The deals have been done, the fax machines have been switched off, and the 2013 summer football transfer window has come to an end.
This summer’s football transfer window headlines were dominated by the Gareth Bale to Real Madrid story. At £85m Gareth Bale has become the world’s most expensive footballer, beating Real Madrid’s £80m capture of Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009.
Bale’s now former club Tottenham Hotspur were quick to reinvest this windfall into their squad however, bringing in no less than seven players including Confederations Cup star Paulinho, Spanish internatonal Roberto Soldado, and the highly-rated attacking midfielders Erik Lamela and Christian Eriksen.
Although the loss of Gareth Bale is a blow to Tottenham, they appear have done more than enough to compensate for his departure.
Big spenders Manchester City and Chelsea had yet another eventful transfer window, with both clubs exercising their spending power to bring in new talent.
Manchester City will hope to win a second Premier League title with the help of three new high profile attacking arrivals in the form of Stevan Jovetic, Jesus Navas, and Alvaro Negredo.
Jose Mourinho’s first transfer window in his second spell as Chelsea manager, meanwhile, was dominated by attempts to sign Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney but in the end the West London club had to settle for Samuel Eto’o, along with midfielders Willian, Andre Schurrle, and Marco van Ginkel.
Both Manchester City and Chelsea have done the business necessary for them to challenge Manchester United for the Premier League title.
In fact, it was a quiet window for the Red Devils in the wake of Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure, with the only major signing being the arrival of Marouane Fellaini from Everton on deadline day.
Many Manchester United fans were disappointed with the club’s summer transfer activity but I still believe that they already have a good enough squad to compete with fellow Premier League front-runners Chelsea and Manchester City.
Arsenal paid the largest fee for any player by a Premier League club with the deadline day signing of German playmaker Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid.
The Spanish side managed to net £42.5m to help pay for the Gareth Bale transfer, whilst Arsenal got the marquee signing they were looking for and Mesut Ozil has found his desired first-team football in a World Cup year.
In addition to Ozil, Arsenal also brought back former player Mathieu Flamini on a free transfer.
Despite these arrivals Arsenal fans may still feel uneasy at the lack of recruitments at centre-back and up front with a number of Arsenal’s squad players leaving over the summer.
Indeed, whilst Arsenal do have an excellent first team if they were to suffer injuries to key players they could find themselves struggling to compete for the all-important Champions League places.
The best of the rest were Everton, Liverpool, Norwich City, Southampton and Cardiff City who have strengthened their squads well. Newcastle, meanwhile, may have hoped for a little more than the arrival of Loic Remy and pariah figure Joe Kinnear.
