Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Red Herrings and Blue Moons

The transfer window is now closed and what a day for the city of Manchester as there was late drama and plenty of activity. I followed Sky Sports news for the majority of the day when I could and the main stories involved the two players that have created a lot of the headlines lately. Berbatov and Robinho although the destination of the later was to be a huge surprise.

It all started early when it became clear that Manchester City were taken over by a multi-billion Arab consortium - the buyers Abu Dhabi United Group who took over from ex-Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra. As soon as this was released to the press City were linked with everyone and it was announced through Sky Sports that they had an offer for Berbatov agreed at one point. They were also linked with David Villa and Gomez but I believe that all of these offers were red herrings to distract from their real intentions.

They may have made offers for other players but I believe that it was all a smoke screen for them to get the signature of their primary target Robinho. And they succeeded in doing just that although how a player who's heart is at Chelsea will play without a heart is any one's guess. Real Madrid have even gone on paper and stated that this move was not for 'sporting reasons'. I am biased but I can relate to the excitement surrounding (Middle) Eastlands as when Chelsea received their financial backing it was a massive boost in 2003. The difference is that this is no longer 2003 and although they have the money so does everyone else in the Premiership. Also the majority of decent players are already in our league only leaving the likes of Messi, Kaka and maybe Ronaldinho who turned down City.

It's a good day for Manchester City but through all the chants of 'We've got Robinho...' they must look back over the Shinawatra error era and all the promises and wonder why it didn't take off then.

Sir Alex Ferguson finally welcomed Dimitar Berbatov to Manchester United yesterday and even with the bid from City the player was always going to end up at Old Trafford. It's been a drawn out transfer saga but he is a player Fergie has wanted for a while and with them releasing Saha they were short of attackers. That concludes the transfer activity as the window is now closed and if there has been any other movement that hasn't been mentioned I will update tomorrow. I still feel that Chelsea landed the bargain of the season as £8 million for Deco provides great value for money. He is great with the ball at his feet and his form already illustrates the player at 30 has plenty of years left in him!!
Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]


Posted by Joe Dawson at 12:06:00 am