Five big deals were completed.
Robinho Real Madrid – Manchester City £32.5m
Berbatov Tottenham – Manchester United £30.75m
Marouane Fellaini Standard Liege – Everton £15m
Pavlyuchenko Spartak Moscow – Tottenham £14m
Vedran Corluka Manchester City – Tottenham £8.5m.
Robinho is perpetual motion and the cleverest dribbler in world football. He is a huge talent rather than a huge star. He can lift a crowd and boost a team and that’s why Chelsea wanted him. Not a prolific goalscorer but he will get 12. Shaun Wright-Phillips could get 25 from his assists if both stay fit for 50 games.
Mark Hughes has always been a 4-4-2 man, so I can’t see him playing 4-3-3. And of course Petrov and Robinho both prefer to play on the left.
Berbatov was Tottenham’s best player since Ardiles. At today’s prices, he is worth £30 million.
And for the last three weeks I’ve been convinced that Berbatov is exactly what United need. Rooney and Tevez’s huff and puff wasn’t good enough to beat Newcastle. And it was nowhere near good enough to beat Zenit St Petersburg in Monaco last Friday night. Zenit play the best football I’ve seen this year and they defeated United 2-1 because they had more rhythm, class, shape and composure.
Berbatov is stronger than he looks but United don’t need more aggression or momentum. They badly need a striker who can hold the ball when it needs to be held, flick it when it needs to flicked, and slow down play when it needs to be slowed down.
Most football fans don’t know that Berbatov came on as a sub for Bayer Leverkusen when Arsenal beat them 4-1. And he came on as a sub in the final that season against Real Madrid, when Zidane won it with that spectacular volley at Hampden. So Dimitar Berbatov is 27 and has been a loser. He scored 46 in 101 for Spurs. Now, apparently, he wants to be a winner.
He’s a better player than Cantona. But he’s not such a big character.
Pavlyuchenklo is a brainy striker like Teddy Sheringham.
Felliani is a giant with Moroccan parents.He is six foot four and a half. I saw him play in the Olympics two weeks ago, when the worst referee for 50 years, a Saudi, sent him off. David Moyes wants Felliani, 20, to play in central midfield.
According to The Independent, Arsènal bid £14m for Xabi Alonso. But that switch was always dependent on Gareth Barry going to Liverpool.
I didn’t see last night’s Sky Sports News midnight meltdown.
Rolling news bores the boxer shorts off me. I’m like : tell me what happened. Don’t give me a 350-page report, just give me the executive summary. Whenever the news gets hectic and frantic, I think of Winston Churchill and World War II. Churchill was under huge pressure and very short of time and needed a big picture. So he sent a memo to the Admiralty : Please tell me ON ONE SHEET OF PAPER what we are doing to defend the North Atlantic
When Arsene Wenger came to Arsènal in 1996, the kind of players who could make a difference cost £7m or £10m. Now a player who can make a difference costs between £18m and £32m.