Many transfers, less money
Tuesday 03 February 2009
The transfer carrousel turned as
fast during the transfer window as it did in previous
years, but the amount of money involved was remarkably
lower this year.
Ajax and Real Madrid agreed the
transfer of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar in December.
The Spanish champions paid 27 million
euro for the striker, who was told yesterday he will
not be listed for the Champions League by Real.
Ajax eyed FC Twente striker Eljero
Elia for a while, but ended up buying his team mate,
defender Rob Wielaert for a little more than 3 million.
Ajax weren't the only club to keep
their purses closed as other Dutch clubs also remained
passive on the transfer market.
The biggest reason for the lack
of big investments is current economic crisis.
Many football clubs depend on external
financiers and it's those who can not free any extra
money at the moment.
Still the amount of players changing
club was as big as it was a year ago, when the counter
halted at 113.
League leaders AZ reinforced themselves
with Ragnar Klavan (Heracles), but more important for
the Alkmaarders is that Moussa Dembélé,
Mounir El Hamdaoui and Demy de Zeeuw did not leave.
The bad results as PSV and Feyenoord
did not lead to a buying frenzy.
PSV, currently fifth after four
consecutive championships, only signed Swedish striker
Ola Toivonen.
Impoverished Feyenoord are in an
even worse position, only four points above the relegation
zone, but the Rotterdammers will finish the season with
the current squad.
They didn't sign any players but
did sell and loan out some.
Of the other lower ranked clubs
Roda JC was very active with four new players.
Heerenveen landed two Scandinavians
with Viktor Elm and Patrik Ingelsten, FC Groningen signed
Niklas Pedersen and FC Twente are happy with Peter Wisgerhof
(NEC) and Australian Nikita Rukavytsya.
De Graafschap did some good business
with Chelsea involving the loan deal of Ben Sahar.
Contrary to the Dutch clubs the
cash register of Manchester City is not sensitive to
the bad financial situation in the rest of the world.
Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the
filthy rich sheik of the English club, wanted to spend
more than 100 million for Kaka of AC Milan.
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