January transfer round-up - Crazy money, crazy clubs

THE English and worldwide transfer window slammed shut on Monday, with several clubs involved in some very high sales.  Last year, less than £50million was spent in the January transfer window.  This year, Fernando Torres cost more than anyone did in the window put together.

SMASH: Torres trains for Chelsea, can he smash the goals in?

The Spanish World Cup winner moved from Liverpool to Chelsea for £50million.  The West London side smashing the British transfer record in the process.  Torres spent three and a half years on Merseyside, scoring 81 goals in 142 matches, one every two games.  He is eligible to play in the UEFA Champions League, having only figured in the Europa League for Liverpool and will make his Stamford Bridge bow on Sunday afternoon, ironically against his former side.  The 26-year old explained the move today when asked by the media; “I think Liverpool has great ambition and they are doing the right things to get back, but it will take time.  I didn’t have that time.  To prove that Roman Abramovich still has wealth to spend, Carlo Ancelotti was also allowed to bring in the Benfica central defender David Luiz, for an estimated £18million, which could rise to £25million depending on sell-on clauses.

Liverpool didn’t sit on their laurels once Torres wanted to leave and have bought in a new dynamic duo.  Luis Suarez, the Uruguayan who is most infamous with many for ‘that’ handball on the line in the dying stages of the World Cup quarter-final win over Ghana has made the switch to the Premiership for £22.7million.  Suarez, who played previously for Eredevisie side Ajax has already settled into English lifestyle, and managed to come off the bench and score on his debut in Liverpool’s midweek 2-0 success over Stoke City.  

WELCOMED: Boss Dalglish is pleased to have Carroll around

Joining Suarez at Anfield is Andy Carroll.  Carroll, who only made his England debut in November moved from Newcastle United in a £35million deal, smashing Liverpool’s transfer record and the English transfer record.  There had been talk that the young striker had wanted to leave Newcastle and at a press conference yesterday in Melwood, Carroll responded to a question about this situation from one of the journalists; “I have massive respect for Newcastle, it’s my team and my home club.  I’m not going to talk about what happened at Newcastle, except I still have friends and family there and still love the place.  However, I’m a Liverpool player now, and that’s all I want to concentrate on.”  This suggests that Carroll, who has a dodgy off-the-field reputation, was sold to raise funds at St. James Park, or had a disagreement on the club’s direction with Alan Pardew.

By their high standards, Manchester City were fairly quiet this month, although they did fork out £27million to bring in the highly-rated Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko to Eastlands, from VFL Wolfsburg.  As a result, Emmanuel Adebayor has joined Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid on loan until the end of the season.  Roque Santa Cruz and Wayne Bridge have also made loan switches on a short-term basis to Blackburn Rovers and West Ham United respectively.  The other shock move in a busy window was the departure from Sunderland by Darren Bent.  Nobody saw Bent’s move coming, or Aston Villa forking out £18million for his services.  He insists it is to improve his England prospects, but that doesn’t mean to say that Fabio Capello will still pay attention to this goal machine.

Elsewhere, Villa also bought in Cameroon defensive midfielder Jean Makoun from Lyon, West Ham signed Robbie Keane on loan from Tottenham and furthered their striking options, with the acquisition of Demba Ba from 1899 Hoffenheim.  Hoffenheim bought in Ryan Babel as a replacement and temperamental Turk Tuncay said goodbye to the Premiership and Stoke City, signing on with Steve McClaren at VFL Wolfsburg.

So, it was a crazy transfer window, with crazy money being spent.  However, everyone seems to have won from these outcomes.  With big money being splashed on, there will be intense pressure on the likes of Torres, Carroll and Suarez to perform for their new club.