Transfer Winners and Losers

Posted Friday, September 05, 2014 by YAHOO Sport

The window is closed. Everyone can pause and breathe a big sigh of relief because we get our sanity back until about the time that our New Year’s 2015 hangovers start to fade into the background of our memories. So, who won the window? Who lost? Who do we really have no idea about? Excellent questions all. If you’re looking for a complete listing of summer transfer activity, you won’t find it here, but you will find it here. What you’ll find here are the teams and individuals that did well in the transfer window and the ones who didn’t do so well.

Winners

Chelsea – Here we see the benefits of having a very clear strategy, a ton of goodwill from years of success and extremely deep pockets. Jose Mourinho knows what types of players he wants to make his system work and he has both the money and the aggression to go out and make it happen. You never get the feeling that he’s too worried about financial stewardship of the club or what the press thinks of his moves. He’s going to build his team the way he wants to build it and everyone else be damned. Sell one of the best young forwards in the world to another Premier League team? If he doesn’t fit The Mourinho Way then he’s off. Swap out a fading Torres for a Remy in his prime at the last moment? We’ve got money to do that even if we’re taking a huge hit on Torres. Chelsea are playing the market so much better than everyone else that there are players out there on loan that are appreciating in value for later sales that barely even scratched the surface of the headlines. The genius of Chelsea’s summer wasn’t so much that they bought good players but that they pretty well broke even in doing so. In Bertrand Traore, Thorgan Hazard, Mario Pasalic, Ryan Bertrand, Gael Kakuta, Oriol Romeu, Christian Atsu, Victor Moses, Marko Marin, Josh McEachran, Patrick Bramford, Marco van Ginkel, and Nathaniel Chalobah there is a reserve of assets who are still potentially on the rise who can be sold for enough money to replace the few remaining older players (John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic and the reserve goalkeeping duo of Petr Cech and Mark Schwarzer) when it comes time to do so.

Liverpool – I don’t put them on this list so much because I love the work they did in the transfer window. It was good but not exceptional. But for what Manchester United, Arsenal, Spurs and Everton didn’t do which was clearly improve enough to catch the Reds for a Champions League spot. Liverpool, based on their early results and their work in the transfer window, appear to be in a mini-league of one destined for the third spot. After years outside of the top four, that’s a pretty solid way to rebound from a summer that started with the loss of their best forward.

Danny Welbeck – It wasn’t so long ago that Daniel Sturridge fit the Danny Welbeck profile. Caught between positions wanting to be a center forward but being mostly cast on the fringes of big teams as a wide player. Whether Welbeck can achieve the same meteoric rise as Sturridge did once he got to Liverpool remains to be seen but with Olivier Giroud on the sidelines until January Welbeck should get his chance. A front line of Welbeck, Sanchez and Walcott (eventually) seems like it could be an interchangeable nightmare of speed and position flexibility for defenders to deal with.

Tom Cleverley – Like Welbeck, Cleverley’s opportunity was going to be limited at Old Trafford but with a loan move to Villa he’ll be a little bit out of the spotlight with an opportunity to, presumably, get some minutes and get his career back on track.

Manchester United – Well, I think they won. The names that came in were all big ones which is a major improvement for a squad that has given starts to a bunch of relative no-names already this season. There’s certainly something to be said for a talent upgrade and Falcao, Angel di Maria, Luke Shaw, Ander Herrera, Marcos Rojo, and Daley Blind are all talent upgrades over the group that started the summer. How exactly those players fit together with the existing starters isn’t exactly clear but now that they’re present Louis Van Gaal will have choices which is what a manager needs. Will they jump up enough to make the top four this season? It’ll be close but they’ve put themselves behind the eight ball with their first three results. They’ve certainly brought in enough talent to have some hope now.

Leicester City – They certainly didn’t spend a lot of money in transfer fees but they seem to have made some strong additions. Leonardo Ulloa seems to have made the leap to the Premier League without looking at all out of his depth. Marc Albrighton is slowly working his way back to fitness and could has shown early in his career that he has the potential to be a solid Premier League quality starter on the right wing. Danny Simpson is a known quantity and will certainly be a solid reserve if not a starter. Finally, we don’t know what Esteban Cambiasso has left in the tank but he brings a wealth of experience to a club that could use a wise old veteran to go with some rising young talents.

Swansea City – They traded up from Michu (who was good when healthy but that wasn’t often enough to be an attacking center piece) to Gylfi Sigurdsson and managed to hold on to Wilfried Bony in a transfer window when Arsenal and Spurs could definitely have used him. They also got ahead of the issue by signing a potential replacement in Bafetimbi Gomis who will have some time to bed in as a reserve before Bony potentially goes in January or next summer. If we’ve learned one thing from Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool selling off their best player over the last few seasons, there’s HUGE benefit in having the replacement already in house rather than going on to the market with a big wad of cash and a huge hole in your line-up. Selling clubs salivate at that sort of thing and if Gomis can replace Bony eventually then Swansea have saved themselves a lot of aggravation in the market.

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Short Term Winners

Stoke City – Remember when Mark Hughes had strong wing play when he was at Rovers in the form of Mort Gamst Pedersen, David Bentley, Brett Emerton, David Dunn, et al? Those teams were physical but managed to be both entertaining and effective. Bringing in Victor Moses and Oussama Assaidi on loan from Chelsea and Liverpool respectively gives Stoke City the sort of depth they had been hoping for when Jermaine Pennant and Matthew Etherington were supposed to give them the same a couple seasons back. Throw in solid permanent moves for Mame Biram Diouf, Phil Bardsley, and Steve Sidwell as well as their one big home run attempt for Bojan and there is certainly some evidence that Stoke City is trying to be more than just Tony Pulis’ rugby team playing with a round ball.

Massive Uncertainty

Newcastle United – There were certainly additions but the early returns make the value of those additions unclear so far. Remy Cabella, Emmanuel Riviere, and Daryl Janmaat have been OK but certainly none look like the next huge bargain acquisition along the lines of Yohan Cabaye. Ayoze Perez looks like he will be a bright prospect for the future but this team needs quality now and it isn’t clear whether their latest group of foreign imports just needs a little more time to settle or if they just aren’t going to be quite good enough.

Southampton – Opinions about the Saints’ summer have waivered seemingly from day to day and hour to hour. First they were bound for relegation. Then they had had a sneaky good summer. Then the season started and the only thing we’re really sure of is that Dusan Tadic is going to be very good. The rest of the acquisitions still look like they could go either way and they could have to replace half of their defense again next summer with two of their acquisitions – Ryan Bertrand and Toby Alderweireld – being loan signings. With Newcastle I’m a little on the pessimistic side as far as how everything will turn out. With Southampton I’m leaning more to the positive.

Hull City – Talk about a huge about face in transfer strategy. Last summer and January it was all about the safe single and double with known quantities in the English game. This summer, Steve Bruce is turning that notion on its head and taking big swings for the fences in the transfer market. In Mohamed Diame he has continued the “known quantity” type of buy but in Harry Maguire, Andrew Robertson and Brian Lenihan he has gone for young ones for the future. In Hatem Ben Arfa and Gaston Ramirez he’s gone for two players who have washed out in the Premier League so far. Finally, in Abel Hernandez he has replaced Shane Long with a player who has never played above Serie B and only managed 14 goals in 28 appearances in that competition last season. There is certainly talent and potential in abundance with that group of signings but anyone claiming to know where it will fall between huge success and abject disaster is lying to you.

Losers

Manchester City – It’s hard to call them “losers” really but in comparison to their most important rivals they certainly appeared to be that. Chelsea didn’t finish that far behind City last season and appear to have upgraded far more than City did which puts the Citizens in a position of being second favorites despite holding the title. It also appears that they were unsuccessful in bringing capturing Falcao while their city rivals Manchester United did bring him in. They strengthened their depth with the acquisitions of Bacary Sagna, Frank Lampard, Fernando, and Willy Caballero but Eliaquim Mangala was really the only first team upgrade the defending champions made.

Arsenal – Like Manchester City, it’s hard to say they got worse while bringing in Alexis Sanchez, Danny Welbeck, Mathieu Debuchy, Calum Chambers and David Ospina. Arsenal’s problem in the window is two-fold. First, the two holes that everyone has been complaining about for years – not enough depth at center back and a young/athletic holding midfielder – weren’t addressed and second, the seeming cavalier attitude about filling those holes was not greeted well by a supporter base that has heard all summer that the money is available. Wenger’s inability or unwillingness to bring in a decent fourth center back/second right back with a proven Premier League track record (Geoff Cameron perhaps) was maddening. It seems likely that Arsenal will have a defensive crisis at some point before the window opens again in January and the failure to make even a modest move to ensure Arsenal have a decent starter at each position for every match of the season’s first half is baffling.

Spurs – If you are of the opinion that Spurs did their business last summer and this summer’s work was really all about the manager coming in and getting the best out of those players then this could still be viewed as a positive summer for Spurs. If you’re looking at Spurs forward position which makes Arsenal’s look positively rosy then you have to wonder what’s going on at the Lane. Is Wilfried Bony holding out for a bigger move to a Champions League club next summer? Was there no improvement on Roberto Soldado available as a reserve forward? Spurs made some solid additions in the form of Ben Davies, Federico Fazio, Eric Dier, and Benjamin Stambouli but none of those appear to be players that are going to help you leap past Everton and Arsenal and hold off the nine figure spending of Manchester United as you push toward a Champions League place.

QPR – Things were looking pretty good until Chelsea swooped in at the last minute and relieved them of their one exceptional attacking talent in Loic Remy. Maybe this will be the year Eduardo Vargas replicates is Chile form for his club but thus far it hasn’t happened for him at Napoli or on his various loan spells. Steven Caulker was a great buy and Jordon Mutch, Sandro and Leroy Fer offer a great counterpoint the Rs previous transfer hauls under Harry Redknapp that mostly featured bloated contracts and questionable attitudes. Unless Charlie Austin can bring the goals like he has in the lower levels it seems like ‘arry’s boys are going to have to play a lot like Tony Pulis’ boys to survive.

Adam Lallana – Assuming the goal was to go to a bigger club AND get some playing time you have to think Lallana will be looking at the roster at Liverpool and wondering how much of the latter will actually come his way. Lallana is a very good player but with Raheem Sterling absolutely on fire, Daniel Sturridge and Mario Balotelli seemingly entrenched as a strike partnership, Steven Gerrard being a Liverpool legend and all and Brendan Rodgers looking like he’s going to want to play an actual holding midfielder from the Emre Can/Joe Allen/Lucas Leiva group that doesn’t leave a ton of minutes for Lallana, Henderson, Coutinho, and Markovic. Yes, Liverpool have more matches this season with the Champions League so all is not lost for Lallana but the sum total of Liverpool’s transfer activity seemingly makes him a rotational player rather than the starter I’m sure he hoped he’d be when he signed for big money early in the window.

Joel Campbell – You could put Lukas Podolski in this boat too but he’s had his chances and not made nearly enough of them, plus he has that World Cup winner’s medal to keep him occupied on the bench. Campbell, on the other hand, has shown well on loan spells and in the World Cup and wants/needs playing time at a big club. Olivier Giroud’s injury could have provided just such a chance for Campbell to create the same sort of partnership with Sanchez and (eventually) Walcott that Welbeck will likely get to forge. Campbell possesses some of the same traits as Welbeck in his pace and potential to play both wide and centrally in attack and after almost zero opportunity to prove himself he has moved a spot farther back in the pecking order.

Marouane Fellaini – From up-and-coming versatile central midfield stud at Everton player to big transfer in at Manchester United to forgotten man unlikely to see the field much and unable to secure a transfer in the space of about 18 months. Hard to believe there wasn’t a club in the Premier League who could have benefitted from his talents. Now he’ll have to wait until January for his move.