The Transfer Weekly

Hello to you all, Barka da Sallah in arrears to my Muslim readers, our 1st post-Ramadan Post will be the 1st in our "Transfer Weekly" series, which will be giving insight into transfer moves completed all over the globe, money involved and the expected impact to both the buying/selling club and the market in general. The transfer window has officially been open for 3 weeks now, therefore it has 6 weeks remaining (the official window is from the 1st of July to 31st of August).

This been the 1st post, we will talk about all major transfer from the 1st of July up to date

DONE DEALS
A number of deals were reached before the window was actually open such as the £25m purchase of Depay by Manchester United, the Danny Ings free transfer to Liverpool, to the £17m capture of the Atlético Madrid centre-forward Mario Mandzukic by Juventus.

BOSMAN MOVES
Otherwise known as Free Transfers (this is a case were when a player's contract expires, he is free to agree a contract from any other club, named after the first player to accomplish this Jean-Marc Bosman)
Top on the List of those who have completed free transfers is James Milner

Top 10 Bosman Moves

MAIN MOVES
The club with the most significant purchases in the premier league - in my opinion - has to be Manchester United with the signing of the "Sch duo" (Morgan Schneiderlin from Southampton Undisclosed and Bastian Schweinsteiger from Bayern Munich for £14m ) Matteo Darmian (from Torino for £12m) and Depay as earlier stated. The close to £100m outlay by the club shows they are serious about finishing higher than their 4th place finish last season(17 points behind the Champions).

Unveiling the "Sch duo" and Darmain

 Liverpool have also been busy with the signing of Firmino (from Hoffenheim for £29m), Nathaniel Clyne (from Southampton for £12.5m), Joe Gomez (from Charlton Athletic for £3.5m) and the free transfers of Milner,Ings and Bogdan

Manchester City's foray into the transfer market has been mainly to makeup for there almost non-existent Home grown quota, they have signed Fabian Delph (from Aston Villa for £8.0m), Patrick Roberts (from Fulham for £12.0m) and the major one Raheem Sterling(for a whooping £49.0m from Liverpool)

Arsenal's only purchase so far is the Goalkeeper Petr Cech (from Chelsea for £10.0m) and Chelsea's deals have all been reactionary (replacement) purchases Asmir Begovic (from Stoke City for £8m) to replace Petr Cech and Radamel Falcao (on loan from Monaco) to replace Drogba.

Major deals in Italy include Paulo Dybala (to Juventus from Palermo for a fee of £32m), Carlos Bacca (to Milan from Sevilla for a fee of £30m), Geoffrey Kondogbia (Inter from Monaco for a fee of £30m), Andrea Bertolacci (to Milan from Roma for a fee of £20m), Mario Mandzukic (to Juventus from Atletico Madrid for a fee of £19m), Brazilian forward Luiz Adriano (to Milan from Shakhtar Donetsk for a fee of £8m)

The high profile signings in Spain include Jackson Martinez ( To Atletico Madrid from Porto for a fee of £36.7m), Danilo ( To Real Madrid from Porto for a fee of £31.5m), Alvaro Negredo ( permanenting his stay at Valencia from Manchester City for a fee of £30m), Yannick Ferreira Carrasco ( To Atletico Madrid from Monaco for a fee of £20m). Despite the Transfer ban on Barcelona, they have signed Turkish midfielder Arda Turan from Atletico Madrid for a fee of £34m and Defender Aleix Vidal from Sevilla for a fee of £17m.

No much major transfers in Germany, the stand out one is Douglas Costa's move to Bayern Munich from Shakhtar Donetsk for a fee of £30m, Johannes Geis joined Schalke 04 from Mainz for a fee of £12, and Max Kruse joined Wolfsburg from Borussia Monchengladbach for a fee of £12m.

Surprisingly, Turkey has seen an influx of high profile names albeit in the twilight of their careers, names such as Robin Ver Persie (the 31 year old joined Fenerbahce from Manchester United), Nani (the 28 year old joined Fenerbahce from Manchester United) and Podolski (The 30 year old joined Galatasaray from Arsenal).

RVP in Fenerbahce's colours

SPECULATIONS
Deals that could be completed this week are:

• Di Maria to PSG - Possibility of happening 70%
• Arturo Vidal to Bayern Munich - Possibility of happening 85%
• Benzema to Arsenal or Manchester United - Possibility of happening 45%
• John Stones to Chelsea - Possibility of happening 80%
• Benteke to Liverpool or Manchester United - Possibility of happening 90%
• Ramos to Manchester United - Possibility of happening 70%
• Pogba to Barcelona - Possibility of happening 55%
• Jonny Evans to Everton - Possibility of happening 65%
• Arda Turan out on Loan - Possibility of happening 40%
• Otamendi to Manchester United - Possibility of happening 65%
• Filipe Luiz to Ath. Madrid - Possibility of happening 90%
• Baba Rahman to Chelsea - Possibility of happening 80%
• Pedro to Chelsea, Man. United - Possibility of happening 75%

This is all from me for this week, next week we'll see how many of my predictions came to be:-)

The Critic, now to write the Script

Scoring that goal against Spain in 1998

"Oliseh!! Oh my Word! Nigeria in front for the first time...and how?!"
that was the commentator after Nigeria scored the winning goal at 1998 World Cup against Spain through the boot of Sunday Oliseh
Sunday Oliseh who some hours ago was unveiled by the NFF as the new Super Eagles Head coach.

Oliseh unvieled by NFF president Amaju Pinnick

The 54 capped former Super Eagles Defensive Midfielder who was known for his tenacity on pitch and blunt remarks off it, one of the stand outs been his remark in a 2013 post, where he hit out at Keshi’s handling of criticism and his inability to “differentiate constructive criticisms from destructive ones”.

He has finally decided to go back on his wish not to die young, in his appearance at the TEDx Euston in England in 2014 he had said “A lot of people have asked, ‘why doesn’t he go to coach the Super Eagles?’ Man, I wanna live long,” Amodu Shaibu, Austin Eguavoen, Samson Siasia and Stephen Keshi can all bare witness on how VERY volatile Nigerians can be, even he, bore witness to this in his Talk at TEDx.

With his record of being a no-nonsense leader during his time as skipper of the Super Eagles, as a Nigerian I want to believe that he has the requisite Temperament, skills and training (he has a Uefa Pro Coaching License) to take the Super Eagles to Success on both Continental & World Stage.

The Jury is out...

Which will it be???

Roger Federer - Playing to my Script

One match away from been the greatest winner at Wimbledon, but he flunked it. this has come to be the case of the "World Greatest" Tennis Player, Roger Federer. The 33 year old whose name has come to be synonymous with the sport, with his record 17 grand slams.

Roger and his Record 17 Grand Slams

He had showen his superiority over all other opponents along his way the final, brushing aside Gilles Simon (12) in the Quarter Finals and Andy Murray (3) in the Semis. and it was at the Final stage where he would have made history against Djokovic by winning a record number (8th) Wimbledon trophy, that he lost steam, as I mentioned to a friend before the Final, "Roger has a way of raising ones hope up and then dashing it when it matters the most" and like he was playing to that script, that is what happened, he lost 7-6(1), 6-7(10), 6-4, 6-3 to Djokovic.

Djokovic with the trophy, Roger with the Plate

But as the scoreline shows, it wasn't a ride in the park for "The Joker", Federer - the Technician (as I love to call him) gave him a run for his money. Federer still remains my BEST Tennis Player of all time.

On to the next Major then - The US Open. This is to hoping he won't play to the script (MY script).

PS.

Worthy mention to Serena on winning her 6th Venus Rosewater Dish (The female Wimbledon Plate),

The "Serena Slam"

her 21st Grand Slam, one short of Steffi Graff's record 22 Grand slam (in the open era)...I will want to hazard a guess that she will win the US Open come August, thereby been only the 2nd lady to win all four grand slams in a calender year.