The Winners and Losers of the January Transfer Window 2012

The dust has settled, and on his debut article for The Football Front, Tom Moseley depicts the January transfer window.

Even after a rather quiet transfer window, with only £58.3M spent compared to last year’s £225m, some teams have still come out better than others. Only one team in the Premier League didn’t sign anyone in this window, that was Stoke.

Winners

QPR

Everyone knew QPR were going to be active in January . QPR started off by looking at players like Alex from Chelsea and I’m sure I also heard rumours (only rumours) about Tevez joining them, especially after playing under Hughes and sharing the same advisor. However, they did eventually target and sign far more ‘modest’ players. They tightened their defence up with the signing of Nedum Onuoha from Manchester City for £2.5m and they also loaned AC Milan left-back Taye Taiwo until the end of the season. These are both good signings as Onuoha is a good versatile defender with a bit of pace. While Taye Taiwo will also add a bit of experience to the back after having 52 European appearances with Marseille and AC Milan. QPR not only improved their defence during this window they also bolstered their front line with the signings of Bobby Zamora, Djibril Cisse and Federico Macheda. Zamora joined for a fee of £4m and he now reunites with Mark Hughes, who arguably got the best out of Zamora in his season at Fulham. However, apart from his Brighton days, he’s never been a prolific striker. This is also Cisses problem, yes he has pace and power, but in the premier league he only has a 3% chance conversion. However maybe together they’ll work well. As Zamora’s strength along with Cisse’s pace could cause a few concerns to opposition defenders. QPR also added to their numbers with the loan signings of Federico Macheda and Samba Diakite. With a new manager and all these new players QPR should really be on the up, but you never know with football.

Everton

Everton have always been known to be ‘tight.’ But this transfer window, they may not have entirely splashed the cash, but they make some effective signings. They signed the talented Landon Donovan (on loan)who will chip in with a few goals and assists. They also signed Darron Gibson from Manchester United for a mere £1m.Now, I’m not Gibson’s biggest fan but for that kind of fee and maybe at a team like Everton, it’s not a bad buy and with more first-team football, he could turn into a good and effective player. Their last signing was Rangers striker Nikica Jelavic for a fee of £5.5m. Indeed, the ex –rangers man had a good goal scoring record for Rangers with 36 goals in 55 games; however (with no disrespect to the SPL) it will be a lot harder for him in the premiership. He said he moved to the premier league as it’s ‘the best league in the world’ – so let’s see how he fares in it. Overall Everton have made solid buys in my opinion, with these new buys Everton could sneak up to the table a bit and secure a finish of 8^th or 9^th.

Biggest Losers

Arsenal

In the summer Arsenal lost three key players and gained around £60m. They arguably panic bought in the last few days of the window bringing in Mikel Arteta, Per Merterstacker and Park Chu-Young. These are good players and Arsenal did need a centre-back, but it did leave about £40m in the bank as well. Indeed, they also signed Oxlade-Chamberlain and Gervinho, but these were before the outgoings of Fabregas and Nasri. I thought because Arsenal were linked with a lot of people, but didn’t sign certain players/positions they wanted, I would see some activity from them this window. However I was wrong. They signed legend Thierry Henry on a 2-month loan from New York and young midfielder Thomas Eisfeld from Dortmund. These aren’t the kind of players they need. They need players with world class ability and potential.

Wigan

Wigan sit at the foot of the table and were linked with quite a few people during the window, however they only bought winger Jean Beausejour from Birmingham for £4m. Don’t get me wrong he’s a decent player, but they don’t really need a winger as they’re a decent side going forward, but they have the worst defensive record in the league, so that’s where they needed improvement. They also kept hold of star-striker Hugo Rodallega, which could end up being a bad thing as his contract is up in the summer, so with that in mind and the fact they’re 5 points adrift, the future doesn’t look bright for Wigan Athletic.

Conclusion

Most teams didn’t have that good of a time in this window. But these Wigan and Arsenal stood out to me in particular as I think they need strengthening more than anybody else.

Without a doubt, it was a disappointing transfer window and we were all hoping for a headline move to make it a bit better, but sadly that never happened.

Oh well, let’s just hope for an exciting end to the season!

This article was written by Tom Moseley, you can find his work on his blog: http://itisonlyagame.blogspot.com/ You can also follow him on Twitter: @ItsOnlyAGame