Football Rumours

With the transfer deadline behind us, we will take a look at some of the obscure moves that took place on deadline day and also at those which failed at the last moment. There was lot of talk about a possible swap deal between David Bentley and Martin Petrov. Spurs chairman Daniel Levy pulled the plug on the deal after it appeared that Manchester City only wanted to loan Bentley for a year. City defender Richard Dunne’s move was completed 24-hours after the window closed, when his paperwork was ratified by the Football League.

There’s trouble brewing at Middlesbrough too. Middlesbrough insist that striker Alfonso Alves remains their player despite an announcement on the website of Qatari side Al-Sadd that he has signed a three-year deal to play for them. The deadlock is yet to be broken. Spartak Moscow pulled out of the deal to sign Roman Pavlyuchenko after Spurs demanded a staggering £17.6 m for the Russian. West Ham’s search for strikers continues even after the window. They are tracking free agent Mark Viduka after they failed to sign Manchester City’s Benjani – apparently due to their inability to track down his agent. Reports also suggest that Arsenal forward Nicklas Bendtner rejected offers from Barcelona, Inter Milan and Bayern Munich to sign a new deal at the Emirates Stadium.

Elsewhere, a lot of loan deals went through on the final day. David Nugent joined Burnley on loan from Pompey while Ivan Klasnic signed for Bolton from French club Nantes for six months. Versatile midfielder Teemu Tainio joine Birmigham on a season long loan from Sunderland.

We’ll be back next week with more transfers from England and beyond.