For those of you who are not soccer fans, the English Premier League (a/k/a Premiership, or Barclaycard Premiership) allows new signings and transfers (trades) during the season only in January. This is called the Transfer Window.
In the transfer window, many teams try to shore-up their squad by purchasing or borrowing players in hopes of making a final push for championship or to avoid relegation.
Relegation?
Yes, Louise, relegation!
The three teams with the worst record at the end of the season are demoted (relegated) from the Premiership to the lower Championship league, and three teams from the lower league are promoted to the Premiership! Really! It's remarkable!
Unlike the sport franchise system in the United States where a crap team is allowed to reap the benefits of being in a top-flight league, bad teams in most other nations are punished by being relegated and losing valuable television revenue! Since the United States economy is based on socialism for the rich, we would never punish a wealthy sports team investor for being a crap sportsman or team manager/owner by demoting him. We let him go along, propped up by tax dollars and socialistic subsidies (revenue-sharing), all the time providing a crap product to an audience who has no other option.
In the rest of civilization, especially in capitalist economies, bad teams are punished for bad performance! Imagine if George Steinbrenner and Al Davis were treated the same way as the players, or the staff that run the stadia: lousy performance equals dismissal or demotion! Of course, we would never do that in the United States because it is imperative that we protect the rich.
Anyway, Louise, back to the Transfer Window.
To prevent the wealthiest teams in the Premiership from simply purchasing the best players all season long, personnel can only be done in the Transfer Window: between January 1 and January 31.
The window is open!
Jamie Redknapp and Calum Davenport are now with Southampton; and James Beattie, formerly of Southampton, is now with Everton.
Jiri Jarosik has moved from CSKA Moskva to Chelsea (which is a prime reason why transfers should not be allowed year-round)! Roman Abramovich is a billionaire who owns a number of Russian companies which have financed his purchase of Chelsea FC, in London. One of Abramovich's companies is the corporate sponsor of CSKA Moskva, which might point to a conflict of interest when the two teams do business. But, what do I know?
Ryan Nelson, of the hated and hateful MLS team DC United, is now with Blackburn where he will join fellow-American Brad Freidel.
Newcastle may have done best, so far, by acquiring Celestine Babayaro from Chelsea and Jean-Alain Boumsong from Rangers.
Rumors abound: Dean Ashton from Crewe to Norwich, Boa Morte from Fulham to Newcastle, Kanoute from Tottenham to Barcelona, Anelka from Manchester City to Liverpool, Dean Richards from Tottenhem to Celtic, and, of course, the dreadful Robbie Savage from Birmingham (where he was booed by fans last night) to Blackburn (good riddance -- send him to Boca Jrs. instead -- they'll show him rough play)
Through this morning, these are the players transferred with a Premiership team, the teams involved, and any monetary compensation:
Player [From - To] Fee
======================
Robert Burch [Tottenham - Stevenage] Loan
Yoann Folly [Southampton - Nottingham Forest] Loan
Ryan Nelsen [DC United - Blackburn] Free
Jiri Jarosik [CSKA Moscow - Chelsea] Undisclosed
Robbie Blake [Burnley - Birmingham] £1.25m
Mauricio Pellegrino [Valencia - Liverpool] Free
James Beattie [Southampton - Everton] £6m
Jamie Redknapp [Tottenham - Southampton] Free
Aaron Mokoena [Genk - Blackburn] £300,000
Emil Hallfredsson [FH Hafnarfjordur - Tottenham] Undisclosed
David Limbersky [Viktoria Plzen - Tottenham] Loan
Massimo Maccarone [Middlesbrough - Siena] Loan
Calum Davenport [Tottenham - Southampton] Loan
Emmanuel Eboue [Beveren - Arsenal] Undisclosed
Celestine Babayaro [Chelsea - Newcastle United] Undisclosed
Jean-Alain Boumsong [Rangers - Newcastle United] £8m
Njazi Kuqi [FC Lahti - Birmingham] £400,000
======================
More transfers will take place. Good luck to your team!
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Fever Pitch
by Nick Hornby
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