Plenty of transfers to catch up on this week as the transfer window nears its final week with the shock move being Arsenals swoop for Manchester United full back Mikael Silvestre. Beyond Arsene Wengers love for everything french the whole world is scrathcing their head trying to come up with a good reason why Wenger has bought a player who can’t get near the United bench. The last time Arsenal nicked a frenchman from a top 4 rival they ended up with the short end of the stick in the form of sulky mohican lover William Gallas whose tantrums and poor defending cost the gunners any chance of silverware last season. Silvestre signs on a 2 year deal and is rumoured to have cost the Londoners £1m.

One player bucking the trend at Arsenal is Armand Traore with the frenchman leaving the Emirates rather than joining. Don’t get carried away though its only a season long loan to Portsmouth he’ll be back to fight for a left back berth with other Frenchmen Clichy, Silvestre and Gallas. And we wonder why the England team is struggling at the moment?

Premier League rules stipulate that only 2 loan signings are allowed per season so to facilitate Traore’s arrival at Fratton Park Jerome Thomas loan from Charlton was turned into a permanent move but only on 1 year deal which is far from a vote of confidence for the young midfielder. There will be a fee paid but only if Thomas makes a specific number of appearances for the south coast side.

Mark Hughes has moved swiftly to plug the holes in his porous defence that leaked 4 goals at the weekend bringing in Belgian international Vincent Kompany. Highly touted since the age of 17 Kompany had been tipped to be the next great defender in European football has so far failed to live upto to the hype and has been consistently overlooked by Europes top sides. Kompany now aged 22 has cost the Citizens an estimated fee of around £8m and has put pen to paper on a 4 year contract.

Next up is Djbril Cisse’s long talked about return to English football with a 1 year loan deal at Sunderland. Roy Keane has been keen to boost the quality and experience of his championship winning squad as they face the second year blues which have seen a number of newly promoted sides returned to the second tier. In Cisse they will get an inconsistent goalscorer who on his day has the pace and power to smash through any defence but also the unpredictability and sulking prowess of a tearful William Gallas which can ruin any clubs team spirit in an instance.

Still at the Stadium of Light and yet another striker has come in for the black cats as Roy Keane plumped for a £1.5m move for 29 year old Northern Ireland marksman David Healy from Fulham. Healy has so far failed to hold down a regular starting place in the championship or Premier League let alone recreated his prolific International goalscoring feats but Keane has obviously seen something in the much travelled forward.

West Bromwich Albion have smashed their club record to sign spanish midfielder Borja Valero for a £4.7m fee from Real Mallorca. Valero is the clubs 9th signing of the window and takes their spending beyond the £20m mark for the new EPL season. The 23 year old was released by Real Madrid after failing to break into the first team squad and will be fine addition to the baggies if he can adapt to live in the Premier League.

Two players have been demoted from Premier League status down to the depths of the SPL with Shaun Maloney quiting Aston Villa for a return to Celtic after only 18 months with Martin O’neil. The miniscule midfielder has cost the green and white side of Glasgow £2.5m and to be fair 18 months is a long time to put up with Martin O’Neil I would have left about 17 months ago. Steve Davis has completed his on off move to Rangers from Fulham with the cottagers netting a fee of £3m for the Northern Ireland international.

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