In the penultimate day of the transfer window until January, JOE takes a look at some of the juiciest football rumours.
By Conor Hogan
Not the preantepenultimate day of the transfer window, or the antepenultimate day of the transfer window, or even the ultimate day of the transfer window, but today is the penultimate day of the transfer window. One more day and it will be shut forever or until January – whichever comes first.
And what a transfer window it was! We witnessed Manchester City buy half the players in the civilized world, we witnessed Manchester United rescue a player from homelessness (well, the Portuguese third division anyway), we witnessed William Gallas cross the North London divide – and people not really caring that much, and we also witnessed the birth of Sky Sports’ new theme to fill up time in its endless search for something to say – player power. Oh yes – player power.
Hatem Ben Arfa went on strike to engineer a move to Newcastle, as did Javier Mascherano to engineer a move to Barcelona. Asmir Begovic wasn’t quite as successful with his strike – he’s still on the bench at Stoke. But in the end, wasn’t it worth it for the Bosnian? For thanks to him we had something to talk about. If there was nothing to talk about, all we’d have to keep us company would be the endless windmill of our thoughts and fears. We salute you Asmir Begovic, as we salute everyone – apart from Marlon King possibly.
Rocky and Wolfswinkel
And it isn’t over yet. Newcastle are set to bid £8million for the man who destroyed Celtic – Utrecht’s Ricky van Wolfswinkel, a man who has scored 12 goals already this season. West Brom want to bid £3million for Aston Villa’s Steve Sidwell, while Birmingham are after Spartak Moscow captain Martin Jiranek, Tony Pulis wants to sign FIVE apparently. He must be a big fan of the semi-popular 90s boyband. If he can’t get Richie, Abz and co he’ll turn his attention to Tottenham’s £7million rated Jermaine Jenas. He’ll also try and get Eider Gudjohnsen or someone else.
The Jack Rodwell to Manchester United rumours are in vogue once again. Alex Ferguson will apparently offer the Toffees £10million and Michael Carrick. Ferguson seems to want to completely freshen up his midfield, as he is monitoring Sunderland’s hotheaded captain Lee Cattermole. This season’s eventual Champions League winners Tottenham Hotspur are desperate for a striker and are still chasing Sevilla’s Luis Fabiano and Schalke target Klass- Jan Huntelaar, who is valued at £11million.
Hoffenheim are after Reading’s £4.5million rated Gylfi Sigurdsson, Sunderland are willing to pay up to £18million for Rennes and Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan, Wigan could offer Bolton £3million to make loan signing Ali-al Habsi a permanent signing. Oh man, that would be good for Wigan. Oh man! Don’t you get it? He’s from Oman. It’s a country in Asia that sounds like the words ‘Oh man’.
SPL in a bucket
Celtic are so close to signing Anthony Stokes that they can taste it. The Dubliner has scored 40 goals in 62 games in Scotland, though he only scored six in 61 in England. What’s that about horses for courses?
Conclusion
And so that’s it. There’s one more day to find out who stays and who goes. Will it be a frantic and frenetic final day? Do frantic and frenetic mean the same thing, rendering my last sentence somewhat redundant? Will there be a surprise? I don’t know. If I did, then it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it?
Whoever moves tomorrow, let them be happy with their lot. Let them drink from the sweet nectar that is life. Let them travel forward like a falcon, feeling the breeze in its beak as it targets a wandering cat it has mistaken for vermin. (In all fairness to the falcon, he’s up very high, and sometimes cats can resemble mice from close up. The cats I’m talking about are those disgusting looking hairless sphinx cats.) But most of all, let the players have no regrets.
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