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Robinho to Manchester City, Berbatov to Manchester United (and more news)

Robinho_the_associated_press

Manchester City said goodbye to an allegedly crooked and corrupt owner and hello to a world star player in what just might have been the best 24 hours in the history of the club.

Man City, bolstered by a new ownership group from Abu Dhabi, swooped in to snatch Robinho away from Chelsea, paying Real Madrid an EPL record $58.1 million (£32.5million).

Robinho joins fellow summer signings Jo and Shaun Wright-Phillips on a revamped Manchester City team that just managed to outspend the previously unmatchable pockets of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. City’s new owners, which include the royal family of the United Arab Emirates, appear intent on spending major money to turn Manchester City into a world power.

While the Robinho move to Manchester City was easily the story of the transfer window deadline day, it was far from the only one. Here are some other moves to leave you talking as we head into an international fixture weekend:

Berbatov joins Manchester United (finally)

The lengthy transfer saga between Dimitar Berbatov and Manchester United finally ended on Monday with the Bulgarian striker joining Man U in a $55 million (£30.75million) deal that included Tottenham receiving the services of young striker Frazier Campbell on a one-year loan.

The deal came after Berbatov traveled to Manchester without Tottenham’s permission and visited with Man U manager Alex Ferguson. With little choice but to sell, Tottenham still managed to secure a huge deal for the disgruntled striker, giving itself a talented young striker in Campbell and transfer fee that should help the team offset the laundry list of signings the club made this summer.

Everton signs Standard Liege’s Fellaini

After seeing bids for Joao Moutinho and Stephane M’Bia thwarted, Everton concluded its summer transfer window in fine fashion by landing impressive Standard Liege central midfielder Marouane Fellaini. The Belgian impressed with his performances against Liverpool in Champions League qualifying and cost Everton a club-record and Belgian-record $23.26 million (£13 million).

Onyewu and Pearce stay put

U.S. national team defenders Oguchi Onyewu and Heath Pearce were the subject of plenty of transfer window rumors, but both have stayed with their teams despite being linked with numbers of clubs (If something changes here overnight I’ll update, but it certainly looks like neither has completed a deal). Onyewu stayed at Belgian club Standard Liege despite links to clubs ranging from Lazio to Paris St. Germain, while Pearce’s rumored potential move to a Bundesliga club never materialized.

Here are some other transfers to update you on from today and the weekend (I’ll add to this list as the night goes on):

  • Diego Milito to Genoa
  • Pablo Zabaleta to Manchester City
  • Xisco to Newcastle
  • George McCartney to Sunderland
  • Daniel Cousin to Hull City
  • Park Chu-Young to Monaco
  • Patrick Muller to Monaco
  • Julian Gray to Fulham (loan deal)
  • Andriy Voronin to Hertha Berlin (loan)
  • Ebi Smolarek to Bolton (loan)

That’s all for now. What do you think about Robinho’s amazing move? How well will Berbatov do at Manchester United? Disappointed not to see Onyewu or Pearce move?

Share your thoughts on all the transfer news (and add any other transfers of note) in the comments section below.

Comments

  1. Tim, it won’t have that hoped for double impact; I think as part of the agreement Fellaini won’t play against SL. Still, he can’t hurt us.

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  2. Good for Everton. I was dreading our Standard Liege matchup but stealing their starting d-mid has a double impact, improving Evertons lackluster D and weakening Standard Liege!

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  3. Are these Abu Dhabi folks the same people who were trying to buy Liverpool? Or was that another consortium? Too many people with too much money IMO.

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  4. Nash won’t displace Howard, so don’t fret. He is just cover, since Everton’s other keepers are entirely unproven. I don’t think any of the goals Everton has conceded were Howard’s fault. Normally reliable centrebacks Lescott and Yobo have looked absolutely atrocious so far.

    Man City could be scary good if Hughes can mold them into a side in a way that Ramos hasn’t yet been able to do with Spurs. Robinho, Jo, and Benjani to select from up front; SWP and Petrov attacking from the wings, with Elano, M. Johnson, and Ireland competing for places in the middle. Losing Corluka hurts defensively, but the new Argentine should be good and assuming Richards is OK, the back line is not in too bad a shape. And I like Joe Hart, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Hughes go after a big time keeper come January.

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  5. Fellaini to Everton explains why Gooch was not sold. Standard probably was not willing to let go of both at the same time and Fellaini brought in a better price.

    It is ironic since Fellaini was declaring to the Belgian press that he would stay put and was hoping his teammates would too so they could make a run in the UEFA Cup. Now he is playing for the club that Standard is up against. Too bad for Gooch.

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  6. Important bit of news that was omitted here — Man City put in a huge bid for Berbatov after the oil barons took the club over. Man U had no choice but to match that bid.

    ADUG is a game changer in the Premier League. They can buy anyone they want and give Man City a legit shot at the Champions League. After all, you *can* buy a title in England. Just ask Roman Abramovich.

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  7. I think Pearce not moving is incredibly disappointing. If last season is any indication, the USMNT first-choice left back will be languishing on the bench at a Bundesliga 2 side at least until January. I hope things change in that he earns a starting spot and at left back (rather than left midfield).

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  8. Carlo Nash was a backup for Wigan. Rated as OK but not in Howard’s class. I heard the quote as “to provide cover for Howard” also. Of course, if Howard keeps letting in 3 goals a game, that could change. 🙂

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  9. Ives,

    Everton signed goalie Carlo Nash, 34, from Wigan, to “provide competition to Tim Howard.” I never heard of Nash. Is he a real threat to Howard holding down the starting spot? Is Howard facing another Van Der Sar situation?

    Thanks.

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  10. Well, now in the last two seasons, Chelsea has bought a total of four players of significance.

    This year, they bought Deco for a rather paltry £8-9M and Bosingwa for about £16M. They have sold 6 or 7 players.

    The going story from Kenyon of Chelsea is that they were not going to spend what Calderon was asking. Difference of about £5M or so.

    Over the last two seasons, Chelsea has been outspent by Liverpool, ManU, City, and one other team which is escaping my memory at the moment. Maybe we can classify this whole Chelsea throwing money around as a dated story. I’ve said this before but the two and 1/2 year spending spree that Abramovich perpetrated simply evened the playing field with Man U and Liverpool.

    After all that, I think it was a great piece of business for Man City. The new owners, the overall success of their transfer window…it’s pretty f’n cool.

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  11. All summer i was excited for the thought of robinho coming to chelsea. a young and gifted player to truly put chelsea over the top… i’m pissed.

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  12. My bad guys. I tightened up the conversion rates so they should all be accurate. The figures that would have been off were the dollar amounts so those have changed.

    As for the Thaksin Shinawatra comment, fair enough Chris. He’s allegedly a crook.

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  13. Chris, I don’t know how democratic it was, or how much of his fortune he gained while in power, but he ruled over a death squad government. This is public knowledge and well documented.

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  14. Chris,

    If you really wanted to start looking at all the money floating around European football there are no doubts there would be many a skeleton in the closet.

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  15. Ives,

    I know it made for a good opening paragraph, but what evidence do you have for calling Man City’s recently departed owner “crooked and corrupt”?

    He’s been charged with corruption by a military junta that took control of his democraticaly-elected government – I’m not sure I trust them to determine who is and is not corrupt.

    Furthermore, would Chelsea be equally fortunate if Roman Abramovich, who has also been accused of corrupt business practices, were to sell them off?

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  16. For Manchester City Jo and Robinho is a formidable Brazilian attacking combo. If they could have picked up one more of their targeted strikers they would have been very dangerous.

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  17. I’m not a big fan of spending this much money on Berbatov (27 isn’t old but when we are talking £30+ million you’d think it would be a younger guy), but I can’t really complain about United adding a player of his obvious quality.

    How about Robinho to city? Man. Imagine if their bids for Mario Gomez and David Villa had gone through. Jeebus.

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  18. Huge coup for Man City, not only because Robinho could be a star for them but because they kept him away from Chelsea.

    Not sure I like the EPL’s increasing identity as a playground of billionaires but increased competition should make for a better league.

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  19. I have always had a soft spot for Man City. Should be interesting to see if this is the beginning of the “Big 5” as Sky Sports seems to think

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  20. Horrible move for Robinho, Man City won’t challenge for anything this year but if he stays there for several years then maybe it’ll turn out ok

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