This summer’s busy transfer window has either been one of undoubted success or major concern for the Premier League’s top six. Whilst Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool have bought early, their rivals Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspurseem to be waiting to the last minute to make their moves in the market. But is it worth the extra millions buying early?
Early season form would seem to indicate the answer is yes. Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United have all spent big and spent early this season and their starts to the new campaign indicate that this has paid off for their respective managers.
Tottenham and Arsenal on the other hand have not enjoyed the same success and much of criticism being leveled at the clubs (especially at Arsenal) is to do with a lack of investment in the transfer market so far. Of course I am not forgetting the other team in the running for a top six finish Chelsea, who have tried both approaches in their summer spending. They have invested substantially so far by bringing in players like Juan Mata and Romelu Lukaku well before the end of the transfer window but Andre Villas-Boas still looks to be in the hunt for further additions as the clock ticks down.
Liverpool and Manchester United’s summer spending has followed a similar pattern. Both have predominately bought British and both have been willing to pay near £20million for inexperienced names. Liverpool bought in Jordan Henderson for a very over-inflated £20million whilst Manchester United spent £16million on teenager Phil Jones. Whilst Roberto Mancini has looked abroad for new players this summer, like his closest rivals he bought in most of his new talent well before the transfer deadline.
But whilst Kenny Dalglish, Roberto Mancini and Sir Alex Ferguson’s eagerness to splash the cash in the transfer market has undoubtedly pushed up the prices they have had to pay, it all looks to be worth it for the managers. Not only do they get to stand back and watch as the usual deadline day chaos ensues, they also have had the benefit of a full pre-season which would have helped their handful of new players gel together.
But are Arsene Wenger and Harry Redknapp playing a risky yet worthwhile game by leaving everything to the last minute? Arsenal’s transfer policy this summer has been wrongly dictated by outgoing deals rather than new faces yet Wenger now has just about enough time to spend a healthy £50million+ on new names.
Whilst Spurs have not experienced the same level of negativity surrounding the Emirates, it is hard to look past the fact that Redknapp has only bought in veteran keeper Brad Friedel and Emmanuel Adebayor on loan. But last summer he pulled off the coup of the season by snapping up Real Madrid’s Rafael van der Vaart for only £8million. That was a last minute move that paid off for Spurs and you couldn’t blame Harry looking for a similar deal this summer. The van der Vaart transfer is also a perfect example of how teams can only have to spend a small transfer fee for a player out in the cold as clubs look to get rid of unwanted talent before the deadline.
But of course this is a very risky approach as there is a possibility that Wenger and Redknapp could be left with nothing come 11.01pm on Wednesday evening. Spending big early in the summer will always be the preferred approach for managers, fans and players at clubs and so the likes of Liverpool, United, City and partly Chelsea have taken advantage of that policy this summer and their rivals’ inability to do the same.
The need for investment is clear in both Arsenal and Spurs’ squads and both managers have given themselves an unnecessary headache by leaving it so late. But there are still plenty of good bargains to be had before the window slams shut. Wenger and Redknapp now have the benefit of a handful of games to identify the holes in their squads and with the clock ticking down, I expect both managers to be very busy ahead of and well into Wednesday evening.
Written by Jenny Kerwood for FootballFancast.com. Do you think Arsenal and Spurs can still get good deals this close to deadline day? If you want to read more of my bite size, 140 character views and thoughts follow me on Twitter @jennyk5
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