The current summer 2012 transfer season has seen a mass purging and trimming of fat with many players sold, released or retired, but few new signings so far.
Who should your team sign?
The most busy teams have been those at the lower end of the Premier League, namely QPR and West Ham, who between them have bought six players and sold 14.
Robert Green has even gone to QPR from the Hammers in a bid to help Rangers win football medals. Or at the very least bring a wise head to a team that may find itself dicing with relegation again. After an almost disastrous end to their last season, QPR have brought in New Zealand defender and captain Ryan Nelson from Tottenham as well as Fulham striker Andrew Johnson.
January loan signing Samba Diakite has also just (minutes ago at the time of writing) put pen to paper to transfer to Rangers from Nancy on a four-year deal.
The Hoops have not sold any players, but have released eight in an effort to pull their football socks up and strengthen their squad. One expected release that did not happen was the sacking of Joey Barton. QPR have agreed to keep him at the club, but he has been fined six weeks’ wages and stripped of the captaincy. QPR have told him that should he reoffend they reserve the right to terminate his contract.
The newly-promoted Hammers have signalled their intention to stay in the Premier League from now on by signing defensive midfielder Mohamed Diamé from Wigan, veteran goalkeeper Jussi Jääskeläinen from Bolton, and another goalkeeper Stephen Henderson from Portsmouth. There will be no shortage of new goalkeeper gloves at West Ham next season.
So far in Swansea, Michael Laudrup has said that he doesn’t want to change the club for change’s sake. The Swans attempts to tie last season’s loan signing Gylfi Sigurdsson to a permanent contract have been blown out of the water by more lucrative offers by Liverpool and Tottenham.
In terms of the bigger fish in the pond, several new names were added to the back of club football shirts before Euro 2012 even kicked off. Chelsea secured Belgian hot prospect Eden Hazard along with Werder Bremen’s winger Marko Marin, and both will hope to set Roberto Di Matteo’s Chelsea off to a good start and win them more football trophies to go along with last season’s Champions League title.
Manchester United have brought in Japanese dynamo Shinji Kagawa from Borussia Dortmund and released Michael Owen, whose future options reportedly include either Stoke City, United Arab Emirates team Al-Shabab, or possibly even horse racing or football punditry. Maybe he should be put out to stud.
Liverpool have been busy getting rid of players, most notably Dirk Kuyt to Fenerbahçe, but they are yet to make definite moves to purchase a player. New boss Brendan Rodgers has a hefty weight on his shoulders as Reds fans will be expecting considerable improvement on last season’s bad performance under King Kenny.
Newcastle United had a brilliant season last time around and no doubt will be expecting more of the same this time. Why change a (mostly) winning formula though? The Magpies have so far only added French midfielder Romain Amalfitano on a free, although there are vague rumours of links to full backs Mathieu Debuchy and Erik Pieters.
The highest profile signings have been by Arsene Wenger and Arsenal. They had a rough time of it at the start of last season, and there were even calls for Wenger’s head, but he pulled it back for a decent finish. The Gunners have signed FC Köln striker Lukas Podolski and this morning confirmed the acquisition of French international forward Olivier Giroud from Montpellier. Wenger has said he intends to use his two new signings along with Van Persie to create a formidable strike force, but the money is strongly on Van Persie to move to Manchester City.
On the other side of North London, Tottenham Hotspur are just glad that Gareth Bale will be staying this summer. A deal for Belgian centre back Jan Vertonghen is still up in the air, but who will sign as manager?
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