 Sunday, 4th Sep 2011 22:02 by Clive Whittingham The Premier League may already be three games old, but it’s only now the transfer window has closed that a fair assessment can be made of each side’s chances. LFW looks at the winners and losers. Changing timesIt doesn’t seem like very long ago that our big deadline day target was Bradley Wright Phillips – and even he picked Southampton over a move to Loftus Road. Bradley plays in league One for Charlton these days while QPR play in the Premiership and are now celebrating the signing of his England international brother Shaun. The pace of change at QPR is as rapid as ever, to the extent where even during this summer’s transfer window our targets and ambitions have changed markedly. A month ago we were scrabbling some loose change together for DJ Campbell and trying to put a brave face on the addition of notoriously injury prone Kieron Dyer. Now we’re so spoilt we’re questioning whether the players we have signed are good enough. Only time will tell if they are. Shaun Wright Phillips, Joey Barton, Luke Young and to some extent Anton Ferdinand were beyond our wildest dreams three weeks ago but that doesn’t mean we’re set fair for an easy ride. Sunderland spent £70m when they first arrived in this league, including £8m on the purchase of Ferdinand, and still only stayed up by the skin of their teeth and if we are to remain in the Premiership this season then I doubt it will be by much more than that. Our fixtures in the last eight weeks of the season are still horrifying and we have already pissed away two winnable games in August – the Bolton and Wigan defeats products of a mis-spent summer. As far as I see it what we have done in the last fortnight is two things. Firstly, we’ve given ourselves a fighting chance. When we went around the table in The Green Room before the Bolton game I said we’d finish above Blackburn, and that was about as optimistic as I could get. Now I can foresee quite a few teams potentially finishing below us – not only the usual Wigan, Norwich and Swansea suspects but also teams like Everton and Newcastle who have spent the summer transfer window terminally weakening their squads. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that either, or even both, could drop this season. But with the new signings will come added pressure. Previously nobody at Loftus Road seemed to expect anything of our team or of Neil Warnock – indeed in a most un-Loftus-Road-like gesture the crowd at the Bolton game applauded the team off after a 4-0 defeat. If we get done by half that scoreline against Newcastle I cannot foresee the reaction being as favourable. How long before the first “is Neil Warnock really a Premiership manager” threads start appearing on message boards? A couple of consecutive defeats ought to do it I reckon. Warnock has rarely managed in the Premiership and has never been given an opportunity like the one Tony Fernandes has just presented him with. I think he’ll excel personally and I’m delighted for him, but having given himself a fighting chance I’m sure the more impatient sections of our fan base will be expecting his side to punch its weight. We’ve already had message board threads saying our signings should have been greater in quantity and quality which seems ludicrous given the circumstances. The second thing we’ve done this summer is add another two layers of signings onto our already bloated squad. I’ve written about these layers before – little groups of five or six players signed by (or for) different managers who had different ideals and styles of play and formations. We still have players in our squad from the Ian Holloway era and there are players in there signed by (or for) Gregory, De Canio, Dowie, Sousa, Magilton and now Warnock. This summer Warnock added another layer with Perone, Shittu, Ramage and Helguson in and then another on top of that with the likes of Wright Phillips and Ferdinand when the budget changed. So players who signed or extended their deals just weeks ago are now surplus to requirements – Danny Shittu didn’t even make the 25 man squad. Look at the names that join him – Hogan Ephraim, Peter Ramage, Rowan Vine, Alessandro Pellicori, Matteo Alberti, Martin Rowlands, Lee Cook, Peter Vaagan Moen, Troy Hewitt, Rob Hulse and the mythical Gary Borrowdale. One daren’t even think how much money we’re paying these players to now sit and do absolutely nothing. Clearly our new board is preparing to take a massive financial hit this season in the hope of maintaining Premiership status. If we were to be relegated I don’t see how we could be anything other than financially screwed – it would cost Fernandes and Bhatia many millions. But, I don’t think we will be relegated. I mention the Sunderland figure above, but I think the Premiership has changed markedly since they arrived back for their latest spell. At the top end we now have three or four clubs that are just untouchable financially and it seems as if the rest of the league has almost accepted this and given up. Aston Villa and Spurs are two prime examples of clubs that not so very long ago would have been throwing some money around and talking about Champions League qualification themselves – their spending this summer smacks of clubs that know they won’t go down but equally know they can’t compete at the top end. This watering down of the middle ground in this league is good news for us – we can compete with them for signings now and there are points up for grabs when we play them. I think we have enough talent, enough squad depth, enough players with something to prove and enough spirit to survive this season. Not by much, but I think we’ll scrape through now. QPR final place prediction – 16th In: Shaun Wright-Phillips (Man City, £6.5m), Armand Traore (Arsenal, £3.3m), DJ Campbell (Blackpool, £1.2m), Danny Gabbidon (West Ham, free), Jay Bothroyd (Cardiff, free), Kieron Dyer (West Ham, free), Brian Murphy (Ipswich, free), Bruno Perone (Tombense, free), Joey Barton (Newcastle, free), Anton Ferdinand (Sunderland) Out: Mikele Leigertwood (Reading, undisclosed), Georgias Tofas (Anagennisi, free), Josh Parker (Oldham, free), Joe Oastler (Torquay, free), Lee Brown (Bristol Rovers, free), Kaspars Gorkss (Reading, undisclosed). LOANS: Peter Ramage (Crystal Palace), Angelo Balanta (MK Dons)
The full run downIn order of where LFW predicts they will finish we assess each club’s prospects and transfer window activity. Transfer fees are estimated by The Sun when declared as undisclosed and given that they have SWP down as a £6.5m signing I’m not sure we should place too much stock in them – incidentally how ludicrous is it that clubs are forced to reveal how much was paid to agents in a transfer but not how much was paid for the player himself? 1st - Man City: There’s a little bit of heart ruling head here because it would be vomit inducing for me to tip Man Utd for any kind of success but Manchester City are going to win this league sooner rather than later. They should have done better last season when they qualified for the Champions League and saw it as a success but really should have been holding an inquest into why they went into so many big games clearly happy to draw 0-0. That negative attitude of Roberto Mancini seems to have been blown away in spectacular fashion so far this season with 12 goals scored in three games already and Edin Dzeko on fire. They have the best team and squad in the league for my money, the test will come when they start playing European games as well but they couldn’t be better equipped to cope. In: Sergio Aguero (Atletico, £35m), Samir Nasri (Arsenal, £24m), Gael Clichy (Arsenal £7m), Stefan Savic (Partizan Belgrade, £6m), Costel Pantimilimon (Poli Timisoara, £6m), Owen Hargreaves (free agent) Out: Craig Bellamy (Liverpool, undisclosed), Shaun Wright-Phillips (QPR, £6.5m), Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich, £10m), Shay Given (Aston Villa, £3.5m), Felipe Caicedo (Levante, £880,000), Jo (Internaticional, undisclosed), Shaleum Logan (Brentford, free). LOANS: Michael Johnson (Leicester), Ben Mee (Burnley), Ryan McGivern (Bristol City), Emmanuel Adebayor (Tottenham), Dedryck Boyata (Bolton), Roque Santa Cruz (Real Betis), Vladimir Weiss (Espanyol), John Guidetti (Feyenoord) 2nd – Man Utd: After his team’s beautiful humbling at the hands of Barcelona in May Alex Ferguson has set about rebuilding a new more youthful side at Old Trafford with typical determination. Wayne Rooney is in his usual September form (expect foot injuries and worries about burn out to follow around February time) and the addition of Ashley Young is a very smart one indeed. Where Ferguson has succeeded and Arsene Wenger has failed is in defence where he first paired Bruce and Pallister, then successfully replaced them with the likes of Rio Ferdinand and is now successfully replenishing the stocks back there again. Chris Smalling and Phil Jones look like a potential mainstay partnership for years to come but their initial inexperience coupled with Ferdinand’s injury problems allied to a dodgy start for their new goalkeeper means they may well come up just short initially. In: David De Gea (Atletico Madrid, £17.8m), Phil Jones (Blackburn, £16.5m), Ashley Young (Aston Villa, £16m) Out: Gabriel Obertan (Newcastle, £3.25m), John O'Shea (Sunderland, £4m), Wes Brown (Sunderland, £2m), Owen Hargreaves (released), Joe Dudgeon (Hull, £80,000), Corry Evans (Hull, £500,000). LOANS: Bebe (Besiktas), Ritchie de Laet (Norwich) 3rd – Liverpool: Kenny Dalglish spent very big this summer, and he had to given the extent that the club had fallen behind the leading sides during the Hicks/Gillette/Benitez era. They’ve overpaid for just about all their signings – Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam would be expensive at half their prices – and it’s difficult to see just where on earth he’s going to find room for all of those midfielders but in Jose Enrique they have picked up one of the summer’s true bargains and it’s easy to forget that he’d already significantly bolstered his attack in January – Luis Suarez continues to look as good as anything out there. As Arsenal and Tottenham slip further behind Liverpool look primed to seize the opportunity. In: Craig Bellamy (Liverpool, undisclosed), Jordan Henderson (Sunderland, £20m), Stewart Downing (Aston Villa, £20m), Charlie Adam (Blackpool, £9m), Sebastian Coates (Nacional, £7m), Jose Enrique (N'castle, £6m), Alexnder Domi (Roma, free), Villyan Bijev (California Odyssey, undisc) Out: David Ngog (Bolton, £4m), Christian Poulsen (Evian, undisclosed), Paul Konchesky (Leicester, £1.5m), Raul Meireles (Chelsea, £12m) Emilano Insua (Sporting, undisclosed), Daniel Ayala (Norwich, undisclosed), Milan Jovanovic (Anderlecht, free), Sotitios Kyrgiakos (Wolfsburg, free), Tom Ince (Blackpool, free). LOANS: Stephen Darby (Rochdale), Joe Cole (Lille), Daniel Pacheco (A Madrid), Albertto Aquilani (AC Milan), Villyan Bijev (Dusseldorf) 4th - Chelsea: Andre Villas-Boas is young you know. He’s very young, I don’t know if you’d heard? He’s 33, you know, the new Chelsea manager. Fuck I would rather drink bleach than read yet another profile on him that includes an interview with that bloke at the FA in the British Virgin Isles who gave him his first coaching job. He’s young, it’s a risk, we get it. Personally I’m not convinced by Chelsea this season. They have the same problem as England because they share the same problematic players – John Terry, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole are key men but are growing old together and need replacing. For Chelsea you can throw Alex, Drogba and Anelka into that as well. Despite shamelessly poaching every teenage boy who has looked half decent anywhere in Europe over the past decade their youth set up still only succeeds in producing the likes of Scott Sinclair and Michael Mancienne for other clubs to take advantage of. Josh McEachran is the only one threatening to break through, and there are no guarantees with him either. So they’re having to go out and buy young players for big money, like Romelu Lukaku, instead and a season of rebuilding lies ahead. Their early results have been fine, their performances have been mediocre, and the two domestic cup competitions are their best hope of silverwear this season. In: Juan Mata (Valencia, £26m), Romelu Lukaku (Anderlecht, £20m), Thibaud Courtois (Genk, £5m), Lucas Piazon (Sao Paulo, £5m), Ulises Davila (Chivas, £5m), Oriol Romeu (Barcelona, £4.5m), Raul Meireles (Liverpool, £12m) Out: Michael Mancienne (Hamburg, £3m), Slobodan Rajkovic (Hamburg, £1.8m), Yury Zhirkov (Anzhi, undisc), Nemanja Matic (Benfica, undisc), Fabio Borini (Parma, undisc), James Cork (Soton, undisc). LOANS: Patrick Van Aanholt (Wigan), Ulises Davila (Arnhem), Gael Kakuta (Bolton), Yossi Benayoun (Arsenal) 5th – Arsenal: The Gunners may, may, have just pulled something out of the fire at the end of the transfer deadline. Arsene Wenger’s grand plan over the past few years has clearly failed – every year we saw these amazing Arsenal youngsters crucifying all before them in the League Cup and every year we said “imagine how good they are going to be in a few years”. Well, I’m afraid, it is now a few years later and they’re not that good. All technically brilliant, all very talented, but lacking in key areas mentally and physically. It doesn’t help that players off the Wenger production line are almost exclusively small, lightweight, attacking midfielders. Not strikers, not central midfielders, not even really wingers – just tippy tappy Theo Walcott, Aaron Ramsey types who float around between the midfield and attack. It’s amazing to think that the man who won so much with Adams, Keown, Viera and Petit backing up his delightful Bergkamp and Overmars types has allowed this situation to develop and fester. He doesn’t produce, or buy: big ball busting centre backs; hard as nails central midfielders; powerful centre forwards or goalkeepers. He’s got all the Christmas decorations, fancy ones too, but no tree to hang them from. When he vowed to spend this summer and then went out and bought another kid from Southampton’s academy identical to seven players he already has I feared for them. They have pulled in Arteta and Benayoun late in the day but they will merely replace Nasri and Fabregas who have left. They’ve salvaged something from the wreckage basically, but it won’t be enough for the top four in my opinion. In: Mikel Arteta (Everton, £10m), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Southampton, £15m), Gervinho (Lille, £10m), Per Mertesacker (Werder Bremen, £9m), Andre Santos (Fenerbahce, £6m), Chu Young Park (Monaco, £5m), Carl Jenkinson (Charlton, £1m), Joel Campbell (Deportivo, undisclosed). LOAN: Yossi Benayoun (Chelsea) Out: Cesc Fabregas (Barcelona, £40m), Sami Nasri (Man City, £24m), Gael Clichy (Man City, £7m), Emmanuel Eboue (Galatasray, £3m), Armand Traore (QPR, undisclosed), Jay Emmanuel-Thomas (Ipswich, undisclosed). LOANS: Denilson (Sao Paulo), Mark Randall (Chesterfield), Wellington (Levante), Carlos Vela (Real Sociedad), Gilles Sunu (Orient), Joel Campbell (Orient), Henri Lansbury (West Ham), Nicklas Bendtner (Sunderland, loan) 6th - Spurs: How galling for Spurs fans this must be. That rare moment has come, a couple of the four regular Champions League qualifiers are on the wane somewhat – Arsenal are in crisis and Chelsea are rebuilding. The oh so rare opportunity to grab one of the coveted spots is there this season and yet they’ve chosen now to seemingly end their years of progress under Harry Redknapp and have a bit of a crisis of their own. Instead it looks like Liverpool are going to seize the chance to move back in on the four while Spurs get left behind. The decision to allow Peter Crouch to leave seems odd – Harry Redknapp seemed to suggest it was because he wanted to bring a striker in and then didn’t. Jermaine Defoe has lost all form and confidence and perennial back up Robbie Keane has gone as well. Suddenly that fabled feared Spurs attack now consists of Emmanuel Adebayor on his own with moody Pavlyuchenko sulking on the bench. Rafael van der Vaat has already done his hamstring and Gareth Bale has started the season slowly. Brad Friedel’s introduction in goal should at least save them the six or seven goals Gomes was costing them each season but they have weaknesses throughout the team and don’t look capable of improving on what they did last season to me. In: Scott Parker (West Ham, £5m), Brad Friedel (Aston Villa, free), Cristian Ceballos (Barcelona, free), Souleymane Coulibaly (Siene, £1m). LOANS: Emmanuel Adebayor (Man City), Yago Falque (Juventus) Out: Jamie O'Hara (Wolves, £5m), Jonathan Woodgate (Stoke, free), Robbie Keane (LA Galaxy, £3.5m), Alan Hutton (Aston Villa, £4m), Wilson Palacios (Stoke, £8m), Peter Crouch (Stoke, £10m). LOANS: Jermaine Jenas (Aston Villa), Bongani Khumalo (Reading), Kyle Naughton (Norwich), Steven Caulker (Swansea), Ryan Mason (Doncaster), David Bentley (West Ham) 7th - Stoke: Stoke City are undoubtedly one of the big winner from this transfer window. I saw them in pre-season at Brentford this summer and they were absolutely awful, losing to the League One side with a first team on the field, but they have made some high profile signings since and started the season strongly. It’s easy, with our history in this part of the world, to dislike Stoke especially given their style of football. But I have to say Tony Pullis’ attitude towards their European campaign this season is refreshing. I’m sick of teams spending all season trying to get into Europe and then as soon as they’re there desperately trying to get out of it again. Palacios and Crouch are excellent signings, if a little on the expensive side. Woodgate is a huge risk but they weren’t short at centre half to begin with so it’s a gamble worth taking. They were horrible to play against to start with and they’ve added plenty of quality since which probably makes them the best of the rest. In: Wilson Palacios (Tottenham, £8m), Peter Crouch (Tottenham, £10m), Cameron Jerome (Birmingham, £4m), Jonathan Woodgate (Tottenham, free), Matthew Upson (West Ham, free) Out: Carl Dickinson (Watford, undisclosed), Eidur Gudjohnsen (AEK Athens, free), Abdoulaye Faye (West Ham, free), Ibrahima Sonko (Ipswich, free). LOAN: Andrew Davies (Crystal Palace) 8th - Fulham: Fulham are one of those clubs that is probably only one bad managerial appointment away from having a serious problem – and they came mighty close to dropping out of the league when they went with Lawrie Sanchez. The Mark Hughes departure in the summer was rather messy; he resigned seemingly expecting to walk into Aston Villa only to find them looking elsewhere. Luckily they seem to have landed on their feet with Martin Jol in charge and although they’re likely to tire later after a busy summer of Europa League qualifiers they did alright last season when missing their striker force for the majority of the campaign. More of the same this season – a run of injuries and they’ll be in trouble but otherwise fine. In: Bryan Ruiz (FC Twente, £10.6m), Orlando Sa (Porto, free), Pajtim Kasami (Palermo, £3m), John Arne Riise (Roma, £2.4m), Marcel Gecov (Slovan Liberec, £600,000), Dan Burn (Darlington, undisclosed), Csaba Somogyi (Rakospalotai, free) Out: Jonathan Greening (Nottm Forest, £670,000), Kagisho Dikgacoi (£600,000, C Palace), Zoltan Gera (West Brom, free), Diomansy Kamara (Eskisehispor, free), John Pantsil (Leicester, free). LOANS: David Stockdale (Ipswich), Lauri Dalla Valle (Dundee United), Rafik Halliche (Swansea) 9th – Bolton: Wanderers rather fell apart last season after a heavy FA Cup semi final defeat at the hands of Stoke. Having lost five of their last six league matches they then spent the summer picking up horrendous injuries to key players – Lee Chung Yong broke his leg, two days later Tyrone Mears did the same thing, and Stuart Holden was already ruled out for the beginning of the campaign. Johan Elmander and Daniel Sturridge were both key last season but were not around when this season kicked off. However Owen Coyle is one of the Premiership’s best managers and his summer signings look astute. I’m not the biggest fan of David Ngog but he may benefit from regular first team football. Either way they look well set for a top half finish. In: David Ngog (Liverpool, £4m), Chris Eagles, Tyrone Mears (Burnley, joint £3m), Darren Pratley (Swansea, free), Nigel Reo Coker (Aston Villa, free). LOANS: Tuncay (Wolfsburg), Dedryck Boyata (Man City), Gael Kakuta (Chelsea) Out: Ali Al Habsi (Wigan, £4m), Matt Taylor (West Ham, £2.2m), Danny Ward (Huddersfield, undisclosed), Johan Elmander (Galatasaray, free), Tamir Cohen (Maccabi, free), Joey O'Brien (West Ham, free) 10th – Sunderland: The situation at the Stadium of Light seems strange to me. Yet again this summer they’ve gone out and splashed serious money on a whole host of new signings without apparently getting a lot better. Indeed all the outlay seems to have achieved is increasing the pressure on manager Steve Bruce. Usually they start well and then fade badly at the end but it seems they may be about to do it the other way around this year and have already suffered a poor home defeat against Newcastle. Still, the quality in that team should surely be enough for midtable at least. In: Connor Wickham (Ipswich £8.1m), Craig Gardner (Birmingham, £8m), John O'Shea (Man Utd, £4m), Ahmed Elmohamady (ENPPL, £3m), Ji Dong-won (Chunnam Dragons, £2m), Wes Brown (Man Utd, £2m), James McLean (Derry, £350,000), Keiren Westwood (Coventry, free), Sebastian Larsson (Birmingham, free), David Vaughan (Blackpool, free). LOANS: Nicklas Bendtner (Arsenal) Out: Jordan Henderson (Liverpool, £20m), Steed Malbranque (St Etienne, undisclosed), Nathan Luscombe (Hartlepool, free), Michael Kay (Tranmere, free). LOANS: George McCartney (West Ham), Cristian Riveros (Kayserispor), Anton Ferdinand (QPR) 11th – Wolves: Mick McCarthy’s side were seriously fortunate to stay up last season, surviving by a solitary point after a poor home defeat by Blackburn on the final day. They started last season very poorly and were therefore always playing catch up – this season they’re one of the early pace setters so they clearly set about to address that. The main difference has been the affect of Roger Johnson at the heart of the defence that was previously a bit too nice for its own good. I get the sense from Molineux that they’re keen to avoid any repeat of last season’s mistakes and I expect them to have a very decent season this term – Johnson and Jamie O’Hara are two of the best signings made this window. In: Roger Johnson (Birmingham, £7m), Jamie O'Hara (Tottenham, £4.4m), Dorus De Vries (Swansea, free) Out: Greg Halford (Portsmouth, undisclosed), David Jones (Wigan, free), Geoffrey Mujangi Bia (Standard Liege, free), Marcus Hahnemann (released), David Jones (released). LOANS: Steven Mouyokolo (Sochaux), Danny Batth (Sheff Wed), Nathaniel Mendez-Laing (Sheff Utd), David Davis (Inverness), Andy Keogh (Leeds). 12th - Aston Villa: If Alex McLeish feels a little humiliated about taking a job that he was clearly about ninth choice for he isn’t showing it. Villa’s managerial pursuit this summer was a complete farce – first turning down Mark Hughes because they thought they might be able to get David Moyes or Roberto Martinez and then burning their bridges with Hughes to such an extent that they had to then look elsewhere when their first choices didn’t come. Add in the loss of their two best players to Liverpool and Man Utd and it’s clear it hasn’t been the best summer. I don’t rate McLeish at all, twice relegated at Birmingham, and although he’s made the best pound-for-pound signing of the summer in Shay Given I still can’t see them doing much this season. N’Zogbia is a good signing – Hutton and Jenas less so. In: Charles N'Zogbia (Wigan, £9.5m), Shay Given (Man City, £3.5m), Alan Hutton (Spurs, £4m). LOAN: Jermaine Jenas (Spurs) Out: Stewart Downing (Liverpool, £20m), Ashley Young (Man Utd, £16m), Luke Young (QPR, undisclosed), Jonathan Hogg (Watford, undisclosed), Brad Friedel (Tottenham, free), Nigel Reo-Coker (Bolton, free), John Carew (West Ham, free) 13th – West Brom: Roy Hodgson walked into an unwinnable situation at Liverpool. Before our Everton match we sat in a bar in the city watching them comfortably beat Arsenal, surrounded by Scousers berating Andy Carroll (and others) for not being good enough for “a club of our size” and that attitude towards Hodgson made an already difficult job impossible. That, and Kenny Dalglish sitting over his shoulder desperate to do the job himself. Like Alan Shearer at Newcastle they’ve done the best thing and given him a chance in the knowledge that nobody else could get on with the job until they did. Hodgson was shrewdly picked up by West Brom, who had harshly sacked Roberto Di Matteo to get him in a move that was widely criticised at the time but paid handsome dividends. The fixture list hasn’t been kind, starting them off with Man Utd and Chelsea, but Shane Long has made a promising start and by signing Ben Foster they’ve saved themselves the ten to 12 goals Scott Carson costs his sides every season. Comfortably mid-table security beckons. In: Shane Long (Reading, £4.5m), Gareth McAuley (Ipswich, free), Billy Jones (Preston, free), Zoltan Gera (Fulham, free). LOAN: Ben Foster (Birmingham) Out: Scott Carson (Bursaspor, £2.1m), Ishmael Miller (N Forest, £1.2m), Pablo Ibanez (Birmingham, £1.5m) Borja Valero (Villarreal, undisc), Abdoulaye Melte (Dijon, free), Gianni Zuiverloon (Real Mallorca, free), Giles Barnes (Doncaster, free), Marek Cech (Trabzonspor, undisclosed), Ryan Allsop (Millwall, £80,000). LOANS: Boaz Myhill and Chris Wood (Birmingham), James Hurst (Blackpool) 14th – Newcastle: A club apparently trying to get relegated, or one trying to pay its way in a time of silly money? Time will tell. Newcastle continue to take in big transfer fees and offload high profile, high earning players and replacing them with unknowns from the continent. Davide Santon is a shrewd piece of business for my money, but they let Jose Enrique go from that position ridiculously cheaply. What players like Andy Carroll, Joey Barton and Kevin Nolan take with them in departure that cannot be replaced is the heart and spirit that the club fostered while in the Championship. Their replacements may be equally good or better ability wise but this is quickly becoming a side without leaders and one that is relying on Hatem Ben Arfa coming back strong from his serious leg injury and the elastic bands and chewing gum holding Demba Ba’s knee together not disintegrating. Their early results are encouraging, but the respective situations at their first three opponents Arsenal, Sunderland and Fulham who had been in the Ukraine three days before the game takes the gloss off them somewhat. We’ll know more on Monday. In: Davide Santon (Inter Milan, £5m), Yohan Cabaye (Lille, £4m), Gabriel Obertan (Man Utd, £3m), Mehdi Abeid (Lens, free), Sylvain Marveaux (Rennes, free), Demba Ba (West Ham, free) Out: Jose Enrique (Liverpool, £6m), Kevin Nolan (West Ham, £4.5m), Wayne Routledge (Swansea, £2m), Joey Barton (QPR, free), Ben Tozer (Northampton, free). LOANS: Kazenga Lua Lua (Brighton), Fraser Forster (Celtic) 15th – Everton: The big losers from the summer transfer window without a shadow of a doubt. A team that was short in a couple of areas at the end of last season, which they finished strongly, is now sadly lacking in almost every department. Tim Cahill, Marouane Fellaini, Leighton Baines and Phil Jagielka remain but the positives end there. Firepower in attack is almost non-existent and Mikel Arteta leaves a giant hole in midfield. Ross Barkley is the latest great white hope from a prolific academy set up and impressed against QPR in August but the fact is he’ll either flatter to deceive like Jack Rodwell or immediately move elsewhere if he fulfils his promise. Any money received is going to furnish overdraft payments rather than strengthen the team and they have named a squad of just 18 players for the Premiership campaign. If Jagielka, Cahill and/or Fellaini were to be picked off in January then even the excellent David Moyes would have a tough job keeping them in this division. In: Eric Dier (Sporting, loan), Royston Drenthe (Real Madrid, loan) Out: Mikel Arteta (Arsenal, £10m), James Vaughan (Norwich, £2.5m), Iain Turner (Preston, free), Kieran Agard (Yeovil, free), Hope Akpan (Crawley, free). LOAN: Shane Duffy (Scunthorpe) 17th – Wigan: Roberto Martinez said it would take three years to implement his planned change in the culture and style of play at the DW Stadium, which would sound like the desperate pleas of a manager who knows he might soon be facing the sack were Martinez not so secure in his position with a supportive chairman. Wigan are not a bad side, particularly at the base of the midfield where Ben Watson is fast developing into an excellent Premiership midfielder and James McCarthy isn’t far behind him. They provide service to a lively attacking three that includes Hugo Rodallega and Victor Moses. Their problems are lack of options for the lone striker role (Franco Di Santo may have scored twice against QPR but he’s not fooling or convincing anybody) and a defence that looks to be barely of Championship standard. The other issue is that, like Antonio Valencia and Charles N’Zogbia, any players that do well in the first half of the season are likely to be topping the shopping lists in January. Like last year with West Ham they’re likely to survive because of the failings of others rather than anything they do themselves. In: Ali Al Habsi (Bolton, £4m), David Jones (Wolves, free), Albert Crusat (Almeria, undisclosed), Shaun Maloney (Celtic, £1m). LOAN: Patrick van Aanholt (Chelsea) Out: Charles N'Zogbia (Aston Villa, £9.5m), Antonio Amaya (Real Betis, undisclosed), Daniel de Ridder (Grasshopper, free), Steven Caldwell (Birmingham). LOAN: Mauro Boselli (Estudiantes). 18th - Norwich: I’ve seen Norwich’s summer signings described as “Premiership light”. Or to put it another way “not good enough.” Daniel Ayala played excellently for Hull last season and Kyle Naughton was wanted by most QPR fans from Spurs this summer but Steve Morrison, Anthony Pilkington, Elliott Bennett and particularly James Vaughan all look considerably over-priced. Grant Holt was the talisman last season but, like Adel Taarabt at QPR, is likely to find the going a good deal tougher this season. QPR have now surrounded Taarabt with better, experienced Premiership players. Have Norwich done that with Holt? Ritchie de Laet was the worst player on the pitch by some considerable distance when Portsmouth lost at Loftus Road last season. Well managed and with a decent enough side to make a good fist of it but ultimately not quite good enough. In: Steve Morison (Millwall, £2.8m), James Vaughan (Everton, £2.5m), Anthony Pilkington (Huddersfield, £2.5m), Daniel Ayala (Liverpool, undisclosed), Elliott Bennett (Brighton, £1.8m), Bradley Johnson (Leeds, free). LOANS: Ritchie de Laet (Man Utd), Kyle Naughton (Tottenham) Out: Cody McDonald (Coventry, undisclosed), Owain Tudor Jones (Inverness, undisclosed), Luke Daley (Plymouth, free), Steven Smith (Plymouth, free), Matt Gill (Bristol Rovers, free), Sam Habergham (Tamworth, free), Stephen Hughes (released). LOANS: Tom Adeyemi (Oldham) 19th – Swansea: They play good football Swansea you know. Oooh lovely football. Pass the ball around they do. Passing. Lovely. Chances are if you’ve been looking for something other than a profile of Andrea Villas-Boas in the newspapers this summer then you’ll have immediately come across a sanctimonious piece on just how bloody wonderful Swansea City are. The problem is the last time such sanctimonious nonsense was trotted out for a promoted team it was for West Brom under Tony Mowbray and they went on to finish comfortably last after discovering that quite a few teams in the Premiership play nice football. Three games in and Swansea are yet to score a goal and I think their opening night display at Man City will set the pattern for the season – for long, long periods of that game they kept the ball and moved it around nicely but ultimately they lost 4-0 and but for their goalkeeper and the woodwork it could have been two or three times that. They’ll win lots of friends this season, but only a handful of football matches. In: Danny Graham (Watford, £3.5m), Wayne Routledge (Newcastle, £2m), Michel Vorm (Utrecht, £2m), Leroy Lita (Middlesbrough, £1.75m), Jose Moreira (Benfica, free), Gerhard Tremmel (Red Bull Salzburg, free), Federico Bessone, (Leeds, undisc), LOAN: Rafik Halliche (Fulham) Out: Shaun MacDonald (Bournemouth, £80,000), Dorus de Vries (Wolves, free), Darren Pratley (Bolton, free), Albert Serran (AEK Larnaca, free). LOAN: Scott Donnelly (Wycombe) 20th – Blackburn: When Blackburn are relegated this season (and I’m pretty confident it will be a ‘when’ and not an ‘if’) the obvious place to apportion blame is the mad chicken farmers that own the club. Venky’s took over a well run, secure Premiership club and have since turned it into a relegation favourite with mismanagement on a Mike Ashley scale. The team is now not good enough and although they had a manager cable of making the best of such situations in charge when they arrived he was quickly dismissed and replaced by the hapless Steve Kean, who now cannot even drive to scout games after being done for drunk driving. However, for me, a fair portion of the blame should lie elsewhere. It was agent Jerome Anderson who advised the Venky’s on the purchase, upset Allardyce by putting forward a list of January transfers (lots of his clients) that contradicted Big Sam’s, put forward another of his clients to be Allardyce’s replacement despite his lack of experience and has since furnished that man Keen with a number of sub-standard signings including the nepotistic purchase of his own son who had previously been unable to even make the breakthrough at Aberdeen in the notoriously awful SPL. They have one thing going for them – the central defence of Scott Dann and Chris Samba in front of Paul Robinson is worthy of a team far higher up the table than Rovers are likely to finish. In: Scott Dann (Birmingham, £6m), Simon Vukcevic (Sporting, £2m), David Goodwillie (Dundee Utd, £2m), Myles Anderson (Aberdeen, £1.5m), Radoslav Petrovic (Partizan, undisclosed), Brunoi Ribeiro (Gremio, free) Out: Phil Jones (Man Utd, £16.5m), Frank Fielding (Derby, £300,000), Nikola Kalinic (Dnipro, undisclosed), Jason Brown (Aberdeen, free), Zurab Khizanishvili (Kayserispor, free), Brett Emerton (Sydney, free), Benjani (Portsmouth, free). LOAN: Keith Andrews (Ipswich)
…a top ten to finishTaking everything into account – i.e. the price paid as well as the ability of the player – here are LoftforWords’ top ten signings of the transfer window. 1 - Shay Given, Man City to Aston Villa, £3.5m Still one of the Premiership’s best goalkeepers and picked up at a fraction of his true worth. 2 - Joey Barton, Newcastle to QPR, free A flawed personality, but were he not then he’d be playing for one of the top six and in the England squad. To pick up a player of his ability, in the form he’s in, for nothing is outstanding business. But QPR must take the rough with the smooth. 3 - Jose Enrique, Newcastle to Liverpool, £7m Another bargain from Newcastle. Arguably the best full back in the Premiership over the past 18 months and yet sold by the Mapies for less than half his true worth. Liverpool’s best signing of a busy summer. 4 - Shane Long, Reading to West Brom, £4.5m It’s always a risk taking players from a lower league and throwing them in at the deep end by Long was superb for Reading last season and has already shown against Man Utd and Chelsea that he is going to make the step up comfortably. 5 - Scott Dann, Birmingham to Blackburn, £6m Just when it seemed there was no hope for Blackburn they completed a deal for Dann who should really be playing for Arsenal now if Wenger wasn’t so stubborn. 6 - Davide Santon, Inter to Newcastle, £5m One of the brightest prospects in Europe and a regular in the title winning Inter Milan side prior to a serious injury. Like a couple others on this list his fitness will dictate the success of a promising signing. 7 - Seb Larsson, Birmingham to Sunderland, free Consistently one of Birmingham’s best players in the Premiership and available at a good age for nothing this summer. A shrewd bit of business in Sunderland’s otherwise typically wild and outlandish summer of spending. 8 - Jonathan Woodgate, Spurs to Stoke, free Like Santon, and Ibrahim Ba who is still to come, Woodgate’s fitness will dictate the success of this. The transfer fee is attractive, his wages less so. If he stays fit he’ll be one of the best in the league, if he doesn’t he’ll have duped another load of cash out of another club. 9 - Demba Ba, West Ham to Newcastle, free It seems a matter of when rather than if Ba’s knee gives way given his medical history, but he was excellent in a relegated West Ham team last year and if he stays fit and in that form it could be the deal of the summer. Not wise to rely on a player whose medical file barely fits in the hospital filing cabinet though. 10 - Michel Vorm, Utrecht to Swansea, £2m I’m taking a bit of a punt on this one, as I’ve only seen him once live and once on highlights, but Dutch international Vorm showed enough against Man City and then against Wigan to suggest Swansea have unearthed a bit of a gem. Argue the toss in 140 characters or less @loftforwords Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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