Time will tell whether imports will gel

Sep 2 2008 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

After months of speculation, controversy and the occasional row, the transfer window slammed shut last night. Chief sports writer Luke Edwards looks at what it means for the North East’s Premier League clubs

GIVEN the determination of the European Union to ensure the rights of its workers, and the tenacity with which professional footballers pursue the financial benefits which come with freedom of movement, it is a wonder there is a transfer window in the first place.

Initially created to try to stop the richest clubs in Europe from gaining an unfair advantage over their rivals by preventing them from signing players during the course of a campaign, the transfer window has done little more than increase stress levels for managers and provide artificial excitement for 24-hour news organisations on deadline day.

As with Christmas shopping, in an ideal world, Premier League managers would like to have everything finished long before the big day, but the reality tends to be rather different, with plenty of flustered buying and selling done in the last few days, even minutes.

While sensible managers like Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger are rarely dragged into the desperate horse trading which characterises the final hours of the transfer window, the majority of English football is forced to do plenty of their buying at the last minute with the added strain of a ticking clock behind them.

That was certainly the case for Newcastle United last night as the club’s hierarchy looked to head off a growing tide of discontent by finally providing manager Kevin Keegan with the players he has spent all summer insisting the Magpies need to be competitive this season.

With James Milner packed off to Aston Villa for a startling £12m on Friday morning, there was plenty of pressure on the Magpies’ specialist recruitment team of Dennis Wise and Tony Jimenez to pull something out of the hat over the weekend.

Only time will tell whether the signings of Ignacio Gonzalez and Francisco Jiménez Tejada – aka Xisco – were inspired last-ditch attempts to strengthen a threadbare squad, or ill-considered panic buys to avert a revolt on Tyneside. As ever, the arrival of relatively unknown players from abroad looks a high-risk strategy – Albert Luque, Marcelino, Daniel Cordone and Christian Bassedas spring to mind – but Wise and Jimenez appear to have pulled off something of a coup in the signings of Argentinean pair Jonás Gutiérrez and Fabricio Coloccini.

Despite their lack of Premier League experience, United obviously did their research as both – although it could still be a different story when the North East winter starts to bite - have adapted well to the pace and physicality of English football.

While both these players came with an international pedigree, the arrival of Danny Guthrie from Liverpool reserves was greeted with ambivalence. However, the 21-year-old midfielder has looked a decent acquisition and proves there is young English talent out there which only needs a chance to shine.

While Newcastle’s business has been sporadic, Sunderland have been the busiest side in the Premier League with Roy Keane taking the number of new signings to ten yesterday when the Black Cats re-signed left-back George McCartney from West Ham.

Nobody can question Sunderland’s ambition and all of the new arrivals come with a proven Premier League pedigree which should, in theory, help take the Wearsiders on to the next level.

In fact, it is debatable whether any club in the division has had more success in strengthening their squad this summer than the Black Cats, but what looks good on paper does not always turn out to be as effective in real life.

When you have signed what equates to an entirely new first team, there are often problems getting the new players to gel and the 3-0 home defeat by Manchester City last weekend underlines the fact Keane still has plenty of work to do.

Indeed, although Keane’s achievements as manager at the Stadium of Light and the backing he receives from chairman Niall Quinn make him virtually untouchable, the lavish spending means he has cranked up expectations.

You sense, though, that the Irishman would not want it any other way. Better to fail trying than to fail to try and in players like Steed Malbranque, Anton Ferdinand, Djibril Cisse and El-Hadji Diouf, Sunderland have players with a bit of star quality.

Middlesbrough have put their emphasis on youth with new signings Marvin Emnes, Didier Digard and Justin Hoyte, along with the departure of right-back Luke Young, taking the average age of the first team squad below 23.

Boro manager Gareth Southgate appears content with the tools at his disposal and the early signs are certainly encouraging for the Tessiders following a solid start to the new season which has also brought some exciting attacking football back to the Riverside.

Elsewhere in the Premier League, the name of Cristiano Ronaldo was omnipresent at the start of the summer as, at times, even the European Championships were overshadowed by the increasingly bitter dispute between Manchester United and Real Madrid.

Ronaldo played games in the media, claiming he wanted to stay at Old Trafford and then, once away from English journalists, that it was his dream to play for Madrid before refusing to discuss the matter further. Manchester United and Madrid exchanged insults at boardroom level, while manager Sir Alex Ferguson enjoyed a family holiday. The Scot eventually squashed the move in one meeting with his star player and instantly forgave the preening Portuguese for his dubious behaviour.

The whole tedious sage hit a new low when one Sky Sports news presenter, having failed to get Ronaldo to speak about his future after hijacking a Portugal press conference, celebrated in front of the cameras by picking up the lollipop the winger had sucked while refusing to answer his questions. Another long-running and argumentative transfer saga involved sulky Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov, who, after weeks of posturing from Tottenham Hotpsur finally signed for Manchester United for £30m last night after local rivals City forced them to up their offer when they had a bid accepted by Spurs yesterday.

Rome was not built in a day and neither is a football team – it can just seems like it should sometimes to spare us all this.