Last minute deals

2005-09-01 20:00 © EuroFootball.com

On Wednesday, August 31st, European football clubs had the last opportunity to adjust their squads by buying, selling, or loaning players to other clubs - the summer transfer market ended at midnight on Thursday, so now until the beginning of next year, clubs can only sign contracts with players who do not have contracts.

As reported before, most money was spent on the last day by Madrid's "Real", who acquired Sevilla's defender Sergio Ramos for 27 million euros, second place in this indicator was taken by "Tottenham", who bought Newcastle's midfielder Jermaine Jenas for 10 million, but all other rich clubs hardly spent any money.

There were many rumors about possible big transfers in Italy, where the country's champion Juventus was at the epicenter of the rumors. As media reported, the club was preparing to sell their symbol Alessandro Del Piero and buy the controversial super talent Antonio Cassano from Roma, but these speculations did not materialize, as "Juve" just borrowed a young defender from Brazil Gladstone.

Only the Italian clubs not belonging to the trio of giants seriously strengthened their teams - "Roma" added two goalkeepers D.Eleftheropoulos and Brazilian Doni, "Lazio" team got two new defenders S.Siviglia and A.Giallombardo, "Sampdoria" rented A.Gasbarroni for a year.

Similar trends were also seen on the last summer day in Spain, where mostly mid-table teams strengthened - Celta Vigo loaned Argentine M.Lequi, Mallorca bought forward Yordi from Getafe, defender C.Doni arrived from Sampdoria, and Deportivo acquired Uruguayan S.Taborda. In Germany, Mainz acquired Werder's striker M.Zidane on loan, Hamburger borrowed Swiss R.Ziegler, Hertha - Serbian M.Pantelic, while Gladbach signed a contract with Hungarian K.Lisztes.

English clubs were active, not only completing deals between themselves but also adding many foreign players. On the last day, the Premier League's outsiders "Wigan" and "West Brom" emptied their wallets, acquiring two players from a lower division, "Portsmouth" loaned S.Diao and signed a contract with Uruguayan D.Silva who left Spain, "Middlesbrough" bought F.Rochemback from "Barcos", "Tottenham" acquired Polish G.Rasiak and said goodbye to Swede E.Edman, "Newcastle" brought back N.Solano to the team.

The "Lithuanian" leader of the Scottish Premier League, Edinburgh "Hearts", added Brazilian S.A.Camazzola as a defensive midfielder and Senegalese I.Tallas as a full-back. However, the most work was done by the defending champions of the country title "Rangers", who added defender O.Bernard, forwards F.Maniero and F.Jeffers, while saying goodbye to Z.Khizanishvili and M.Ball.

Last Minute Deals in Europe

Player (from club - to club, transfer fee/type)

Eirik Bakke (Leeds - Aston Villa, Loan)

Jay Bothroyd (Perugia - Charlton, Undisclosed)

David Connolly (Leicester - Wigan, £2 million)

Curtis Davies (Luton - West Brom, £3 million)

Salif Diao (Liverpool - Portsmouth, Loan)

Fabrice Fernandes (Southampton - Bolton, Free)

Erik Edman (Tottenham - Rennes, Undisclosed)

Joseph-Desire Job (Middlesbrough - Al Ittihad, Loan)

Zurab Khizanishvili (Rangers - Blackburn, Loan)

Kamil Kosowski (Wisla Krakow - Southampton, Loan)