QPR were keeping busy. Their new Manager getting a dream opportunity, straight away, to finish the season with a group of players that he had selected.
And QPR did well. They got high calibre names, like Cisse, Zamora, Taiwo and Diakite. They also got Macheda on loan, giving themselves a mixture of youth and experience, and also improving on every line.
Martin O’neill at Sunderland did his usual last day signings. He did have a few rejections (Hugo Almeida wanted too much money on wages, Kevin Davies’ offer was turned down by his club) but he still managed to get 2 strong names to make sure he has cover for injuries.
Chelsea managed to get some out, and signed looking towards the future.
Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City did very little as expected.
Newcastle signed one player, spending £10m (Papiss Demba).
Then Tottenham did Harry’s special. Not huge names, but really last minutes multiple trade involving a few teams.
Saha came in, Pienaar went away, and both on short term deals from and to Everton. Ryan Nelsen arrived from Blackburn for free, after Wolves got Bassong on loan.
All of them in the space of 30 minutes to an hour. Typical Redknapp.
Everton did business bringing Jelavic from Rangers. Only time will tell if it was money well spent.
Looking at the top of the table, if there was a team that needed to bring people in would have been Arsenal.
Not because they lack talent, but because this window found them struggling for form, with many players injured and suffering setbacks in their recoveries.
They started yesterday on 5th position and 5 points behind Chelsea on 4th.
However they were also only ahead of Newcastle on goal difference, and one point ahead of Liverpool.
Basically, closer to lose positions than gaining some.
Results did not work so badly, as Chelsea dropped points in their draw with Swansea, and although Liverpool won, they are now only 2 points ahead of the gunners but with a game more played.
Exciting as it sounds to have signed Thomas Eisfeld for £400k, he is definitely one for the future. It is great to give him the time to acclimatise to English football, and all that, but Arsenal needs points now.
I have no doubts that big changes will come in the summer, with many players going and many more coming in.
But in order to be successful on the next window, they need to finish in the top 4 to get Champions League football.
The names linked to them in the summer will want UCL or they will certainly have other options.
Also Van Persie, may look somewhere else, for example.
So it is not just a matter of pride, but a matter of necessity.
I do understand and know that they worked hard to move players on without luck
They offered Almunia to a series of clubs in his native Spain with no takers or even interest.
Did the same with Squillaci to different clubs, with no takers either.
They managed to get Lokomotiv to discuss the possibility to send Arshavin to them. But AW’s asking price was a stumbling block, and the Russians decided against it.
Then there was buying or at least bringing people in.
There were people Wenger wanted that were not interested in coming to London this window (Gourcuff, Nuri Sahin, Eden Hazard, Leandro Damiao,etc)
There were others who did want to come, but were asking more in wages than the Manager was prepare to pay (Dempsey, Vertonghen, Mathieu, Biglia)
They also had 2 bids rejected for Wilfried Zaha and Lucas Barrios.
Two of their targets were injured making no sense signing them (Podolski and Holtby)
They reached an agreement for Holtby for the summer, but Podolski wants to wait as he is also wanted by Schalke and they have chances of qualifying for the UCL.
Villarreal signed a striker, to replace Nilmar, who was supposed to be wanted by Arsenal, but no bid went in, and so the Brazilian will stay in Spain.
The big target now is to finish in the top 4.
With Matias Suarez and Holtby already signed up, and many more names on file, it will all depend on that.
On a way, this window should serve as a motivational exercise for the rest of the season.
The players know what they have to do, if they have a chance of staying with the club next season.
They will need you, the fans, to support them and back them until the last minute of the last game.
The miracle did not happen, but the quality is still there to aim high.