January 8 2010

Action

Crystal Palace and the transfer window do not make great buddies, but it does make for speculation, writes Simon Pophale.

Each week, I will be rounding up the stories of the week, up to midnight on Thursdays and to throw in all the speculation that has been rife. The best place to start is at home...

The Palace window-watch

Starting with those players who have moved on or confirmed a longer stay away, Stern John extended his loan with Ipswich to end at the end of January, Freddie Sears went back to West Ham (and came on in the FA Cup tie against Arsenal on the 3rd) and Simon Thomas moved on a free to Darlington. It begs the question – who will be up front?

The rumour mill was working overtime and it is only week one! Most of the speculation unsurprisingly surrounded Victor Moses, with Manchester City interested but not for £5m (Daily Express – 01/01/10), while on the 3rd the headlines read “Moses to be sold for £3m to stop Palace going bust” (Sunday Express) and a day later, Liverpool, Manchester City, Everton and Birmingham all want Moses (Daily Mail). However, one piece of rumour that was more of a surprise surrounded our erstwhile manager.

Friday (01/01/10) opened with the Daily Star announcing “Bolton may make move for Warnock” (a rumour, as Darren Ferguson took over on the 6th) and the even more comical Daily Mail story on the 5th which read “Wednesday may make shock move for Warnock”.

The BBC ran a piece by Paul Fletcher (a journalist at the BBC who DOES know the Football League) on why this, quite simply is the most unlikely union to happy since a certain Mr Clough turned up at Elland Road.

While we are in financial difficulty, which was picked up by most papers this week due to the players not being paid again, Southampton offering £1.5m for Jose Fonte came as a bit of a surprise. However, it is doubtful that he will drop a division, as a certain Mr Hreidarsson did back in 1998. Speroni and Ambrose rumours, are quiet... for now.

Lest We Forget

Darren Ward began the clear-out at Wolves as he rejoined Millwall on a free, while former youth player Tyrone Berry found a club on New Years Eve as he linked up with Forest Green Rovers. More news of former players as the window progresses.

Around the Championship

Quiet but Nigel Clough is slowly accumulating additions as he signed Lee Johnson on loan from Bristol City and on Thursday, adding the versatile Nicky Hunt to his squad from Bolton, again on loan. QPR took the Premiership plunge by getting Carl Ikeme on loan from Wolves and Preston fancied Neil Collins and getting him in permanently.

Richard Cresswell decided to swap the red and white of Stoke for the red and white of Sheffield United. These latter deals went for that most annoying of fees to report on – undisclosed. Heading out of the Championship to Colchester was Barnsley’s’ Kayode Odejayi and Watford’s’ John-Joe O’Toole.

O’Toole links up again with Aidy Boothroyd, but must have been wondering what he was joining after the 7-0 humping at Preston. The Sun (01/01/10) added one rumour that I could not leave out: Iain Dowie mooted to be the final nail in Readings’ coffin (I mean manager).

Premier League watch

What goes on in the Premier League, can have a direct effect on us, especially with Portsmouth’s plight coming to a head on Monday when the Premier League are dividing TV money due to Portsmouth to clubs owed transfer money (Tottenham, Watford, Chelsea amongst others).

While there will be no fire sale according to Pompey on the BBC website on Thursday, this will divert people to their players rather than ours, as there is a transfer embargo on and the players have, unlike ours (fingers crossed!), not been paid.

A lean time otherwise in the Premier League, with Wigan signing Vladimir Stojkavic on loan from Sporting Lisbon, Birmingham bagging Michel from Sporting Gijon for £3m, pending a medical.

The big news which will dominate the next edition as, currently, Patrick Viera is undergoing a medical and is expected to have signed from Inter Milan. City is going to, in a months time, have decidedly Arsenal-looking spine about them... Until next week, we still have Moses (fit or injured)!

Email Simon with your comments to simonpophale@btinternet.com