Transfer Talk: Not Bent out of Shape, Ronnie & Gooch Deals Done, Starlets Star Bright

By: Bob | January 30th, 2007

The window transfer window officially comes to a close Wednesday so all around the world players, agents and clubs are scrambling to get those deals done. The crazy season hasn’t been all that crazy this year, but that hasn’t stopped us from keeping on top of the rumors, deals and duds. Here’s a selection of the big and not so big transfer news from today.

Before we all start bemoaning the state of modern football because Charlton reportedly turned down an £18million bid from West Ham for Darren Bent, West Ham would like to inform the world that they didn’t make such an offer. Should you believe this? Hard to say, but at least for one split second you can believe that absurd payments for ordinary players might not be ruining football after all.

You can also rest easy knowing that Ronaldo has finally found a new home. After weeks and weeks of gibberish the Real Madrid striker has been shipped to AC Milan who were reported to have made a bid of between 15 and 18 million euros for the all-time leading World Cup goal scorer. Ok, maybe money is ruining football after all.

I’m officially tired of writing about Standard Liege and US international defender Oguchi Onyewu. Thankfully Newscastle United have come to the rescue and have signed him on loan until the end of the season. Does this mean we’ll have to go through all the speculation again this summer? You betcha…

Speaking of players that have received a lot of pub this transfer window, Tottenham continue to be the reported front runner for the youngster Gareth Bale and they are willing to wait until this summer if need be to buy him from Southampton. That should give Manchester United and others plenty of time to try steal him away from Spurs.

Teenager Oliver Bozanic is the hottest thing to come out of Australia since Elle McPherson. Reading have landed the 18-year-old starlet on a two-and-a-half year contract. He will not be posing in Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit magazine, however.

Reading aren’t the only ones who like 18-year-olds. Liverpool continue to replenish their youth talent pool and are expected to sign Spanish midfielder Francis Duran from Malaga. He’ll have plenty of fun keeping his Spanish language skills sharp with new acquisition Alvaro Albeloa who will come to Liverpool from Deportivo La Coruna.

All it took was a “small transfer fee” for Swiss international Bruno Berner to move from FC Basle to Blackburn. Somehow I think it was fairly easy to find a bank in Switzerland to transfer the funds to.

French champions Lyon completed to sign midfielder Fabio Santos from Brazilian club Cruzeiro for 4 million Euros. Lyon almost have more Brazilians on their roster than the Brazil national team. No wonder they always win.

PSV Eindhoven have signed Inter Milan midfielder Tijani Belaid on loan for the remainder of the season. A tough break going from a side that has already wrapped up the Serie A title to a side that has already wrapped up the Dutch one.

Nurnberg have agreed a deal to sign former Bayern Munich midfielder Zvjezdan Misimovic at the end of the season from Bochum. I have nothing more to say about that.