After successfully telling you that Harry wouldn't have an immediate impact at QPR I hope to back that up by assessing the likely impact of buying and loaning players in the transfer window.
As January approaches fans start to get excited about the prospect of the transfer window opening and their club spending millions to save their season by bring a new hero.
They are fed up with the current strikers drought in front of goal, the midfielders lack of creativity and the leaky defence. The only option is to pressure the board and manager to throw money at the situation in a desperate attempt to make everything better.
The 2011 January transfer window have saw some big money signings who have failed to make the desired impact in their first 5 months. Examples include:
Fernando Torres £ 50 million yet took him 903 minutes to score his first goal
Andy Carroll £ 35 million two goals in his first half a season at Liverpool
David Luiz £ 18 million and struggled to come to terms with defending the premiership
Steven Pienaar £ 3 million move to spurs didn’t work and he found himself out of the team for the most part of his time there.
Edin Dzeko £ 27 million which led to 2 goals in his first 15 premiership games and made his new fans wait until the 25th of April to score his first premier league goal
Stephane Sessegnon £ 6 million and another who made the fans wait until the 23rd of April before scoring a goal for his new team.
This this is not to say these players haven't gone on to be successful for their club but simply they didn't make the impact in the season they were brought, other big money signing included Luis Suarez £23 million who managed 4 goals in 13 games and some great performances and Darren Bent £ 18 million to Villa which yielded 9 goals in 16 games. You could argue they did make decent impacts but in the main it seems clubs have learnt from this and used the January window far more wisely. The following season saw a big change in the type of deals that were done with the emphasis being on loan deals and even free transfers.
As January approaches fans start to get excited about the prospect of the transfer window opening and their club spending millions to save their season by bring a new hero.
They are fed up with the current strikers drought in front of goal, the midfielders lack of creativity and the leaky defence. The only option is to pressure the board and manager to throw money at the situation in a desperate attempt to make everything better.
The 2011 January transfer window have saw some big money signings who have failed to make the desired impact in their first 5 months. Examples include:
Fernando Torres £ 50 million yet took him 903 minutes to score his first goal
Andy Carroll £ 35 million two goals in his first half a season at Liverpool
David Luiz £ 18 million and struggled to come to terms with defending the premiership
Steven Pienaar £ 3 million move to spurs didn’t work and he found himself out of the team for the most part of his time there.
Edin Dzeko £ 27 million which led to 2 goals in his first 15 premiership games and made his new fans wait until the 25th of April to score his first premier league goal
Stephane Sessegnon £ 6 million and another who made the fans wait until the 23rd of April before scoring a goal for his new team.
This this is not to say these players haven't gone on to be successful for their club but simply they didn't make the impact in the season they were brought, other big money signing included Luis Suarez £23 million who managed 4 goals in 13 games and some great performances and Darren Bent £ 18 million to Villa which yielded 9 goals in 16 games. You could argue they did make decent impacts but in the main it seems clubs have learnt from this and used the January window far more wisely. The following season saw a big change in the type of deals that were done with the emphasis being on loan deals and even free transfers.
Arsenal brought in Thierry Hendry (loan)
Aston Villa brought in Robbie Keane (loan)
Everton recalled Landon Donavan for a second loan spell and brought back Steven Pienaar for six months.
Swansea managed to loan Gylfi Sigurdsson
Man United resigned Paul Scholes
Spurs captured Louis Saha on a free transfer
The 2012 signings had a more desired impact and perhaps a psychological view that is more familiar to us will help us to relate to what the transfer window must be like.
Scenario 1-Big money transfer
You arrive back to work in January still slightly hungover when your boss informs you that he has employed someone to do your job with you. He maintains your job is not at risk and both of you could work well together. You find out that the boss has paid a lot of money to get this new worker to the company, you don't know how much he is getting paid but you suspect it’s more than you. The new worker is treated like royalty in his first few days and there is an important meeting coming up, your boss explains that you can't both go to the meeting and as he is new it's vital that he goes to get used to the company. Regardless of how the meeting goes your boss knows he has shed out lots of money for this guy so they give him another go. The new worker is struggling to make impact at this company as it runs differently to his old company and he is feeling the pressure, you are de-motivated as you seem to be playing second fiddle to a worker who isn’t producing the goods. Not exactly the ideal situation for workers to be performing at their best .....
Scenario 2- Loan player
You arrive back in at work and your manager tells you that because you have been finding things hard going he has employed a temp to help you out for 3-4 months. The boss has explained that the temp is here to ease the work load and allow you a couple of half days on a Wednesday so you can go home and see the family. The temp is unlikely to stay here full time and will go back to the agency when his time is up hopefully with a good reference and some useful experience under their belt. You don't know what the temp is getting paid but you’re not too bothered as he doesn't even have a full time contract. There is an important meeting and your boss explains he would like both of you to go into the meeting and if (Tommy the temp) can help out in anyway then so be it. Tommy has been making some useful suggestions in the meetings and seems to think he is adding to the company if by the off chance he talks rubbish it doesn't matter as he will be gone soon. You find that you are managing the work load better since Tommy's arrival and your morale has improved the company seems to be back on track and Tommy knows he is only here for a short time so feels no pressure on him to perform and is making crazy suggestions that are going down well.
This is potentially why loan signings have been more successful in the recent years as players are far more welcoming to a loan player than a big signing. Combined with the pressure of being a big signing it is hardly surprising that many big signings succeed in their second season/first full season. With this in mind I have come up with the top 10 loan signings for this transfer window.
Kaka- barely get's a game at Real madrid
David Beckham- No club
Landon Donavon- LA Galaxy
Didier Drogba- Shanghai Shenhua
Brad Freidel - Tottenham no point being a reserve keeper when you 40
Darren Bent- Aston Villa
Royston Drenthe- Alania Vladikavkas
Fernado Llorente - Athletic Bilboa
Tim Cahill - New York Red Bull
Joe Cole - Liverpool
Let's see if over the coming month any of these players are snapped up, please feel free to add to my top 10 list.
