The Story of the Transfer Window - Part 1

So the January transfer window of 2013 has come to an end and £127.8m has been spent. It wasn't so frantic, however, plenty happened over the course of the month and part 1 of 2 will dissect all the events that went on in the early stages.

The window got off to a flyer with a big money £12m deal taking place on just the second day of January. The deal involved Chelsea's Daniel Sturridge moving to the North and Liverpool FC. It had been a deal talked about for a while as it had been publicly known that Sturridge was unhappy at Chelsea and Liverpool were desperate for a forward to support Suarez. Sturridge managed to get off to a flyer too, scoring on his league and cup debut. He's now bagged 3 in his first 5 games, now that's what you call hitting the ground running!


It didn't take long for football to hit the headlines again with young lad Zeki Fryer joining Tottenham from Standard Liege for a fee of £3m. In isolation, this news may have sounded rather innocuous, however it left Sir Alex Ferguson seething. Fryers had previously left Ferguson's Red Devils in the Summer and Sir Alex claimed that Tottenham had been interested in taking him on. Spurs took him on trial before they decided they couldn't afford the youngster. United were then forced to sell him to Standard Liege for a smaller fee than the £6m they were holding out for from Spurs. Ferguson was then left red faced as Tottenham had to pay just £3m for Fryers this window. Whether he will pursue his claims, only time will tell.

Next in the window came the rather busy day of the 4th of the month. Mathieu Debuchy finally signed for Newcastle after what seemed like an age since they were linked with him in the Summer. However, this would only be the start of Pardew's 'French Revolution'. West Ham also did a bit of business on this day, most notably bringing back former player Joe Cole. Cole, formerly a fan favourite at Upton Park, has always been loved in East London and he was given a hero's welcome by the Boleyn faithful upon his return and set up 2 goals in the FA Cup tie at home to Manchester United on his home debut. Since then he has managed to score a goal too, getting on the scoresheet against QPR, his celebration clearly showed just how good it felt to be back and how much it meant to him, attacking the corner flag with pure passion! The Hammers also bought in Moroccan Marouane Chamakh from Arsenal on loan that day, they weren't altogether impressed, even Jack Sullivan, son of co-owner David Sullivan tweeted: "I am very sorry about this news Chamakh has sign a 6 month loan deal! not my pick :(". However, perhaps the biggest deal of this busy day was that which included Senegalese forward Demba Ba joining Chelsea. He joined for a reported £7m due to a release clause that meant Newcastle had to accept any bid that exceeded that fee. Similarly to Sturridge, Ba also got off to a flier, and at the time of writing has notched 3 goals in 5 League and FA Cup appearances. What a hectic start there had been to the January transfer window!

The next big news came on the 11th day of the month in 2 moves. West Ham signed Brazilian striker Wellington Paulista on loan. He has a good scoring record in Brazil and can even say he has scored a goal against Barcelona! Despite this, many are tipping him to have a minimal impact, however he did bag a goal in a 2-0 win over Arsenal reserves, something that can only be a good sign for the Irons. The other big deal that happened involved Turkish midfielder Nuri Sahin. Sahin had joined Liverpool on loan from Real Madrid in the Summer however he haasn't been overly effective and present in the Liverpool team. It was not going well for him at Anfield and he managed to get himself a move, 'back home' as he claimed, to Borrusia Dortmund, where he played before joining Real Madrid. He expressed his utter delight at a move back to old club Dortmund and I personally think it is a very clever move by Dortmund and that Sahin will rediscover the form he had in his last spell at Signal Iduna Park. 


What did you think the biggest deal was in the first half of the transfer window? Tell us in the comments section below!

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!