THE LAST DAYS OF THE MARKET (article in English and Español)

The end of the market is near and the teams must concentrate to hit and to sign the correct players to play the second half of season with guarantees to get the objectives.
During the last days, we have not had much news, being the English Premier League the championship wIf we look at the English Premier League´s teams whose battle is to qualify to the next Champions League, the current protagonist is Aston Villa, because the Birmingham´s team has decided to strengthen its offensive line with the acquisition of the very experienced and powerful striker Emile Heskey (3,7 million euros)-this is an overvalued player and for example I did not understand his Liverpool´s transfer when it paid 16, 5 million euros for him, but he can be a valid player for Villa to have a substitute and complement to Carew and Gabriel Agbonlahor and he can score around 6-8 goals-. The Wigan Athletic moved quickly to find a Heskey´s substitute and it signed another overvalued striker, the Egyptian Mido, who is a player like Bobo Vieri, because he is only 25 year´s old and he has played in 9 teams until this moment. Besides, we have news from other Premier League´s teams which have options to play in next Uefa Cup, like West Ham United where we will see the play of a new offensive midfielder, the promising Savio Nsereko, who arrives from Brescia Calcio (6.7 million euros), or like Manchester City,whose last arrival is the good Dutch central midfielder Nigel de Jong-at the moment this is the only good City´s arrival during this month(19.5 million euros)- or Hull City which will be the new club of an experienced midfielder Jimmy Bullard, who arrived from Fulham FC after a transfer fee of 5.3 million euros. Moreover, we have news from the teams whose battle is to remain in the Premier League and for example Tottenham Hotspur is continuing its particular “players´s return” and after the Defoe´s reacquisition, Harry Redknapp decided the Pascal Chimbonda´s return to be the substitute of the injured Alan Hutton. Moreover Redknapp will also have in the squad the veteran goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini-he arrives on loan from Chelsea to replace Cesar who will play at Valencia-and the Honduran midfielder Wilson Palacios( the Spurs paid to Wigan 15 million euros, which is perhaps too much money for a player who is a good player, but he still has much to prove-he should take care of his behaviour on the field, because this season has seen 9 yellow cards-). Portsmouth is spending the important sum of money received in this market with the Defoe and Lass´s departures and it is strengthened its midfielder line with the arrival of Hayden Mullins-he arrives from West Ham-, Jermaine Pennant-he is an overvalued player, because he is fast but he is not very precise with the ball…I did not understand the Real Madrid´s interest on him…-and Pele from FC Porto-he need to play to improve and to show again his level showed when he played at Inter Milan-.Finally, in England, we must remark the arrival to Newcastle United of Peter Lovenkrands, who was free because he and Schalke stopped the relation after some unlucky years at Gelsenkirchen and now he will have another opportunity to recover and show his Glasgow Rangers´s level.

Other Leagues:

Germany: Possibly the most important news during the last days is the Hoffenheim´s decision to sign the striker Boubacar Sanogo as the substitute of the Bundesliga´s top scorer Vedad Ibisevic who is injured and he will not play until next season-although Sanogo did not play well at Werder Bremen and his performance is a mystery, I think his arrival is the best solution to Hoffenheim according the circumstances, because he has an important German experience and besides it is very difficult to find a better striker during this market-. There is also the return of Marko Babic to the Bundesliga after an unhappy period at Betis-he is a great player and it is sure that he will show at Herta Berlin again his best version(by the way, Herta is the new club of the good experienced Argentine defender Leandro Cufré, who arrives from AS Monaco)-and the signature of the controversial Croatian central defender Dino Drpic who arrives to Karlsruhe- I say that he is controversial because he is a player who has problems with gambling- casinos, and also because he is married to a controversial Croatian singer-model, Nives Celzijus, who has just published a controversial book about their private life (the Dino´s departure will be replaced by is a classic European football, Robert Kovac who has just signed for NK Dinamo Zagreb) - The arrival of the powerful midfielder Derek Owusu Boateng from Beitar Jerusalem to FC Cologne and the arrival of the left back Nikola Petkovic to Eintracht Frankfurt.

Spanish League: the most remarkable during the last days is the arrival of a Serbian goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic to Getafe to replace El Pato Abbondanzieri, who will play at Boca Juniors- Vladimir has to prove once that he can be a valid goalkeeper to play outside Serbia-, or the return of Jose Edmilson to Brazil to play at Palmerias-he was not happy at Villarreal, where he did not have many minutes and he had decided to return to his country, in whose league we will see playing the striker Maxi Lopez, who will demonstrate his "tremendous" quality at Gremio (I can not understand how FC Barcelona rejected Kanouté and it signed Maxi-they had the same price in that period- ...).

Italian League: the only remarkable signatures are the acquisition of 2 backs, the experienced Manuel Belleri from Lazio to Bologna FC and Claudio Rivalta from Atalanta to Torino FC.

Turkish League: The main protagonist of the last few days is Alanzinho, since the Brazilian offensive player, after some very good years in Norway, where he was considered one of the best players in the league, has decided to leave Stabæk to prove that he can be a valid player for Trabzonspor(transfer fee of 4 million euros), where he will play alongside Yattara, who sounds again as Real Madrid´s player-he is a good player but I think that he is not ready to play at Real Madrid and he must improve and needs more experience in important and difficult European Competition games…but anything is possible with Pedja Mijatovic and Real Madrid-.

We will see what will happen during the next at Manchester City or Real Madrid or in players like Thiago Neves who is not too happy at Hamburg.

We will see.

Other articles about the winter market:

THE MARKET IS HERE (article in English and Español)THE WINTER MARKET STARTS (article in English and Español)

A GREAT SUNDAY (article in English and Español)
A REVISION OF THE TRANSFERS DURING THE LAST WEEK (article in English and Español)

THE LATEST NEWS OF THE MARKET (article in English and Español)

Cheers,
J&F