So there we have it. The dust has settled, Jim White has packed his yellow tie away, Harry Redknapp has rolled his car window back up. The window has shut. On a day where we feel like nothing is happening and Sky Sports News try and convince us that a huge amount is happening we at 90minutesonline take a step back from the scramble and ask: What did happen on transfer deadline day?
Like everyone else, we were sat there waiting for that one big money deal. We saw it happen at Chelsea in the end. Exciting Columbian winger Juan Cuadrado signed from Fiorentina in a deal thought to be worth around £26million. Sky Sports promised us that now one big deal was done the rest would fall like dominos. They didn’t. It did mean that high paid Chelsea reserves Mohamed Salah and André Schürrle could be moved on after a season where José Mourinho has made it clear that they are nowhere near first choice though.
Another player who was deemed surplus to requirements was Manchester United’s Brazilian midfielder Fanderson.
Fanderson, noun. An amalgamation of the words ‘Fat’ and ‘Anderson’, used to describe Manchester United’s pot-bellied central midfielder.
Anderson had never quite lived up to the £20million price tag and lofty reputation as one of the games brightest young stars since he joined United in 2007. But during his eight year spell at the club he amassed a remarkable medal haul that far surpasses modern day footballing greats like Steven Gerrard, Alan Shearer and Gareth Bale.
He was good enough to tweet (how else do footballers communicate nowadays???) his gratitude to the club and more so to the fans who had been extremely patient with him. This is quite at odds with Tottenham’s lizard-faced left back Benoit Assou-Ekotto who was also released on transfer deadline day.
His declaration of ‘freedom’ on Instagram drew the ire of Spurs fans and football purists everywhere. I’m sure we can join him in celebrating his freedom from a career that was ‘just a job’ to him and saw him getting paid handsomely for very little work. All the best Benny.
Another exit from White Hart Lane was Aaron Lennon who linked up with Everton on loan until the end of the season after turning down Stoke. Considering Everton were Lennon’s chosen option you’d think that he could have looked a little more enthused about it. Go ahead now and google image search ‘Aaron Lennon Everton’ and you will see a man who looks as though his puppy has just been ran over. The images were striking enough to invoke the Guardian headline: ‘Aaron Lennon insists he is happy to join Everton – despite appearances’.
Even though the exit door was seemingly wide open at White Hart Lane on transfer deadline day it seems that they couldn’t quite force Emmanuel Adebayor through it. Adebayor himself turned down a move to QPR while Spurs chairmen Daniel Levy stepped in to stop the Togolese striker joining West Ham. With Spurs reported to be ready to subsidise over half of Adebayor’s £100k per week wages during a loan move it’s understandable that the club didn’t want to pay to strengthen the front line of London rivals and fellow Champions League chasers West Ham.
This move did leave a little egg on the face of West Ham owner David Gold who drove West Ham fans into a frenzy of anticipation at 10pm by tweeting ‘Don’t go to bed’ before having to apologise an hour later when the deadline passed without a deal being done. It was also bad news for Carlton Cole who was dragged back to West Ham after agreeing terms with West Brom due to the Adebayor deal collapsing.
Frustrating for West Brom too although they did manage to get the signing of experienced central midfielder Darren Fletcher over the line. The Scottish midfielder was a well respected figure at Manchester United after 20 years at the side he joined when he was 11. I’m sure he was given the warmest of goodbyes. Warmer than say, Wilfried Zaha, who made his loan move at Crystal Palace from United permanent. Statisticians with their calculators already in hand were quick to tell us that Zaha cost United a whopping £400,000 for every minute he played for them.
And as always there were just a few moves that left you baffled. Scratching your head and asking questions like ‘woah, how old is Yakubu now?’ and ‘Jesus! How is Yakubu only 32!?’ The former Portsmouth and Middlesbrough striker joined Reading until the end of the season.
But that pales in comparison to Bolton defender Andy Kellett and his move. Have you heard of Andy Kellett? Of course you haven’t. He has played four times for Bolton totalling less than 90 minutes on the pitch. He also enjoyed a three month loan spell at Plymouth earlier in the season.
If you’d have told him at the start of the day that he would be leaving on loan again he’d of probably expected a return to Plymouth (which was on the cards for a while). You can imagine the 21 year olds surprise then when he turned up at Manchester United, on loan until the end of the season.
It’s thought that he is needed to bolster United’s under-21 side who have picked up a spate of injuries (they’re coming on well then in terms of fitting in to the first team squad), but what an opportunity for the youngster who probably thought he was being well and truly wound up when Bolton manager Neil Lennon pulled him into the office and told him that United had been on the phone about him.
Awwwwww, congratulations Andy Kellett. A happy ending to transfer deadline day then. And they all lived happily ever after......apart from the players who were unceremoniously dumped by their clubs or the panic buys who won’t work out, of course. The end.