The transfer market is going crazy and certain prospective deals are arousing much interest. The Manchester United, Wesley Sneijder connection is a particularly appetising prospect. Despite the Red Devil's success last season I have always felt that they have lacked a touch of mesmerising flair at times. Cristiano Ronaldo's trickery has been missed but Sneijder is undoubtedly the man to fill his shoes and take the fight to Barcelona in Europe. A key man in the Holland and Inter Milan sides, Sneijder is intelligent, skilful and experienced. I could see the Dutch maestro linking up well with Rooney, Hernandez or Berbatov to devastating effect. With Paul Scholes gone, United need to replace the Old Trafford Hall of Famer's passing skills and experience. If Sneijder joins the Premier League Champions, Chelsea will have to capture Samir Nasri or another creative midfielder to keep pace with developments at Old Trafford.
The Stewart Downing connection to Liverpool is not surprising. Liverpool have a habit of acquiring good players that do not live up to the great heritage of the club. Liverpool are a huge club and I find it peculiar that they keep buying good players,rather than the great players they should be attracting. Suarez,Carroll and Henderson are class acts no doubt but why have they been joined by the likes of Jovanovic, Aquilani and Konchesky in recent memory? Downing would just be another 7 out of 10 player ,adding to a huge wage bill and cluttering up squad numbers that could be given to genuine stars. At £20million Downing is all wrong for Dalglish and I just hope the money men at the club deem this too higher price to pay for a heavily one sided, better than average winger.
Manchester City have spent £7million on Clichy which is decent business. Kolarov is a better player but Clichy will create good competition at left back. The Tevez saga shows that players are exerting too much power over their clubs. Credit must go to City for holding out for £50million, a price that offers potential purchasers no value once sign-on fees,wages&management of the Argentinian's behaviour are considered. Don't be shocked if the Argentinian talisman has to get on with things or warm the bench until January.
The transfer stories keep coming and are far from finished. Expect to see Roman Abramovich funding Andre Villas-Boas' buying wishes, particularly of Porto stars such as Hulk and Falcao. QPR should dig deep too with wealthy backers such as steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and F1 entrepreneur Flavio Briatore at hand to fund their survival charge.
