It was a furious day of activity in England’s Deadline Day, but the top teams in the table were quiet while the bottom half made plenty of moves in an attempt to avoid relegation.
In fact, Liverpool failing to sign a player may be the biggest news out of the Premier League’s top 7 clubs.
Let’s go through all the completed deals for today:
ENGLAND:
Fulham – More to come on this complete and total squad turnover, but the Cottagers were by far the busiest team in the league on Deadline Day. They completed permanent deals for Kostas Mitroglou, William Kvist and John Heitinga, while bringing in Lewis Holtby on loan. Mitroglou is in on a club record transfer fee, and Holtby could be made permanent if the club stays up.
They also offloaded Aaron Hughes, Adel Taarabt, Dimitar Berbatov, and Philippe Senderos, with manager Rene Meulensteen clearly unhappy with the current squad makeup. They also offloaded Bryan Ruiz earlier in the window, while adding Clint Dempsey in the beginning of the window.
Finally, in the waning minutes of the window, the Whites nabbed Manchester United youngsters Ryan Tunnicliffe and Larnell Cole.
Crystal Palace – Tony Pulis has done a fair bit of dealing today as well, bringing in defender Scott Dann and goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey from Wolverhampton to shore up and already strong back line. Finally they sealed Jason Puncheon permanently, already at Selhurst Park on loan. That allowed them to make their biggest signing of the day, nabbing winger Tom Ince from Blackpool on loan.
Arsenal – Many have called for Arsene Wenger to sign a striker, but instead he went for the less sexy option of grabbing 31-year-old midfielder Kim Källström on loan from Spartak Moscow.
West Ham United – The signing of Abdul Razak was made official, with the midfielder coming in from Anzhi. The Hammers also grabbed Pablo Armero on loan from Napoli, a 27-year-old Colombian left-back.
They did, however, miss out on a striker, most notably in their attempt to hijack Mitroglou’s move to Fulham, ending up empty-handed despite reports that they offered the Greek 25% higher wages. In fact, they offloaded disappointing striker Modibo Maiga on Queens Park Rangers just in time for the deadline.
Finally, they retained Ravel Morrison despite heavy interest from Fulham and other lower table sides.
Chelsea – No major moves were made by Jose Mourinho, but this morning the confirmed the signing of highly-rated defender Kurt Zouma from St. Etienne, costing them a reported £12 million ($19.7 million). The 19-year-old was then immediately loaned back to the French side. Gael Kakuta was loaned out to Lazio, the 22-year-old’s fifth loan stint during his time at Chelsea.
Cardiff City – The Bluebirds’ new manager Ole Gunnar Solksjaer brought in a number of familiar faces from his time at Manchester United. Most notably they captured Wilfried Zaha on loan, joining Fabio who was sealed a few days ago.
Sunderland – The Black Cats signed 24-year-old Liam Bridcutt for a reported £2.5 million ($4.1 million) fee after handing in a transfer request earlier this month at Brighton & Hove Albion. However, Gus Poyet will also be pleased with retaining Lee Cattermole despite heavy interest from Stoke City. Danny Graham departed on loan to Middlesbrough.
Liverpool – After much speculation that they didn’t get the deal done in time, Liverpool did NOT get the deal done for 24-year-old Dnipro midfielder Yehven Konoplyanka. They hit a snag on a £15 million ($24.7 million) deal and ran out of time. No deadline day signings for the Reds, on the heels of missing out on Mohamed Salah who was stolen by Chelsea. More on this later.
West Brom – The Baggies have added a fantastic hairdo to their ranks when they inked Espanyol striker Thievy Bifouma on loan until the end of the season. It’s a bit of a panic purchase, with Nicolas Anelka and Stephane Sessegnon both out injured.
Southampton – Mauricio Pochettino, less than 24 hours after confirming he’d never play Pablo Osvaldo again, the striker was loaned to Juventus. So he punches a player at training, and is sent to the Serie A league leaders as a result. Justice is served!
That’s all for around the Premier League, Newcastle failed to replace Yohan Cabaye and Manchester United didn’t add a central defender. We’ll have more from around the rest of Europe a little later tonight.
