Monday, Tuesday, happy days.
by Noel Draper
Some of you may remember that last week I appeared to be leaping for joy due to the opening of the transfer window. I was even humming a classic tune to myself as I typed. Everything, in my garden at least, was exceedingly rosy but, as they say, a lot can happen in a week. My last 7 days have included a person being born, a good friend having a birthday and another friend, sadly, passing away.
Football, on the other hand, has appeared to pay no attention to that old adage. Nothing has really happened at all. No big money move. No foreign star suddenly spouting out the usual rubbish about the Premier League being the best league in the world and that’s why he joined. Especially as he has always loved the club in question. Look, here’s a photo of him in a shirt when he was 6. Nothing. My unfounded optimism appeared to be just that. Unfounded.
Or so I thought, because if you scratch the surface, there has been a wealth of non transfer related news stories. The biggest of which, at least in my eyes, is the purchase of Nottingham Forest by the Kuwait based Al-Hasawi family. This investment has to be good news for both the club and their long suffering supporters. Comparisons will obviously be made with the Sheikh Mansour take over of Manchester City but that isn’t necessary a bad thing seeing as they have just won the Premier title. The only minus in the whole deal as far as I can see is Steve Cotterill. Will the new owners want him as the manager? I hope they do because he has always struck me as a good man with good ideas who the players respect.
Another Championship club were also in the news this week with their own takeover. The Pozzo family, who already own Udinese and Granada, took over Watford, sacked the manager, Sean Dyche, and installed their own man, Gianfranco Zola, as the new boss. They have strenuously denied that Watford will become a feeder club and that they will try and return the Hornets to the Premier League. If they run Watford like they run their other two clubs then we should see investment on a par with QPR and a slow return to the Premier League. Still, Watford fans should be relatively happy with the announcement.
The biggest non transfer story of the week goes to newish Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers and his “Andy Carroll can go on loan” speech. Of course he can. I doubt he will though seeing as Danny Graham did so well at Swansea last season. Rodgers likes his target men. He likes his sides to have a focal point up front. Carroll, will, at some point over the season, be that focal point. Why send him out on loan when he’s the sort of player that he likes and needs? Madness. Saying that he’ll probably move to West Ham next week on a season long loan.
So there you go. Three stories, each one of them exciting and interesting and none of them directly about transfers. Did I say nothing had happened this week in football? I must have lied because I am still humming the same classic tune as I was last week. Isn’t football great?
