Wheelings and Dealings – Season 04/05

By Amanda Liang • UrbanWire
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They don’t term it “the most exciting football league” for nothing. As if to make up for a predictable, hence boring finish to the last season (Champions League spots and relegated teams were more or less confirmed weeks before the season was even over), the transfer windows were busy with numerous transactions and transfers in England’s top flight.

After 3 painful months of waiting, fans of English football can rejoice that weekend nights of soccer action are back and revamped.

Since everyone in the know has already accepted that the financial divide between the top teams and the rest of the Premiership is too wide to bridge, it’s no surprise that the teams that made the most changes belong to the top portion of the chart.

Besides, all but one team had a rewarding season. Everyone knows the story about Arsenal’s unbeaten run through the last season. Chelsea ended the season as first runner-up, but didn’t bag a single trophy despite dipping their hands deep into the infinite depths of their virtually inexhaustible coffers. Manchester United has even had to play in qualifiers for this season’s Champions League. Their only saving grace was winning the FA cup against Division One’s Millwall. Liverpool’s performance was so disappointing there was no milestone to mark their season.

Liverpool
Manchester United
Chelsea
Arsenal
Post-purchase Predictions

Liverpool

This is a club that needs to redeem itself after being a letdown to its supporters. The authorities at Anfield know this too, which is why Gerard Houllier is no longer the coach of Liverpool. Enter Rafael Benitez, former coach of Spanish double champions (League champions and UEFA Cup winners) Valencia. Benitez now has a huge task of guiding the Reds towards a better season, hopefully one with some silverware.

Naturally, the coach isn’t the only thing different about the club. In fact, the whole coaching board has changed. It would be interesting to see what results such a drastic shift will bring about at the end of the season.

Players wise, Michael Owen, once Liverpool’s golden boy, has ended his Anfield chapter and completed a shock move to Spain’s star-studded Real Madrid in an £8million [S$16.6m] deal which saw Spaniard Antonio Nunez move in the opposite direction. Midfielder Danny Murphy has also left for Charlton Athletic on a 4-year contract. Misfiring juggernaut Emile Heskey was sold to Birmingham City by Gerard Houllier towards the end of his coaching reign.

The most promising of Benitez’s new squad is Djibril Cisse, who has joined Liverpool from Auxerre for £14m [S$29.1m]. Cisse’s quick and powerful, and though only 23, his goal-scoring prowess is not to be questioned, being the top scorer of the French League last season with 26 goals in 38 league matches.

Benitez has also signed Malaga defender Josemi Josemi for £2m [S$4.1m]. Liverpool is in talks with Real Sociedad’s Spanish midfielder, Xabi Alonso and is looking to complete a move worth £10.7m [S$22.1m], a bargain for a player many consider to be one of the best anchormen in the Spanish league.

A change seemed to be what the club needed badly and with that in place, Benitez sure has a lot to prove in his first season at Anfield.

Manchester United

After all the frustration and humiliation Man Utd and Sir Alex Ferguson suffered, the club was eager to make a new signing to salvage the situation. To supplement their paper-thin strike force, the Red Devils poached Alan Smith, Leeds United hero, with £7m [S$14.6m]. Gabriel Heinze, an Argentina national, signed from Paris St-Germain, has not started the season with Man Utd due to national duties previously at the Olympics. Besides signing Liam Miller from Celtic, youngsters Gerard Pique from Barcelona and Giuseppe Rossi from Parma, Ferguson had managed to steal England’s teenage prodigy Wayne Rooney from Everton for a hefty £20m [S$41.6m) right before the transfer windows were closed.

Meanwhile, Nicky Butt has set off for Newcastle United for £2.5m [S$5.2m] after a season of much reduced appearances in the starting XI. Fabien Barthez has also been released to French club Marseille for free. Rio Ferdinand is still serving out his 8-month ban for missing a drugs test.

After even what the most easy going of United supporters would consider a season of catastrophic proportions, many would have expected United, the world’s richest club, to make a massive incursion into the transfer market to supplement their featherweight squad. But that was not to be. Smith, though doggedly determined and skilful, does not fall into the same league as lethal finishers Ruud van Nistelrooy or Real Madrid’s Raul Gonzalez.

With Alan Smith the only recognisable name among the new signings and a lack of substantial bolstering of a squad desperately needing added depth especially upfront and in defence, only time will tell if Man Utd’s squad can weather the tirade of improved teams their rivals will unleash upon them and add to their 8-time league winners tally.

Chelsea

After a trophy-less run last season, Chelsea gave the sack to Claudio Ranieri (whom everyone dubbed Tinkerman) and brought in Jose Mourinho. The latter is famous for leading underdogs FC Porto to their first Champions League victory last season; defeating the likes of heavyweights Manchester United and Deportivo La Coruna along the way. The move to bring in Mourinho is believed to show Chelsea’s Champions League ambitions and he is widely tipped to be the man who will turn Chelsea into a force of absolute domination.

Over the summer break, Mourinho has made several reforms to Chelsea’s lineup. He’s axed a number of players, with midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron, who missed much of last season due to injury, going on loan to Italian Serie A hot shots Inter Milan. Danish international Jesper Gronkjaer has left Stamford Bridge to join Birmingham City on a £2.2m [S$4.6m] deal. Goalkeeper Marco Ambrosio, rendered redundant since Chelsea brought in Petr Cech on a £7m [S$14.5] transfer, has been loaned to Swiss club Grasshoppers.

Being backed by multi-billionaire Roman Abramovich, one wouldn’t imagine Chelsea haggling with other teams over the sale of their players. Indeed, striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink“has joined Middlesbrough on a two-year deal”, according to ESPN Soccernet, for free. Players like Mario Melchiot, Neil Sullivan and Boudewijn Zenden were also allowed to leave for Premiership clubs Birmingham, Leeds and Middlesbrough respectively on no-fee deals.

Besides the major clearout, Mourinho has also added new players in his effort to build an impregnable team, freely spending tens of millions on each addition to his “all-star” ensemble. Ricardo Carvalho was one of the expensive purchases (£19.85m [S$41.2m]), joining Chelsea from Porto. Another player who followed Mourinho to Chelsea was Paulo Ferreira, who cost £13.3m [S$27.6m]. Former PSV Eindhoven players Arjen Robben and Mateja Kezman have also moved to Stamford Bridge. The most impressive of Chelsea’s new signings though, has to be Didier Drogba, who joined from Marseille, costing Chelsea a cool £24m [S$49.9m]. The 26-year-old Ivory Coast national is touted to be the next English Premiership ace hitman, and has certainly lived up to that reputation, scoring 3 goals in the pre-season friendlies.

Ranieri had spent big money but failed to produce the results to make Roman Abramovich’s money’s worth. All eyes will be on Mourinho now to see if he can be the coach to buy success with money.

Arsenal

Many are betting that Arsenal will not retain their title this season. But does that matter when they’ve had an unbeaten season, played 38 games and had not conceded defeat even once, home and away? Even if another club wins the league title this season, it would be difficult, if not humanly impossible to repeat a feat like theirs.

Perhaps they had the perfect team of players who could play together flawlessly last season, but for any sovereign team, perfection requires constant fine-tuning, That explains why Arsenal has not been left out of the transfer action.

Arsenal has as many as 24 players leaving the club, but the more high profile ones are Martin Keown, Ray Parlour, Nwankwo Kanu, David Bentley and Sylvain Wiltord.

Keown has reached the end of his playing contract with Arsenal and although 38 already, still isn’t ready to retire. He has signed with Leicester City on a free transfer. Parlour has joined Middlesbrough on a reported £1.7m [S$3.5m] deal between Boro and the Gunners. Kanu, who made just 9 appearances last season and scored 3 goals, has been released on a free transfer and has set off for West Bromwich Albion. Wiltord, who joined Arsenal on a whopping £13m [S$27m] in 2000 has also left Highbury.

Despite rampant rumours suggesting Patrick Vieira would leave Arsenal for the Bernabeu, the Gunners captain has stayed on.

Arsene Wenger has made some interesting purchases in the likes of Robin Van Persie, the 20-year-old winger of exciting talent previously from Feyernoord. Young and promising, van Persie was wanted by various prime clubs like PSV, Sevilla as well as Werder Bremen, but ultimately signed with Arsenal.

Acquisition of Mathieu Flamini brought about some controversy with Flamini’s former Marseille coach Jose Anigo expressing his anger publicly towards the young player’s defection to the Gunners. Flamini, also 20, played for Marseille last season despite not signing a professional contract with the club. He had caught the eye of Wenger, who successfully lured him to England.

Arsenal also signed a goalkeeper as Jens Lehmann’s substitute, Manuel Almunia, who was loaned out to Spanish club Albacete from Celta Vigo.

The new season shall put Arsenal and its new crop of young guns to the test, and reveal if Wenger did his tuning right.

Post-purchase Predictions

Although a handful of other clubs, especially Newcastle United and Aston Villa, will have their mind on Europe, the desirable Champions League positions might just end up in the same hands, or legs, if you prefer.

Premiership champions: Arsenal

Arsenal is expected to put up a good fight to defend their title. The race will be a challenging one considering close competition from other top England clubs. However, with the Gunners’ consistent style of flowing football, it’s difficult to picture them going down.

Second place: Chelsea

With such tremendous energy oozing out from everyone in this refreshing team, Chelsea looks to have already booked a place in the top 3. While they are naturally Arsenal’s fiercest rivals in the Premiership, Chelsea ought to look elsewhere for a trophy. In the Champions League perhaps?

Third place: Manchester United

Plagued by misfortune after misfortune, the problematic Man U might not be so glorious after all. Try as they might to regain the title, to surpass the unbeatable Gunners and Jose Mourinho’s brilliance might be beyond Man U this season, no doubt the new strikeforce duo Smith and Rooney might inject some optimism into Old Trafford. Once Ferdinand’s ban is lifted, Man U should recover from the devastating start to this season. However, it might only be enough for them to retain their 3rd placing, but not to move up the ladder.

Fourth: Liverpool

With an adjusted team, and strikers like Milan Baros picking up form during Euro 2004, Liverpool might hope to perform better this season, but to surpass last season’s top 2 teams still seems impossible. The best they can hope for is to overtake Man U, but the difficulty of that lies in the fact that to play well, every team needs time to gel and build rapport.