It has been a quiet summer on the transfer front, but that is not to say that the transfer market has not been relatively exciting. Here is a round-up of the deals that have been completed in July:
La Liga
Barcelona continued their squad rebuilding program is spectacular fashion as they bought Brazilian full-back Daniel Alves from Sevilla for a reported €32 million before clinching a €15 million deal for Arsenal winger Alexander Hleb.
To finance these deals, Barcelona sold Deco and Ronaldinho to Chelsea and AC Milan respectively.
Real Madrid, meanwhile have been too busy courting Cristiano Ronaldo to actually sign any players, it seems. The Spanish champions made no significant moves on the transfer market this month.
Sevilla have also had a quiet month, but no apparent trouble in selling players. Apart from letting Alves join Barcelona, they have also Poulsen to Juventus for nearly €10 million.
Premier League
Manchester City got the month rolling in the Premier League with the capture of CSKA Moscow striker Jo for an undisclosed fee. Their only other addition of the summer was Chelsea defender Tal-Ben Haim.
The most active club of the summer in the Premier League seems to be Liverpool, once again. This month, they have bought goalkeeper Cavalieri from Palmeiras for an undisclosed amount and Robbie Keane from Liverpool for £20 million. The only player to leave the club was Harry Kewell who joined Galatasaray on a free transfer after his contract with Liverpool expired.
Arsenal was also deserted by some of its players. Apart from Hleb, they have also lost holding midfielder Gilberto Silva to Panathinaikos. But, on the positive side, they did finalize the deal to bring Samir Nasri to London.
Chelsea new boss Felipe Scolari has trimmed his squad down by letting Steven Sidwell go as well. The English midfielder joined Aston Villa, where he expected to be Gareth Barry’s replacement. In meantime, they have only bought Barcelona playmaker Deco.
Tottenham have somehow managed to get through the month and only bring one player in – David Bentley joined from Blackburn on Wednesday. However, their exit door has been crammed.
Paul Robinson left for Blackburn Rovers, Malbranque, Tainio and Chimbonda all joined Roy Keane at Sunderland and Robbie Keane completed his dream move to Liverpool for £20 million.
Manchester United, meanwhile, have been too busy keeping Ronaldo away from Madrid to make any transfers, it seems.
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The Gareth Barry soap opera finally came to an end on Wednesday when Aston Villa called the move off due to Liverpool’s failure to meet a deadline. The England midfielder will be going nowhere now by the looks of things.
It has all gone quite on the Cristiano Ronaldo front in recent weeks. The player wants the move, the club wants the player, but Real Madrid have come to the realization that Manchester United are hard to break down. The Sun now reckons that he will stay put since he has ordered two new hot tubs for his mansion in England.
Frank Lampard is also staying put. Inter have finally accepted defeat in their pursuit of the Chelsea midfielder, but Mourinho remains confident of signing the player next summer. So it goes.
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