Dateline Day Transfer News And Views

(Source from BBC Sports)

Raul Meireles and Mikel Arteta swapped the city of Liverpool for London in dramatic deals on a busy transfer deadline day.

Meireles moved from Liverpool to Chelsea, while Everton's Arteta joined Arsenal along with Chelsea midfielder Yossi Benayoun.

Arsenal also signed Germany defender Per Mertesacker and left back Andre Santos from Fenerbahce for £6.2m as Arsene Wenger re-shaped his squad after Sunday's 8-2 defeat by Manchester United.

Manchester City completed the free-transfer of former Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves and allowed out-of-favour forward Craig Bellamy to rejoin former club Liverpool.

Liverpool let two players depart for France, Joe Cole moving to Lille on a season-long loan and midfielder Christian Poulsen joining Evian.

Manchester United did not make any deadline day deals, with Inter Milan's Wesley Sneijder revealing on Twitter that he would be staying in Italy.

Fulham and Stoke made major striker signings.

Fulham bought FC Twente striker Bryan Ruiz for £10.6m, beating off a late rival bid from Newcastle United.

Stoke broke their transfer record to sign Tottenham's Peter Crouch for £10m, and also bought Wilson Palacios from Spurs for a fee believed to be around £6m.

Spurs also let Jermaine Jenas and Alan Hutton move to Aston Villa, the latter opting for the West Midlands over a move to Fulham.

Tottenham winger David Bentley joined West Ham on a season-long loan.

Spurs completed the deal for West Ham United's Scott Parker, but failed to sign Bolton defender Gary Cahill.

Sunderland ended their search for a striker when Nicklas Bendtner moved from Arsenal on a year-long loan deal.

Arsenal also let young striker Joel Campbell, who only signed last week, join French side Lorient on loan, following team-mate Gilles Sunu, who made a permanent switch to the Ligue 1 outfit.

QPR added Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips to their squad and Sunderland's Anton Ferdinand. Their move for Spurs defender Sebastian Bassong fell through due to Spurs' failure to sign Bolton's Gary Cahill.

As well as keeping hold of their prized defensive asset Cahill, Bolton added new faces by sealing a permanent deal for Liverpool striker David Ngog and a loan switch for Chelsea midfielder Gael Kakuta.

Blackburn raided Goodison Park to sign striker Yakubu, and also complete moves for Birmingham defender Scott Dann and Sheffield United frontman Jordan Slew.

Everton made two loan signings: Real Madrid's Royston Drenthe on loans and striker Denis Stracqualursifrom Argentine side Tigres. The Toffees let Jermaine Beckford to join Leicester.

Wigan completed two deals, signing Celtic winger Shaun Maloney for a fee of £1m and Chelsea defender Patrick van Aanholt on loan.

(Source: BBC from Sports)

Now that the transfer dateline is over, some teams in my opinion has strengthened its squad while others might be worse off from its transfer deals.

Positive Signings:

Arsenal have signed Mikel Arteta, Per Mertesacker, Yossi Benayoun and Andre Santos, as well as Park Chu-Young, while Niklas Bendtner has joined Sunderland on loan. This is good news for Arsenal fans who just had a week to forget after seeing their side hammered by rivals Manchester United. Arteta will be a great addition in their midfield after losing Fabregas and Nasri, and Mertesacker and Santos will add much needed stability in defense. This signings will definitely improve the squad after their best eleven against Man Utd, do not look like a side that can even finish in the top half of the Premier League.

Chelsea surprised everyone after securing the signature of Raul Meireles in the last minute of the transfer dateline. It is still not known how Andre Villas-Boas will fit Meireles into the team, already with many quality midfielders, but adding a player of Meireles’ quality is always a good problem to have.

QPR, under a new owner, Malaysian own Tony Fernandez, has a new ambition. They have been very busy in the transfer market and plan to add up to 5 new quality players to strengthen their squad. They have succeeded to add 3, with the signing of Shaun Wright-Phillips and Anton Ferdinand yesterday, as well as Joey Barton last week, which is a positive move for their squad for me. Expect them to stay up in the Premier League this season.

Stoke City has manage to strengthen its attacking options by signing 2 strikers, Cameron Jerome from Birmingham and Peter Crouch of Spurs. They also signed a good defensive midfielder, Wilson Palacios, also from Spurs. Already a good squad, expect these signings to improve their team and help them in their push in the Europa League and Premier League.

Bolton Wanderers, importantly, manage to hold on to Gary Cahill, at least for another six months. Spurs have tried their best to get the signature of Cahill, but Owen Coyle is determined to keep his quality defender at the Reebok. They also picked up a few decent players on transfer deadline day including David N’Gog (from Liverpool) and Gael Kakuta (from Chelsea, on loan), to add to their already impressive attack.

Blackburn Rovers has picked up quality defender Scott Dann from Birmingham and tricky striker Yakubu from Everton. They also managed to keep Christopher Samba in their team. To me, these signings are much needed to improve their squad, who are currently favourites to be relegated next term.

Negative Signings:

Tottenham Hotspur offloaded Alan Hutton, Wilson Palacios, Peter Crouch and Jermaine Jenas. They manage to keep Luca Modric and sign Adebayor on loan. Spur are hoping to capture Gary Cahill and another striker, but will have to do with Adebayor. They will be hoping for Adebayor to hit goal-scoring form and Modric to get over his dream move and start playing his best for Spurs again.

Everton to me are the biggest loser during dateline day after losing its best player, Mikel Arteta, to Arsenal for a fee that’s believed to be £10 million. That transfer fee is an absolute bargain for a class player like Arteta, and it shows what a financially unstable position Everton is in. With the deal being done at the eleventh hour, Everton didn’t have time to use the money to buy a top class player, but they did get Royston Drenthe from Real Madrid on a season-long loan. Expect Everton to be in the bottom half of the Premier League this season.

Liverpool received a huge blow after losing a key player, Raul Meireles, to Chelsea. Craig Bellamy was a good addition, but his best years may have past him. Meanwhile, getting rid of Christian Poulsen and Joe Cole is a welcome relief. I believe Meireles are one of the main reason for Liverpool’s good string of results during the second half of last season.

Swansea so far has their goalkeeper, Michel Vohm, to thank for their precious two points collected thus far. Vohm has been very impressive in their opening game as well, despite losing 4-0 to Man City. However, they needed to fill its attacking options, a creative midfielder and a striker, and have failed to sign any attackers before the dateline. However, Swansea mange to picked up Fulham defender Rafik Halliche on loan as well as left back Federico Bessone from Leeds, but based on today’s dealings, it’s going to be a long season for the Swansea.