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.

That's Conference! #10

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is having quite the Coupe d'Afrique des Nations and his goals - one in each game - have carried Gabon through to the knockout stages top of the group with three wins from three. He had a bit of help with the only one in the 1-0 win over Tunisia. Real time, it looked like it took a deflection, but repeat viewings show it didn't.
Rami Jridi was the goalkeeper, diving away from the ball:




That's Conference!

Vague Round-up #4

Here are the Vague headlines:

BONG! Racists 2, Victims 0 in Cup.
BONG! Rivals slip up to hand Whites supremacy.
BONG! Loan striker's hat-trick seals massive derby win.
BONG! Ex-England boss still doing very well, thank you.
BONG! Blue and black stripey people lose for first time in ages.
BONG! Black and white stripey people keep on winning.
BONG! Top four in Europe's economic driver still covered by a single point.
BONG! Can small island club be one of the continent's form team? Corsi-can.
BONG! Blue Dragons lose to hand rivals intitiative.
BONG! Managers panic buy left, right and centre on deadline day.


More soon.

ACN Day 10: 42 years of hurt.....

Monday saw the finale of Group B. Ivory Coast had effectively already qualified from the group so for their final game they fielded a weakened side against Angola who were in the running for the second qualifying spot. The other game saw Sudan facing Burkina Faso with Sudan knowing if they
could achieve a win for the the first time in the tournament in 42 years they would be in the quarter finals, pah easy!

Half hour into both games and the deadlock was broken in one of the games, Emmanuel Eboué
scoring a simple goal for Ivory Coast and just a few minutes later Sudan take the lead against 'Faso with Mudather Eltaib scoring for Sudan. Could the dream about to become reality?!

As half time came, the games remained the same. Angola needed something and quickly to save
themselves.The Angolan hearts then took another blow a few moments after the hour mark. Bony scored a goal from nothing short of a few inches from the goal, suddenly Sudan had the chance here and they took it with a second late into the second half. Sudan had achieved the impossible!

A late goal from Burkina Faso couldn't dampen the spirits and Sudan qualified for the quarter-finals where they will face Zambia. Ivory Coast will face Equatorial Guinea on Saturday in what will be a tasty affair. A shock there? Oh I think there could be.....

Goalkeepers yelling at defenders #11

Oleksandr Rybka

Naughty boy.

ACN Day 9: Group A Finale

So Sunday saw Group A play their final games and both kicked off at the same time with Zambia and Libya both going for second place behind Equatorial Guinea. Libya faced hapless Senegal and Zambia faced the already-qualified hosts.

Libya started brightly against Senegal and took the lead after four minutes with a strike from Ihab Albusaifi but just five minutes later Senegal pulled back with a goal from Deme Ndiaye who headed in a corner. As half time came it remained 1-1 with the game involving 'the freedom fighters' and 0-0
in the game with the co-hosts.

Both games saw nervy starts to the second half then a goal came half an hour in as Zambia took the lead against Equatorial Guinea with Chris Katongo firing in a low shot from the edge of the area, now this gets interesting as Zambia take the second spot in the group if it stays like this.

With a few minutes of normal time left in both games Albusaifi scores again for Libya to make it 2-1. This now meant they needed co-hosts Equatorial Guinea to help them out by scoring twice against
Zambia to help them qualify.

However it was all in vain as Zambia beat the co-hosts 1-0 to seal their place in the quarter-finals. Sadness for Libya though but the shock of this group has to be how bad Senegal have been, pointless in too many ways.

Equatorial Guinea will face the Group B winners and Zambia with face either
Angola or Sudan in the last eight.

Unbelievable Jeff #10

Christian Eriksen, ladies and gentlemen:



EDIT: Crikey, the KNVB are very quick these days. Enjoy it courtesy of 101greatgoals.com here

Unbelievable Jeff!

Unbelievable Jeff #9

So you're level at 2-2 deep into stoppage time at the end of a thrilling game. You get a free-kick just outside your opponents box. Scoring it would eliminate them and send you, the co-hosts, through to the next round.
Up steps Zita:





Unbelievable Jeff!

ACN Day 8: Does D stand for Group of Death?

On Day 8 of the ACN saw Group D play their 2nd games. The day started with Botswana facing Guinea. Botswana who had been unlucky against Ghana in their first game were looking to get a win to hopefully push for a place in the Quater Finals.

However the half time scored made horrible reading for Botswana, 4-1 to Guinea and Botswana were down to ten men after Patrick Motsepe is sent off for a horror challenge, ouch! The first half had been a cracker for Guinea and a horror show for Botswana, could the second half get better for them? In a word no, two late goals by Guinea sealed the defeat and a horrible scoreline of 6-1. The promise shown by Botswana against Ghana was now in ruins.

This left the next game looking very interesting as the two big names in Group D, Ghana and Mali facing off against each each other knowing a win was cruical. A tense first half saw no goals by either side but the breakthrough came with a lovely goal from the 'Middle Eastern Cash Wallet' Asamoah Gyan who scored with a stunning free kick. The lead for the Ghanaians was doubled short after with a lovely taken goal from 'Dede' Ayew to seal a 2-0 win.

Group D now looks like being the group of death in the tournament. Ghana being top with 6 points and Guinea and Mali on 3 points each. The final group games on Wednesday will be very tense.

ACN Day 7: Another one bites the dust

Short but sweet review of day 7 of the African Cup Of Nations

The first game saw Tunisa take on Niger and beat them 2-1, Niger dominated the game and let a goal in just few minutes before the end to see their hopes crushed by the Tunisians who make it through to the Quarter Finals. Although credit must go to William Tonji Ngounou, who scored Niger's first ever goal in this tournament. Well done that man!

The second game saw another cruical game involving a big side. Morocco had to beat co-hosts Gabon to stand any chance of making it through to the Quarter Finals (Senegal again anyone?)easy!
A goal from their captain Houssine Kharjah midway through the first half had settled any nerves. They looked to be cruising until the 77th minute when deja vue in this tournament kicked in again. Aubameyang scored for the co-hosts with a stunning volley which sent the home fans mental. Two minutes later the party could start Daniel Cousin (the ex Hull City man) made it 2-1 to Gabon. Then more drama, a penalty to Morocco close to 90th for handball which Kharjah slotted home 2-2.

Then came the twist. 94th minute free kick from Bruno Zita Mbanangoye for Gabon made it 3-2. Wow! Morocco like Senegal are out of the tournament

This tournament is breathtaking this year, get watching!