Breaking The Offside Trap 07.09.08: Wheeling and Dealing

Posted by Matt Snelling on 07.09.2008

With Euro 2008 in the books, it’s time for the ‘silly season’ of the transfer market to kick into overdrive. It’s time to look at ‘who wants what’ and what this means at this early stage for the 2008/09 season…



With an enthralling Euro 2008 now in the books, a tournament of attacking intent that may have perhaps signalled that international football is not yet ready to roll over and die, attention will now inevitably begin to turn back to the club game, which for the major leagues of Europe will be starting up once again in a little under two months. Right now those involved in Switzerland and Austria have been excused for a well earned break, others from all over the globe have been involved in World Cup qualifying and those less fortunate to be involved in the international game (like those players of England) have trudged back for the beginning of training but ‘silly season' is just effectively warming up. For right now is when rumour upon rumour is banded about and managers, scouts, agents, chairman's and chief executives scrabble hard to put in place the plans and players they hope will be successful in the campaigns to come.

Because of the European Championships, a number of definite deals and transfers have yet to really happen, but in the next couple of weeks, things should be warming up nicely as clubs attempt to put together the squads they hope will take them to glory. There is also a certain element of dominos and musical chairs to the whole proceedings as well, as it takes one big transfer to strike the match and then all the rest flood in and follow as players are moved around to cover those coming and going.

The most drawn out and well publicised move that may end up happening has of course been the saga that continues over where Cristiano Ronaldo will be playing his club football next year. The man who lit up last seasons Premiership and Champions League campaigns as he played a huge role in securing both for Manchester United is openly coveted by Real Madrid, arguably the only club in the world with the right combination of wealth, resources, pulling power and prestige to take him from Old Trafford.

At this point we are still locked at something of a standstill, with United obviously reluctant to lose their star man and Madrid desperate to sign the Portuguese, seemingly irrespective of price. Ronaldo himself is yet to make his own personal views on the subject explicit at this point and he is one of those who have now left the crazy world of football temporarily for a few weeks in the sun. The popular consensus seems to be at this point however that the 23 year olds desire is for a move to the Spanish capital and that despite his clubs vociferous refusal to sell he may well be on his way.

While this story has dominated the transfer talk thus far, it is inevitably those sides that felt unhappy and disappointed with their performances last season that will tend to dominate the buying and selling landscape as they attempt to remodel and reinvigorate their squads. Indeed, aside from the continued saga of Ronaldo both Manchester United and Real Madrid have been fairly quiet in the transfer market, perhaps unsurprisingly given their respective successes last season. Thus far United have kept their powder dry whilst Real's only acquisition, the arrival of the richly talented and highly rated young Argentine centre back Ezequiel Garay has not altered the look of their first team squad as he has already been loaned back to Racing Santander for next season, the club from which he was bought. In contrast it is the clubs key rivals that have been making the majority of the early running as they seek to improve on last season.

Both Chelsea and Barcelona will be under new management for 2008/09 and with that has come the early stages of substantial squad overhauls. Despite varying campaigns last time out, Chelsea falling short on a number of fronts and Barcelona simply falling apart, neither won a trophy and it was clearly felt at both that a new approach was needed. After five seasons in charge (a life time given the vast turn over in coaches at clubs today) it was decided that Frank Riijkard was no longer the man to lead the Catalan side, despite two league titles, a European Cup and at times some breath taking football. Along the way the Dutchman had appeared to lose the dressing room and a change was clearly needed. In his place comes former captain and club icon Josep Guardiola, for his first senior coaching job. Until this summer, the 37 year old had been in charge of Barca's B team.

The young coach is expected to signal a new era at the Nou Camp and an end to the perceived culture of the ‘galatico's' that the club had seemed to inherit from their arch rivals in Madrid. The clubs first forays into the transfer market have shown very much that Barcelona want a new, young and hungry side to replace the so-called ‘star attractions'. Many of the big names, who it was argued were responsible for the deterioration of the dressing room and the poor performances of the last two years, have been the first to be deemed surplus to requirements.

Portuguese midfield schemer Deco was an integral part of the side that was victorious in both La Liga and the European Cup but last season he was in and out of the team and looked well short of his best. He was also perceived as one of the outspoken members of the team which has been seen as destabilising. His performances for his country at Euro 2008 show that he still has the talent and ability but because of Barcelona's desire to move forward with a new side he has still been one of the first out the door, last week joining Chelsea for a fee reported to be around the £8,000,000 mark.

The desire to break with the past and also the desire to move on those seen to be disruptive influences within the club has also meant that two more of the players that around a year ago would be deemed ‘untouchable' have also been put on the market. Both Samuel Eto'o and Ronaldinho had been integral to the revitalisation of the club four years ago but both are now seen to be largely responsible for the demise that has followed. Both then are on the market, and both look set to move on, Barca's willingness to sell meaning that the price is likely to be far lower than one could possibly have imagined just a short time ago. The squad itself is being vastly overhauled with older players like Gianluca Zambrotta, Edmilson and Lillian Thuram being moved on (to AC Milan, Villarreal and Paris St Germain respectively) whilst it has been deemed that Mexican Giovani Dos Santos has not progressed to where they thought he could (or should) be and he has left for Tottenham. More are expected to follow.

In their place have so far been players deemed to be fresh and ‘untainted' by superstar status. The biggest outlay at this point has been the acquisition of the attacking Brazilian full back Dani Alves for a fee of around £23,000,000 from Sevilla. Also joining from the club in Andalucía is Malian Seydou Keita, a combative and athletic defensive midfield player who impressed greatly last year in what was his first season in Spanish football. Finally the acquisition of young defenders Gerard Pique and Martin Caceres continues Barcelona's desire to build a new and dynamic team. Alves will give them valuable width down the right and can perform a similar role to that played by Sergio Ramos at title winning Madrid. Centrally, Pique would seem in pole position to challenge Rafael Marquez and Gabriel Milito for a place alongside Captain Carles Puyol. A weak spot that may need filling is the left back role, where Eric Abidal was less than convincing last season. A potential move for fellow countryman Gael Clichy from Arsenal would seem like a good option.

Offensively, Guardiola looks well placed to continue with the 4-3-3 formation favoured at Barca these past few seasons with the European Championship winning Xavi and Andres Iniesta being joined by the more combative pair of Keita and Yaya Toure, with the goals to come from Thierry Henry and the sensational Lionel Messi. If Eto'o does leave as predicted then expect another front man to be brought in, with Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor strongly linked as well as Diego Milito from relegated Zaragoza.

In the Premier League, Chelsea like Barcelona are attempting next season to wrestle back domestic dominance and they are doing it with a new man at the helm. Avram Grant's record was far from shabby yet there was always the feeling that he wasn't the top class coach who was needed in order to bring home top class honours. In his place comes former World Cup winning Brazil manager Luis Felipe Scolari, fresh off his work with Portugal at the European Championships this summer. We have already seen how ‘Big Phil' has worked to bring in his ‘little general' Deco, and the men from Stamford Bridge have already secured another of Scolari's Portuguese charges, the right back Bosingwa for around £16,000,000. It is unlikely that the Blue's summer spending is to end here. However any acquisitions and departures from the Kings Road are likely to be closely linked to what goes on at another club with a new manager; Inter Milan. The new man at the helm of the Italian Champions is the former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, thus the ‘footballing musical chairs' will be in full swing.

Mourinho has already openly spoken of his admiration for many of his former players at the London club and seems to need little invitation to go about actively recruiting some of them. It is no secret that he would like among others Ricardo Carvalho, Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard to be arriving at the San Siro. Deco, a key component of Mourinho's Champions League winning Porto side was also thought to be high on the ‘Special One's' shopping list but his move to Chelsea shows how interlinked and dependent upon one another many of these transfers will be. Are we to presume that Deco was signed as a replacement for Lampard, with the England man joining up with his former manager in Milan?

Inter, unlike Chelsea and Barcelona were successful last year in winning the Serie A title for a third successive season. However their form at times was far from impressive and it was the continued failure to do well in Europe that prompted President Massimo Moratti to remove Coach Roberto Mancini and replace him with Mourinho. In order to try and build to this next step Mourinho has said that reinforcements are needed, and indeed last season a lot of the players at the Italian club, notably Patrick Vieira looked past their best. Like Barca and Chelsea a fresh invigoration would seem to be required.

These are just a handful of clubs however, all over Europe and all over the world the trading of players is about to kick into overdrive. With one player leaving a club another opportunity is created and thus we have a constant scrabbling for fresh talent with many deals dependent on one another before they can be confirmed. As well as the players already mentioned above, much speculation surrounds the likes of Gareth Barry (Aston Villa to Liverpool?), Xabi Alonso (Liverpool to Juventus?), Andrei Arshavin (Zenit St. Petersburg to Barcelona?) David Bentley (Blackburn to Tottenham?)

Throughout the summer and right up to the deadline expect to hear far more about exorbitant transfer fees and read plenty of column inches dedicated to the speculation. The at times astronomical amounts being thrown about don't show any signs of driving up and the transfer merry go round looks far from stopping anytime soon.