It's the craziest day of the year in the club soccer world, as the close of the summer transfer window has arrived, bringing with it a seemingly endless string of transfer rumors, actual deals and plenty of surprises.
England is where many of the transfer rumors begin, but there is plenty of action all over Europe as clubs look to strengthen themselves one last time.
SBI will be providing live commentary of today's transfer window close craziness, so please feel free to join us here as we try to inform our readers of all the day's transfer activities. As always, you are welcome to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Let's get started (Commentary is after the jump):
Hope Deuce stays at Fulham!
Anything on JJ & Rico? They need moves badly… I am aware of Jones not training with Schalke & Rico being shopped around, but dont know about any new developments…
Bundesliga 2 sound like it will be a very interesting place to watch young americans abroad this season….
Jones could be useful at Arsenal, as could Dempsey….
hell a cinder block could be useful to arsenal right now, so….
Arsenal has to make a big move today. I’ve heard rumors of Eden Hazard heading there, as well as Clint Dempsey. After the 8-2 drubbing by ManU, even with all the suspensions, you’ve got to believe Arsenal is depleted, and needs some big signings to be competitive amongst the top 6-7 teams in the EPL this season.
I’m not sure if Arsenal would be a good move for Dempsey…the unknown is always scary, especially since he enjoys such security and popularity at Fulham. However, if he could go to Arsenal and play, it would really vault his already very successful career.
Anybody heard anything on Donovan? One has to think that if he’s going to make a permanent move to Europe, now is the time. He’s 28/29, and probably at the height of his market value.
Donovan’s time to move would be this winter. Galaxy/MLS would surely object to any move with LA in contention for the MLS Cup.
BEST NEWS OF THE DAY:
Another friendly has been scheduled. USA vs Ecuador on October 12, 2011 in Connecticut
YES! Another friendly in New England – See you Yanks fans out there
The German press a few weeks ago pegged JJ’s annual salary at 4 million euros with a contract through 2014, which, I would think, is not helpful in his finding a new team.
link to bild.de
I would think being that “old”, relatively speaking, would make him not at his peak market. There would be hardly any resale value. Besides, I don’t think he wants to prove himself in Europe anymore. Two months at Everton apparently proved it to everyone…
At Arsenal, he would be in a Champions League team.
Are we playing a lot of friendlies this year, or did I just pay poor attention to past years and forget the friendlies we played then?
where did you see this? Because I just looked everywhere and see nothing about it
Why are there NEVER any friendlies in the NW? Nothing against New England, or anywhere else.. I just feel like we deserve one now and again with all the passion for soccer out here..
Well — at least as long as the Group play lasts.
Useful setting up cones for practice?
Sky reporter scotches Rossi to Spurs rumor — says Villareal want 40+ million Euros for Rossi.
Because you don’t have lots of South and Central American immigrants to fill the stands and buy the jerseys.
Because synthetic grass and freshly-laid sod make for a sh*tty playing surface.
That and Baby Jesus does not like Seattle or Timber fans.
For all the people whimpering about wanting Clint to leave Fulham… how is this for a line-up? Sorry but anyone thinking Fulham will be anywhere near relegation is clueless… The line-up below still leaves Damien Duff, Dickson Etuhu, Andy Johnson and Chris Baird, Patjim Kasami and 2 of of either Dempsey, Dembele, Gignac or Zamora on the bench
—————–Schwarzer———————
Grygera—–Hughes—–Hangeland—–JA Riise
Ruiz—–Sidwell——Murphy—–Dembele/Dempsey
———–Dempsey or Dembele or Ruiz——
————–Gignac or Zamora———–
Forgot Senderos as well… they have 20 good first team squad players now… more than Arsenal can say for themselves right now…
link to bleacherreport.com
Towards the end of the conclusion slide it says we play Ecuador in October. I didn’t hear anything about this either and was curios so I checked the schedule/recent results on Wiki:
link to en.wikipedia.org
Sure enough, right after the Belgium game, it has a spot booked for the Ecuador game in CT on 10/12/11. It even had a citation, with the link pulling up this article:
link to translate.google.com
Seems legit enough to me to start getting excited!!
lawl.
Just the idea of Jermaine Jones at Arsenal…..
Because your stadiums have turf instead of real grass.
+100000000000
silly turf
Jones would be more useful than Deuce at Arsenal right now, since the problem is Arsenal has 8 people going forward and no one covering the back 4. (And yes, I intentionally over-counted, because it looks like the fullbacks are always bombing forward and forgetting to get back too).
Ives…can you confirm the reports that Lichaj is out 4 months?
Wow…if it is the hip labral tear as reported…forget 4 months…more likely 6-8 dependent on what they do. Lot’s of athletes are being diagnosed with it these days…A-ROD among them.
His time out really all depends on what they find in there. I had a 2cm (relatively large) tear of the hip labrum debrided with some microfracture on April 26 of 2010. I was snowboarding on Dec 16 2010…but it hurt like a bitch…and it still hurts.
I hurt my right hip falling on it after a Borussia match in Germany (the relegation match…and I was piss drunk and trying to play kick-around on gravel/concrete). I likely will have to have surgery on this hip…and it may be more intensive. That could be a year.
So…it really all depends on how big his tear is (simply just cutting out) and if they need to do any microfracture or reshaping of the femoral head(the more serious part of the surgery). A-Rod broke his surgery into two seperate parts– debridement, then played…and follow-up microfracture, then played.
Good luck to Lichaj…but hip surgeries are not easy, nor fun to recover from.
+2 points for comparing a drinking accident to an athletes.
Until Fulham decide to go with a creative center midfield instead of Sidwell and Murphy, I would prefer Deuce find a team that plays to his style. To me, he’s always been a square peg at Fulham.
Well, let’s put it this way: Hip 1- Suffered while training for college basketball in the 90′s…lived with it for years.
Hip 2- was drunk…and still trying to be an “athelete” well past my prime.
News on one erstwhile Yank that I somehow missed– Ibisevic signed with Blackburn — one less Yank at Hoffenheim.
In his defense it was a drunken hip injury at an “athletic” event.
turf, narrow fields and 4-5 extra hours air travel from the east. fix the first 2 and i bet the NW will see some love, see Home Depot Center, def. in the summer games (gold cup, summer friendlies, etc..)
*** BREAKING NEWS *** Quakes release transfer window signing Edmundo Zura after only playing 20 minutes against LA. *** STAY TUNED FOR FURTHER BREAKING NEWS UPDATES ***
What did you expect? He couldnt cut it in the A-League.
If true that would basically sum of the Quakes ineptitude this year. It’s really time for the Doyle and Yallop to go. I owner willing to spend a bit more would be nice too.
*An owner
MB on TV
link to chievoverona.tv
Gee, that first Ruiz goal, where he schooled Gooch *before* Gooch tore up his knee, just reminds me how much of a liability his lack of foot speed is.
Glad to hear that bitchy little girl Dos Santos didn’t get her trade! She can sit on the bench and cry and let her skills and good looks go to waste!
Eh. I wish him the best. I would like to see more North American players get time. And it’s also fun to rub it in that Tim Howard unseated Barthez and was voted EPL goalkeeper of the year well before Chicharito became a part time starter, and that Friedel is a guaranteed starter at Tottenham while Dos Santos rides the pine.
Unfortunately you cannot argue that Dos Santos not starting has anything to do with his skills.
Redknapp is killing that squad.
Thrilled to see Mertesacker joining Arsenal, as he represents a major upgrade and a great pairing with Vermaelen. Of course, a guy who’s 6’6″ won’t be able to turn as quickly or be as quick in general, but Arsenal’s achilles heel last year was heading on set pieces, where they gave up goal after goal after goal. So Mertesacker is THE player to address this problem.
Not blown away by the Santos signing, but if he provides much-needed depth, then he’s worth it.
Three games into the season is a little late to be integrating what appears to be at least four or five signings, but at least the transfer deadline’s on a week where int’l fixtures are coming up.
I’d love it if the Gunners could add Cahill (won’t happen) and Eden Hazard or Marvin Martin (decent chance on Hazard, Martin’s probably not happening).
You have to have good looks in order to lose them. Too bad he can’t play against Bornstein in the EPL so he could look like Pele all the time.
Instead he’s just a one dimensional ball hog riding the pine.
On the bright side the night clubs in Tottenham are thrilled they get to keep their best party girl customer
If you are contending that Redknapp is the reason Dos Santos doesn’t play you are wrong. Dos Santos is the reason Dos Santos doesn’t play. If he can grow up, get out of the night club scene and take his career seriously and then you didn’t play him you could make that argument.
October 12th isn’t a FIFA date. We played Columbia on 10/12/10. Please do not cite wikipedia, wikipedia = random guy on internet.
I just read that Liverpool is paying 60% of Cole’s salary at Lille in the hopes that they will have a better chance at negotiating for Hazard in a year. Lille apparently says that Hazard isn’t for sale this year. I’m not saying it isn’t possible, but that doesn’t seem likely at all. Especially when the want 30Million Euros for him.
This is awesome!
good point on Mertesacker, and on whether Wenger can mesh all of this influx into a team that wins. we’ll see.
good post, and nice alcoholete maneuver, man. suffered some knocks in my alcoholete career too