Plenty of last-minute moves on Monday’s transfer deadline day, most of them being in and out of Old Trafford. Here’s our quick-take on the pros and cons of the most eye-catching transfers.
Radamel Falcao, Monaco to Manchester United, loan
Pro: Has the pace and directness that United’s attack has been lacking, big-name signing looks good for the Champions League-less club.
Con: Still not clear how serious the knee injury that kept Falcao out of the World Cup is.
Daley Blind, Ajax to Manchester United, £14 million
Pro: Blind is Louis van Gaal’s kind of player—raised the Ajax way and played for LvG’s Netherlands team this summer. Can play left wing-back, holding midfield, center-back. May be the key to making three at the back work. Also: nice hair.
Con: Versatility is great, but Blind may find himself filling in at various spots, making him the rich man’s John O’Shea.
Javier Hernandez, Manchester United to Real Madrid, loan
Pro: Offers Madrid a pacy poacher off the bench, a totally different player to Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo or Gareth Bale.
Con: At a time when he should be playing regular football, Chicharito has basically traded one glamorous bench for another.
Danny Welbeck, Manchester United to Arsenal, £16 million
Pro: Olivier Giroud is injured, Danny Welbeck wants to play center forward instead of being stuck out on the wing. This move solves both problems.
Con: When Giroud returns from injury, Welbeck may start seeing more of the touchline.
Hatem Ben Arfa, Newcastle United to Hull City, loan
Pro: Lots of deadline day excitement at Hull City, with Steve Bruce adding the unpredictable brilliance of Ben Arfa to the signings of Uruguayan duo Gastón Ramírez and Abel Hernández and the legs of Mohamed Diame.
Con: Will four new faces, including one who leaves Newcastle with his manager citing a “lack of professionalism,” propel Hull to new heights or ruin the renowned team ethic? Check back in May for the answer.
Alavro Negredo, Manchester City to Valencia, loan
Pro: Manuel Pellegrini has settled on the strikers he wants to use this season at Manchester City, and Negredo isn’t one of them. Meanwhile, Valencia are short of a big-name striker. It all makes sense.
Con: Didn’t Negredo just help City win the title? What does a goalscorer have to do to stay at Manchester City?
Micah Richards, Manchester City to Fiorentina, loan
Pro: Micah Richards will finally get to play some soccer, and in a foreign country at that. An Englishman trying his luck abroad is always worth watching, just because it’s so rare.
Con: Richards was once England’s most promising teenage defender, but he’s now 26 years old.
Toby Alderweireld, Atletico Madrid to Southampton, loan
Pro: Remember Alderweireld playing for Belgium at the World Cup? Kudos to Southampton for bringing in yet another quality player. Seems the summer of exodus of Lallana, Lambert, Lovren and Shaw wasn’t the end of the Saints after all.
Con: Alderweireld can play center-back or right-back. If he does the latter for Southampton, then poor Nathaniel Clyne, scorer of that great goal against Liverpool, is suddenly second-choice.
Niko Kranj?ar, Dynamo Kyiv to QPR, loan
Pro: Reunited and it feels so good! Harry Redknapp and Niko will not be separated, and this marks the fourth time Redknapp has collected Kranj?ar’s signature.
Con: It’s only a loan, so the two could potentially be parted once again at the end of the season.