The Transfers

I like talking about club football. But it has ended after a spectacular 10 months which seen twists of all kinds. And because the warm-up games to the World Cup are hardly indications of how the teams will fair in the actual tournament, I wouldn't bother reading too much into it.

Although it must be mentioned that England lost to Belarus B. Other than Hleb from Arsenal, I don't think there are many other big name Belarusians known in this part of the world - forgive me if I'm wrong - but he plays for Belarus A and not the B team!Yet England, with a side featuring names like Sol Campbell, Jamie Carragher, Jermaine Jenas, Aaron Lennon, Stewart Downing, Peter Crouch and of course Michael Owen (and the list goes on), they still lost. But I already said I wouldn't read too much into games such as those.

I shall give my views on the latest big-name transfers though. Firstly, as a Liverpool fan, I would touch on the topic of Fernando Morientes, who the club confirmed has joined Valencia for an undisclosed fee. Not disclosing the fee was probably to save the embarrassment of announcing a loss on a player they paid £6.3million 16 months ago. The sale price of 'Nando' was believed to be less than £3million. The sale of Morientes doesn't come too much a big surprise though, having failed to perform to expectations in his stay on Merseyside. Many think it was because he hasn't adapted to the English game, and I agree. He scored only 12 goals in 61 games, that is about 1 goal every 5 games - which is much less than a striker of his repuation should deliver. I think it was a good decision by Benitez to make way for another top-class striker. He would probably sell Neil Mellor and Sinama-Pongolle as well. But having said that, I do feel a bit disappointed I didn't get to see a top class Morientes scoring and playmaking in Liverpool. There was so much expected of him, and although he did show some touches of class he is known for, it wasn't regular enough. It was a waste that he didn't show form for Liverpool. But form like that is not tolerated in a club like Liverpool. Though I am a keen admirer of the Spaniard, we'll have to say it's for the best for the club to make way for a striker who can adapt to the demands of the Premiership.

Secondly, Robert Pires as moved away from Arsenal after 6 years. He moved to Villareal - and honestly, Arsenal must be laughing now. Pires, though classy, had been out of form of late - and hence out of the team. Wenger has had brought in a more than capable replacement in Tomas Rosicky - a true world class player. I just hope he adapts to the Premiership, because I would love to watch his talents on display at the new Arsenal Staduim. Arsenal would have a good mix in midfield. Gilberto Silva can play the destructor role (breaking down opposition attacks, I hope and not his own), Fabregas to spray passes from midfield - sort of Xabi Alsone or Pirlo-like and there are pacy wingers like Ljungberg and Reyes. There is also the skill and technique of Hleb, and the energy of Diaby. Rosicky would fit into the Arsenal midfield perfectly, and the London club probably got themselves a playmaker twice as good as Pires in his peak and 7 years younger.

Transfer speculation is that Andy Johnson, also known as AJ, is on the move to the Premiership. Having failed to bounce back into the top flight, Crystal Palace have let their star striker go. If you have been reading my blog, you would know I'm an admirer of this top quality finisher. And at £8.5million pounds, he is rightfully priced. I have quoted his stats before, but more importantly, is his ability to finish off team moves with deadly efficiency. Not playing for a big club, and able to score over 20 goals a season regularly, shows that he is no fluke. Wigan or Bolton would be lucky to have him, although I did wish he would have gone to a bigger club like Liverpool or Manchester United. Face it, with Morientes gone, or with the imminent departure of Van Nistelrooy, the two clubs could use a proven striker. I remains to be seen who the clubs will bring in to replace their big-names.

Lastly, I forgot to mention earlier that Chelsea are wasting a whole lot of money signing Michael Ballack, not that it woud really matter to Mr Abramovich. But why Ballack? He is 30 years old, and Chelsea have a packed mid-field already. With Lampard, Essien, Makelele and Gudjohnson already in the midfield, and even Joe Cole had been forced to the wing, Chelsea do not need another midfielder. At £130,000 a week, the extra midfielder doesn't come cheap. I think they should worry about strengthening other areas instead of wasting their money packing their mid-field and get problems of unhappy big-name players. It is a good thing, from the Chelsea point of view that they are trying to buy Shevchenko and maybe Ashley Cole, and these are the areas their team needs improvement in. But I think Chelsea would jsut be a victim of the big-name disease. Real Madrid have shown already that it doesn't work - having failed to win a trophy for the last 3 seasons. But Chelsea doesn't seem to learn from other's mistakes. Ballack is 29 going 30, Shevchenko a similar age, Crespo is 30 as well, it shows that they are signing the big names, but maybe these men are approaching the end of their careers and arguably past their peak. What happened to signing good young talent like Robben, Cech, Essien and Wright-Philips. I forgot, Cech and Robben were signed by Claudio Ranieri while the Wright-Phillips project turned out wrong. I wonder if Mourinho has the abilities to pull young talent like how Arsene Wenger or Alex Ferguson does. Perhaps not.

In recent times, Wenger had brought up Fabregas, Reyes, Van Persie, Diaby and spotted Henry going a few years back. And who can forget Theo Walcott - who has yet to feature in an Arsenal senoir game but is picked for England's World Cup squad. Alex Ferguson on the other hand, had brought up his old school players like the Nevilles, Scholes, Giggs, Silvestre and to some extent Beckham - I think he is overrated too, but let's give him some credit ok? - and more recent young exciting talent like the famous one-footed Rooney and fleet-footed Cristiano Ronaldo and the natural goal-scorer Rossi.

I haven't seen Mourinho bring up young talent - or not as yet. In fact, Robben is on the decline, I have mentioned that Wright-Phillips project is going Wrong-Phillips. Glen Johnson looks to be nurtured in the wrong way as well. There have been question marks over Lassana Diarra, and really the only success was Essien - but he was already a big player before he arrived at Chelsea. I haven't seen young players come through the system at Chelsea in the past 2 seasons - forget the John Terry and Frank Lampard, they broke into the team ages ago.
Maybe I have picked out the flaw in "the special one".