Premier League Machinations

As a transplanted Brit, the BBC news page is my browser home page and I try to keep up with the latest Sports news from the “Old Country”.  The last few days has been kind of strange.

The transfer window deadline has come and gone, and what a crazy day Monday was.

First, Manchester City get purchased by an Abu Dahbi sovereign fund and suddenly are flush with money, and then they offer over 30 million pounds for both Berbatov and Robinho. 

Berbatov eventually signed with Manchester United, but after over a month of on-again, off-again discussions between Chelsea and Real Madrid, Manchester City get Robinho from under Chelsea’s noses.  It looks like someone has the money to compete with Roman Abramovich – Chelsea’s Russian owner.  Are we looking at the beginning of the “Big 5”.

Liverpool sign a bunch of players including Riera from Espanyol, but they don’t get Gareth Barry from Aston Villa and Xabi Alonso is still a Liverpool player.

On Tuesday, the day after the closing of the transfer window, there is the saga of Kevin Keegan and Newcastle United.  Has Kevin Keegan been fired – most pundits say he probably hasn’t quit.  Did the Newcastle management suddenly realize that they were out of touch with their fans, who revere Keegan, when news leaked and then try to back-peddle.  We are still waiting on a resolution of this one – but at a minimum this is a case of either Dennis Wise goes or Kevin Keegan goes, in my opinion.

Also finally today, Wednesday, Alan Curbishley quits as West Ham’s manager.  It seems both Curbishley’s and Keegan’s issues are that owners/management sold (or tried to sell) players without their knowledge, or at least against their wishes.  It’s a bit hard for manager’s to do their job if they don’t have control over their squad.

Its now an international break and the focus will shift to the beginning of the World Cup qualifying campaign – I’m still trying to figure out why Capello hasn’t picked Michael Owen for his squad.  Ah well – just a normal week for football in England.