Monday 6 July 2015

Transfer Round Up #1

Managers in the Premier League and abroad have been dipping into the pockets of their owners frantically in order to secure their targets. Let's take a look at select transfers that have been completed so far...

Carlos Bacca - Sevilla to AC Milan - £21m
AC Milan were able to fend off interest from Liverpool in order to land Colombian Carlos Bacca. Recruited by new AC Milan manager, Sinisa Mihajlovic, the Colombian is signing off the back of excellent season, scoring 28 goals in 56 appearances for Sevilla. His tally included a well taken brace against Dnipro in the Europa League Final. Milan are getting a useful outfit and at 28 years of age, they have surely paid for his best years.

Alvaro Negredo - Manchester City to Valencia - £21m
Rather astonishingly, Pellegrini was able to make a £3.5m profit from the sale of Alvaro Negredo despite only making 49 City appearances in his two years contracted in Manchester. Valencia have signed a talented striker. He finished the 2013/2014 season with 23 goals even though his last came in January 2014. Last year he didn't quite to replicate his scoring feats, and only bagged 6 in 33 appearances. City will be glad to have him off the wage bill and Valencia will be happy to have acquired a player of his calibre.

Douglas Costa - Shakhtar Donetsk to Bayern Munich - £21m
Douglas Costa is a player well known to those Football Manager addicts out there. He can play out wide as well as in the centre. Acquiring Xherdan Shaqiri's old jersey, he'll probably slot in where the Swiss international left as a rotation option on the bench. Costa has scored 38 goals in 203 appearances, not to the same standard as Ribery and Robben, but he certainly has room to score more. Like Shaqiri, Costa is probably signed to succeed Robben and Ribery, but whether he will have have patience to break into the first team is another question. I'm not expecting much, but I hope the Brazilian is given plenty of first team football unlike the Stoke target.

Andrea Bertolacci - AS Roma to AC Milan - £14m
Mihajlovic continues his summer shopping with the signature of Andrea Bertolacci. Just matter of days after AS Roma had exercised the right to purchase the rest of the 24 year old's player rights, Milan enter with a £14m bid to prise him away from the Italian capital. In 125 Serie A appearances, the midfielder has scored 18 goals and assisted 17 times. 7 of those assists came last season for Genoa and was more than any Milan player registered. He will improve Milan and I look forward to seeing him at the San Siro.  

Nathaniel Clyne - Southampton to Liverpool - £12.39m
After objecting to renew Glen Johnston's contract, a new right back was of high priority for Brendan Rodgers, so where better place to go than to his favourite place on the south coast, Southampton. In a side that conceded just 33 goals all season, his signing will help to tighten up a leaky defence on Merseyside. Only Chelsea conceded less goals (32). While he is decent in defensive situations, he is also adept on the offensive creating 22 chances and completing 27 take ons. Liverpool have got themselves an upgrade in Clyne and he will be a key component in the Liverpool defence.

I've covered 5 of the major transfers across Europe and I will endeavour to share my opinions on many more during the Summer Transfer Window. Who is your pick of these five transfers that I've mentioned?

All statistics taken from Squawka or Transfermarkt.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading! I'd like to hear your thoughts on what you have read...