Football Club News: Premier League transfer round up, English clubs fine tuning squads
While the World Cup has been the main football headline for the past month, squads in the English Premier League have been busy moulding their squads ahead of the new season. The World Cup has given teams yet more options and the showpiece event in South Africa has become sort of a window for shoppers looking for the next hot commodity in world football or an unknown who can perform a job for a club.
Ecuador’s Antonio Valencia is an example of a player who managed to get himself a transfer to the English Premier League at the strength of his displays in 2006. He moved to Wigan Athletic and proved himself a consistent, high quality performer in what is regularly touted as the best league in the world. The rest, as we say, is history. Valencia, who was even rumoured to be interesting Real Madrid at one moment in time, moved to Manchester United to fill the massive boots of Cristiano Ronaldo. While he, himself may not be in the same class the Portuguese wizard, he has proved over the last season of being more than a decent replacement on the right wing, providing pin-point crosses on which Wayne Rooney feasted.
This example shows the impact a player can make due to a transfer immediately after a good world cup showing. Mesut Ozil of Werder Bremen is one such player who might be moving soon given that he has only 1 year left on his contract. It might happen sooner if Cesc Fabregas makes his return to the Catalan citadel of Barcelona, as Arsene Wenger rates the “German Messi” very highly and might make him the replacement for the Arsenal captain. Wenger also called Japan’s Honda a genius, so he might also be a viable target. These may be speculations; however, what is confirmed is that Arsenal already embarked on a rebuilding project of their defence. They have wrapped up the signing of centre-back Laurent Koscielny from French club Lorient for an undisclosed fee thought to be around 10 million pounds.
Arsenal is in dire need of defensive reinforcements after leaking 41 goals last season. Former club captain William Gallas and Mikael Silvestre are also expected to leave, as it seems they will not be have their contracts extended. The 24 year old Frenchman has been tracked by Wenger for a while now and the Arsenal manager was delighted to having wrapped up his transfer. Koscielny boosts Wenger’s defensive options, however, Wenger is not expected to stop right there.
Meanwhile, on Merseyside, England Under-21 midfielder Dan Gosling has shocked and surprised everyone by leaving Everton on a free transfer after the club failed to give him a written contract offer. This miscommunication and Gosling’s insistence on reassurances of first team football seems to have contributed to this strange occurrence. Everton could have received as much as 4 million pounds from a tribunal, had Gosling moved to another club while under contract but that seems unlikely now. Newcastle and West Ham are rumoured to trying to giving the 20 year old a new home before the start of the English Premier League season.
On Tyneside, newly promoted Newcastle United has already started rebuilding for life in the big time. They are set to begin summer recruitment by capturing Nottingham Forest’s James Perch. The Magpies are believed to have agreed an undisclosed sum for the 24 year old versatile player. Perch can play in midfield as well as in the back four.
Premier League champions and double winners, Chelsea have captured a signing for the future as well. They have signed Czech centre-back Tomas Kalas for a fee of around 5 million pounds. The young European, however, will not be turning out in Chelsea colours next season. Even though he has been bought, Kalas will stay at his club Sigma Olomuc for another season before making the move to Stamford Bridge. The defender was signed after interest was shown in him from a host of clubs including Arsenal and AC Milan amongst others. No marquee signings have emerged so far, although there is talk that the London club is prepared to break transfer records in order to induce Fernando Torres to join them from Liverpool to form a truly mouth-watering strike partnership with Didier Drogba.
Even though rumours abound regarding Manchester United and Dutch Wesley Sneijder as well as other whisperings, these more substantial signings prove that with the conclusion of the World Cup on the horizon, English clubs are frantically fine-tuning their squads in anticipation of the new season.
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