Transfer Window Winners and Losers: Featuring Big Sam, Tal Ben Haim and Peter Odemwingie

 

Some did well in this window, others less so. Here are three of each, courtesy of the Betting.Betfair team - Luke Moore, Daniel Thomas and Joe Dyer

 

Winners

Liverpool

It wasn't a vintage transfer window by any stretch of the imagination, and the lack of activity was presumably a cause of reasonable embarrassment for Sky Sports News who, as usual, went completely over the top with endless reports 'confirming' nothing was happening. Which, when you think about it, isn't actually news. It's the opposite of news.

 

However, Brendan Rodgers' Liverpool certainly seem to have come out of January smelling of roses. Daniel Sturridge is a ruthless finisher when in the mood and consistent first team starts should see him improve on a handy opening salvo of three goals in five games. His early link-up play with Suarez is also encouraging for Liverpool fans.

 

The move also seems like a reasonable investment as well, given that Sturridge is just 23 and could represent good sell-on value should he agitate for a move if Liverpool don't reach the Champions League in the next couple of seasons. Philippe Coutinho is also a handy addition; the former Inter man is a young, creative prospect who already has Champions League experience.

 

West Ham United

On the face of it, Sam Allardyce has had a reasonably quiet window. Normally only rivalled by Harry 'Not a wheeler dealer' Redknapp in the wheeler dealer stakes, Big Sam only welcomed two players into the club on permanent deals this January, the first in the shape of 18-year-old prospect Sean Maguire, and the second the return of one of West Ham's favourite sons Joe Cole. Loan moves in the shape of Emanuel Pogatetz, Marouane Chamakh and Wellington Paulista will provide cover, but in a way it's been a case of who West Ham have kept hold of that has been more telling.

 

Mohamed Diame is a massive asset for West Ham both literally and figuratively and although he has been linked with several top clubs since his eye-catching performances in the East End first grabbed the attention of would be suitors, he's entered February still a West Ham player. Allardyce's team don't look the same without him, and if you heard a massive sigh over London at around 11pm last night, it was a sigh of relief from every West Ham fan in unison.

 

Tal Ben Haim

Most fans of QPR would have been happy when Harry Redknapp was appointed as the replacement for Mark Hughes. One notable exception at Southampton aside, he has a good record of turning teams' fortunes around and probably presented Tony Fernandes with the best chance of keeping his club in the Premier League.

 

No-one would have been happier than Tal Ben Haim though, who very quickly received  a call via his agent Pini Zahavi to inform him that he was actually wanted by a Premier League club. Aged 30, but with the pace of a John Woo montage, this is a man who has struggled to impress anyone at all since he left Bolton in the summer of 2007 and was last seen not playing for Portsmouth because of a wage dispute and before that not signing permanently for West Ham because of a wage dispute.

 

He won't be short of cash for the groceries either, his last contract was worth an estimated £36,000 a week. Thirty-six grand a week for a man who holds the record for being surplus to requirements at the most clubs ever.

 

Anyone got Pini Zahavi's number?

 

Losers

 

Tottenham

While we take a more balanced few than many Tottenham fans who insist that Daniel Levy has 'thrown away' the club's chances of Champions League qualification by not adding a striker to the squad, it's safe to say it was a disappointing window for the north Londoners.

 

Bringing in Lewis Holtby from Schalke early looks like a good move, going by his impressive cameo at Norwich in midweek, but Tottenham's overall performance at Carrow Road, and recent toothless performances at Leeds and QPR, highlighted the need for more firepower.

 

Indeed, Holtby's impact on the team at Norwich showed the impetus a bit of fresh blood can give a team. A new striker, whether Leandro Damiao or - whisper it - a player they actually had a realistic chance of signing, would have been welcome addition, especially with Jermain Defoe carrying a knock, Emmanuel Adebayor disappointing thus far and Clint Dempsey not suited to the number 9 role.

 

The departure of Andros Townsend, on loan to QPR, was also slightly strange, given the lack of obvious cover for Aaron Lennon and Gareth Bale, although few Tottenham fans will shed a tear for Jermaine Jenas, who made a permanent move to Loftus Road.

 

Peter Odemwingie

Oh dear, Peter, you've been a very silly boy haven't you?

 

Player power is undoubtedly one of the scourges of the modern game, so there will have been more than a few football fans who took particular relish in West Bromwich Albion's smack-down of their Nigerian striker's calamitous attempts to extricate himself from the Hawthorns.

 

The story is best read in its full form, but we'll leave the last word to Peter:  "I am a very emotional person who sometimes doesn't think."

 

You don't say.

 

Aston Villa

First, an Opta fact: "Aston Villa have won fewer points after 24 Premier League games in a season than ever before (20).

 

Now consider this, Aston Villa's transfer window signings: Yacouba Sylla and Simon Dawkins.

 

Sylla is a defensive midfielder plucked from Ligue 2's Clermont Foot; Dawkins a 25-year-old attacking midfielder with 53 games for San Jose Earthquakes under his belt.

 

Something tells me that Villa, a big club in a massive funk and trading at 1.6 in Betfair's relegation market, actually want to go down. Talented though the current squad may be, they desperately needed a boost from new blood capable of having an instant impact.

 

And if we were betting on Sylla and Dawkins providing that (and we are a betting company after all) we're hitting the lay button.

 

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