchman with a magic left foot (Laurent Robert, freebie,) an experienced keeper (Roy Carroll, freebie,) an experienced Premier League defender (Alan Stubbs, freebie,) an Egyptian midfielder who may actually be quite good if he knuckles down this time (Hossam Ghaly, loan) and thug/right back (Danny Mills, loan.) Under the circumstances, this is about the best Jewell could have done.
Verdict: WINNERS (but still going down)

Everton - David Moyes let James McFadden go, which is fair enough because he wasn’t playing much and fetched a decent price (£5.25m.) He also secured Manuel Fernandes‘ return to the club (on loan from Valencia) after the Portuguese midfielder impressed at Everton last season as well as getting Anthony Gardner on loan as defensive cover (hmm, so-so) and invested in the future by snapping up coveted midfielder Dan Gosling from Plymouth for £1.5m. The squad looks better now that it did in December.
Verdict: WINNERS

Johnson Fulham Fulham - New manager Roy Hodgson needed to undo Lawrie Sanchez’s crazy summer transfer work (where he signed half the Northern Ireland team.) He sent one of the more talented Northern Irish players (Steven Davis) on loan to Rangers, but also made some promising signings: Danish defensive mid Leon Andreasen (£2.5m) is by all accounts very solid, Norwegian international defender Brede Hangeland (£3m) was interesting other Premier League clubs (and, weirdly, was born in Houston, Teaxas,) Eddie Johnson (pictured, £2.5m) is reunited with best footballing bud Clint Dempsey (and could bring the best out of each other,) Erik Nevland (£1.8m) was very good on Championship Manager 2 if I remember (though not sure that counts for much) and Jari Litnamen (free) is ancient, but classy. Meanwhile Paul Stalteri (loan) may not be the world’s best fullback, but he’s better than Chris Baird. Fulham needed a shake-up, and that’s what Hodgson delivered.
Verdict: WINNERS

Liverpool - All kinds of drama at Anfield recently, much of it over how much Rafa Benitez could spend in January. Just for the instability that’s created, Liverpool have to be considered losers in the January transfer window. Benitez did bring in a very very badly needed central defender in Martin Skrtel (£6.5m) and even managed to trick Juventus into paying £8.2m for an out of form Momo Sissoko. It’s unclear whether Javier Mascherano’s spell at Anfield was made permanent or not, but whatever his status he’ll still be there until June at the very least. From a purely players in/out perspective Liverpool would have benefited from spending big on a Premier League defender who doesn’t need to settle in and maybe a more creative midfielder to turn some of those draws into three points. More importantly there was too much damage done to stability and morale for January to be considered a good month for Liverpool Football Club.
Verdict: LOSERS

Part two to follow later today.

Disagree with any of the verdicts? Tell us why.