Deadline day: The good, the bad and the downright panicky

January 31, the day when everyone awaits the visit of the Transfer Pixie and hopes they find the star striker/dominant centre-half in their stocking that was diligently hung over the fireplace the previous night. Only the good get what they want, while the very bad boys and girls get an Ade Akinbiyi. So who has been good and who ended up with the booby prize? Let's have a look at what highlights there were:

Steve McClaren
The former England manager has definitely been good this year. Indeed, his signing of Wesley Verhoek from ADO is perhaps more significant in terms of his recent career choices for Verhoek it was that McClaren wanted at Nottingham Forest only the board to blanch at the prospect of actually having to pay for him. By contrast, the FC Twente board were happy to compensate the Den Haag club and pay Verhoek some wages. Good bit of business that, replacing the outbound Mark Janko. McClaren also picked up Glynor Plet and hung onto Luuk de Jong. ADO got Ebi Smolarek which will also do nicely to replace Verhoek.

West Ham
Ravel Morrison. £650k. £1m agents fees. This just smells bad from the off.

Porto
Swiped back Lucho Gonzalez from Marseille and got Janko from FC Twente, offsetting the loss of Fredy Guarín to Italy. That looks a good swap to us.

The Olsson twins
Someone at Blackburn has a dodgy internet history. File under P for panic buy.

Donal McDermott
After terrorising Huddersfield in four games for Bournemouth last season, the Terriers moved quickly to sign McDermott from Manchester City in the summer and then proceeded to either not play him or play him in a totally unsuitable position. He's well out of that and away to Bournemouth again where he'll probably do well. Good for him. Meanwhile Huddersfield are crying out for defenders and signed one, 19-year old Murray Wallace from Falkirk. And loaned him straight back there. Good for Falkirk, bonkers for Huddersfield.

Espanyol
Took Philippe Coutinho on loan from Internazionale. It looked like he was working his way into Claudio Ranieri's first-team plans, but hadn't played for a bit. Instead, the 19-year old - marked out as one of the top 100 young players in the world by In Bed With Maradona - represents a bloody good bit of business for the Spaniards.

Sunderland
Sotirios Kyrgiakos. Wayne Bridge. Panic!

Internazionale
Sent Coutinho out on a low-risk loan to gain experience and brought in Guarín on loan from Porto with an option to buy. Again, that's a low risk move. If it doesn't work out, back he goes, but it will work out because he's a classy operator. They also bolstered their attack by moving Sulley Muntari on. Best of all, they palmed him off on their stadium buddies. Just good business all round.

Kevin de Bruyne
Not the player, but a transfer symptomatic of a sick system. Chelsea paid decent wedge for de Bruyne and immediately loaned him straight back to the Belgians. He'll be off out on loan somewhere next season too. See also Thibault Courtois, Gael Kakuta, Josh McEachran, Patrick van Aanholt, Jeffrey Bruma, Tomas Kalas. It's no wonder the Chelsea gaffer is the one to pop his head up above the parapets and call for B teams to play in England's lower tiers. It'd save him having to sort out loan moves for his stockpile of young players. Bad.

Ryo Miyaichi
Injury robbed Bolton of their two best midfielders - their two best players really - before a ball was kicked this season: Stuart Holden and Lee Chung-Yong. Miyaichi, more like the latter than the the former, is a talented player who did well on loan at Feyenoord last season. Bolton have a good track record in taking young players - Jack Wilshere and Daniel Sturridge, for two examples - and looking after them, so this looks a good move beneficial to all parties; Bolton, Arsenal and Miyaichi.

There's probably more to be said and more analysis to be done, but frankly it's too much like hard work to sift through all the deadline day moves. What do you want from us? Anyway, time to put the Deadline Day Stocking away until the end of August now and Jim White can return to hibernation. Sleep well children and be good, unless you don't want the Pixie to come in summer.

Steve McClaren returns to FC Twente

The return today of Steve McClaren to the happiest of his former hunting grounds is the sort of thing you'd probably be expecting us to cover, perhaps even to take the piss.
Well we won't be taking the piss. We think it's a great move all round and hope that McClaren repeats the levels of success he enjoyed in his first stint at FC Twente. He's back at a well-run club with a talented and young group of players and good luck to the man.

As for covering it, we did over at the exemplary, award-winning Inbedwithmaradona.com. At the time of writing, Co Adriaanse was still in the job - he wasn't for much longer - and the rumours of McClaren's return were just that - rumours. We had a look at what lies in wait on the Yorkshireman's return to Holland.

PSV fall away

Heerenveen 3-1 Feyenoord
De Graafschap 1-0 Willem II
Twente 2-1 Vitesse
Den Haag 2-2 Heracles
NAC 1-1 Utrecht
Roda 1-1 PSV
Sparta 1-1 Groningen
Volendam 0-2 AZ
NEC 2-4 Ajax

The top three all won in the Eredivisie this weekend, but PSV dropped points away at Roda. AZ were comfortable against Volendam and Twente had a Kenneth Perez thunderbolt to thank for rescuing them against Vitesse. The Arnhem side had levelled matters through Sébastien Sansoni following Blaise N'Kufo's opener before Perez rattled one in from 20 yards following some slick play. That all put pressure on Ajax to keep up by beating NEC in Nijmegen. Having led 1-0 and 2-1, NEC equalised through El Akchaoui before Dario Cvitanich was needlessly sent off for a second booking, having earlier been cautioned for a stupid handball. It had the effect of galvanising a patchy Ajax side and with Luis Suarez prominent, an own goal from Dani Fernandez and a late one from Gabri snatched the points.

Tim Simons' penalty on the hour for PSV was nullified a minute later by Will Janssen. The sole point meant that Heerenveen's win over struggling Feyenoord now leapfrog them into fourth. A point does nothing for Roda, still deep in trouble. Sparta are now level with they're city neighbours after an uninspiring draw and there were draws at Breda and in the capital.

The table:
1 AZ 18 44
2 Ajax 18 41
3 FC Twente 18 37
4 Heerenveen 18 32
5 PSV 18 31
6 NAC 18 30
7 FC Groningen 18 27
8 NEC 18 26
9 FC Utrecht 18 26
10 Willem II 18 24
11 Heracles 18 21
12 Feyenoord 18 19
13 Sparta 18 19
14 Den Haag 18 16
15 De Graafschap 18 16
16 Roda 18 15
17 Vitesse 18 15
18 Volendam 18 11

While they're away

The Eredivisie is still on a break, but news comes in that FC Twente skipper Rob Wielaert is off to Ajax. This is a massive blow to Shteve McClaren's side. The skipper leads from the centre of defence and lends experience to an otherwise young side.
Twente had got themselves in a comfortable third place before the break, although the top two - AZ and Ajax - had begun to break away. McClaren hasn't changed much since he arrived in Enschede, personnel-wise, but he may have to dabble in the market to replace his defensive rock.

It's been a strange time in the Eredivisie this season. Traditional powerhouses of the Dutch game have struggled, with Feyenoord in particular having a tough time with the accountants. Ajax are going OK, but may face issues if they fail to get Champions League football next season, and with the second spot in Europe decided by a play-off rather than league position, it's not as straightforward a proposition as it may seem. And so it's the well run clubs that are prevailing. It looks like AZ's to lose, but they've been in that position many times previously. PSV are just coming up on the rails, but they've also spent an eye-watering amount of money.
The league gets back underway next week and we'll preview it in due course.