The window of opportunity

So the transfer window closed until January at midnight last night, after a final flurry of signings and movements. One of the downsides of this is that there is no more gossip and rumours about potential signings knocking about, and now we all just have to actually look at the squads we have in the Premiership and see who's going to be beating who on a weekly basis..

Undoubtedly the surprise of the transfer season was, West Ham's "signing" of Tevez & Mascherano from Brazilian club Corinthians. Apparently some clubs were willing to pay up £30 million for Tevez alone, so Hammers supporters had better buy lots of jellied eels and mussels whenever they visit Upton Park this season, as I feel the club are gonna need a few quid.

But in reality, the club hasn't bought the players at all, they're "rights" are actually owned by an investment company, Media Sports Investments who own a mjority stake in Corinthians and tried to take over the 'appy 'ammers last season. There's also no doubt that West Ham are being used as a "shop window" to try and attract some serious cash for these players, whilst the players themselves adjust to European football (although West Ham strike me as a very dirty, grubby shop window, probably of a licenced "adult" store, as opposed to the nice shiny shop window they might have appeared in).

Whatever. It's just another club being bankrolled above it's status (a la Chelsea), which will eventually ruin the Premiership..