Thursday, January 31, 2013

Transfer Deadline Day Recap

Today marked the end of the January transfer window and it was a busy day. There were lots of winners and losers this winter window, I'll give you my take on my top transfers and the teams I thought missed out.

Winner: AC Milan - Mario Balotelli



Was there a bigger transfer saga in the past week than Mario Balotelli to AC Milan? The court jester of the EPL made it known he was unhappy at the English champions for quite some time. But even while being unhappy at City, Balotelli proved to be a huge factor in Manchester City capturing the league title last year. Who will ever forget the famous call that came during his ONLY assist during his time in England? "Balotelli....AGUEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" now one of the most famous calls in soccer history.

The question here is will AC Milan get the super creative, massively talented, goal scorer that we saw glimpses of at Manchester City or will they get the fireworks exploding, car impounding, court jester? Only time will tell but the strike force of Balotelli and El Shaarawy is something to fear in the future.

Loser: Tottenham Hotspur - Leandro Damiao



Spurs missed out on a HUGE signing in Leandro Damiao from Internacional. Spurs were in the market for a striker this whole winter transfer window, with Emmanuel Adebayor proving to be almost useless so far this season and with only Jermaine Defoe having been a threat at the striker position. Damiao would have provided a very creative goal scoring option for Villas-Boas, but Spurs couldn't meet the demands of Internacional for the Brazilian. Will this prove to be detrimental to their campaign for a top 4 spot? They do still have Defoe, Bale, and Dempsey, who is starting to show he was worth the transfer from Fulham.

Biggest Risk Taker: QPR



Queens Park Rangers were very active in the summer transfer window, and that trend continued in the winter window. QPR signed six players in this transfer window in the hopes of getting out and staying out of the relegation zone. QPR's star signing, Loic Remy, scored in his first appearance for QPR, but was not a key player at Marseille before his transfer. Out of the other transfers QPR made none truly stand out. Will the players added to Harry Redknapp's side help move QPR out of the relegation zone? Only time will tell.