Time is up, put your cheque books down

By: Martini Extra Dry | September 1st, 2008

Thats it. The transfer window is now closed. No last minute arrivals at Villa Park came as a bit of a surprise in the end, after most of the summer being such a hive of activity for us. The rumour-mill yesterday claimed that we were going to make THREE last minute signings but it seems none of them came to fruitition.

Kevin Doyle from Reading seemed the most likely rumour to come true, with the striker being keen to get back in the Premiership to help his England chances, after Reading got hit with relegation on the final day of last season. Doyle scored a hat-trick at the weekend, which no doubt added a million or two to Reading’s price tag. In the end though it seems to have fizzled out, unless Villa are keeping announcements under wraps until later today, which is unlikely.

Elsewhere, Deadline Day lived up to all the hype and then some. Primarily up in Manchester. United finally sealed their capture of Dimitar Stropalot Berbatov for a reported £30.7 million. The Berbatov story was looking danger of becoming as boring as the Gareth Barry saga but the imminently closing window forced them to bring it to a head last night.

But it’s over the other side of the city that the real shocks came from; after a summer of such highs and lows that City fans must be feeling seasick, they concluded the transfer window on the biggest high ever! A week ago the club was all over the papers in controversy over their owner, but then up steps the Abu Dhabi United Group (strange that the owners of City would be called United!) and buys out the major share of the club and then immediately signs Real Madrid’s Robinho!!!! Hang on a minute… did I really just claim that Robinho had joined Man City? I certainly did.

That has got to be the craziest signing since West Ham bought Tevez and Mascherano and you can’t help but think a similar thing will happen here. A season or so at Man City and one of the top four will snap him up.

It really seems like a headline grabbing swoop though. One man doesn’t make a team
and Man City could’ve probably done with exra strength in other areas, but this will certainly give them a lift and if they have a good run up to Christmas, maybe they can entice more in January. Their intention is clearly to break into the top four, but they’ll need more than just Robinho to do that, it’s certainly a step in the right direction and a clear statement of their intent.