February 2 2010

Victor Moses

As the transfer window slammed shut faster than Ashley Cole down the A3 we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief, writes Simon Pophale.

It's finally over... for now.

I know that the loan market is still open but for now at least, there is no-one else leaving the club. It was not the best start to the day when it was revealed the rumours were in fact true, Victor Moses had signed for Wigan Athletic.

However, quashing our disappointment was done by Nathaniel Clyne and Neil Danns. Both players rejecting moves to Wolves and Southampton respectively; after the club had bids accepted. While the bids were derisory, which may lead many to believe that we are really in the brown stuff, the fact that the players did not feel it was the right move, showed that they are committed to us, for a bit longer at least.

With Darryl Flahavan going on loan to Oldham and Stern John returning, it was not the carnage that had been predicted by many.

Old boys news

On the old boy radar this week: It was a story of loans, loans, loans. Fitz Hall going to Newcastle, while Rhoys Wiggins moved to Bournemouth from Norwich. Kyel Reid, who we had on loan a while back, moved from Sheffield United to Charlton. One former player not moving was Dave Martin, whose transfer to Derby fell through.

Championship chat

Newcastle kept on adding players this week, with Hall and also Patrick Van Aanholt coming on loan from Chelsea and adding Leon Best on the final day, for an undisclosed fee. Geremi decided that Newcastle was not for him and moved to Turkey, with an undisclosed fee being agreed with Ankaragucu.

Just up the road at Middlesbrough, a Scot called Gordon was dealing like there was no tomorrow as with the biggest deal of the week in the Championship was Adam Johnson moving to Manchester City, which would have funded all the other fun and games that Strachan was up to.

Stephen McManus, Scott McDonald added to the ex-Celtic contingent and while Mido went to West Ham on loan, the landing of Kyle Naughton from Tottenham may solve their defensive problems. Lee Miller also arrived from Aberdeen for an undisclosed fee.

Moving from the top to the bottom of the table, faster than John Terry’s reputation, Roy Keane went a bit window crazy on the last day. First, Alex Bruce went to Leicester on loan, before Keane went back to Sunderland to get Daryl Murphy and David Healy on loan. Out went Tamas Priskin on loan to QPR, as well as Stern John.

QPR have been doing the rounds too, with players as they have obviously got bored with changing managers as Gareth Ainsworth, Alessandro Pelicori and Ed Harris went out while Marcus Bent came in.

Plymouth, managed by a Mariner, also traded their way on the last day. Out went Steven Maclean and Jim Paterson to Aberdeen, while Jason Puncheon went to Southampton and George Donnelly to Stockport, all on loan. It was not all one way; Damien Johnson came in from Birmingham to add experience in the midfield on a free.

Watford brought in the experienced Martin Taylor on a free, while sending Mat Sadler off to Stockport. Malky Mackay also reduced his wage bill by sending out Scott Severin, Marvin Sordell and Rob Kiernan on loan to various Scottish destinations.

Nigel Clough got involved again after his first week deals, when he got in Michel Tonge and Javan Vidal from Wigan and Manchester City respectively. He has been given lots of time at Pride Park, as had Alexander Prijkovic, who never played a game for the Rams and was moved on to FC Sion.

Elsewhere, Blackpool got DJ Campbell from Leicester and Stephen Dobbie from Swansea, Shelton Martis swapped West Brom for Doncaster and Andwele Slory thought that West Brom was a better proposition than Feyenoord, joining on a free.

Sheffield United added Tony Kallio and Nyron Nosworthy to replace Matt Kilgallon while Darren Ferguson went back to Peterborough (now with Jim Gannon in charge following the sacking after 79 days of Mark Cooper), to get Paul Coutts and also got Keith Treacy from Blackburn.

Other news

Harry Redknapp did some last day deals, Robbie Keane to Celtic, Alan Hutton to Sunderland both on loan while getting in Younes Kaboul from Portsmouth. Benni McCarthy swapped Blackburn for West Ham, where he will be joined by Ilan, on loan from St Etienne. Finally, Chris Smalling agreed a pre-contract with Manchester United, after only a couple of appearances for Fulham.

Its been a busy window... but we have come out of it relatively unscathed and let us hope that our dreams don’t get completely loaned out, over the next few weeks.