As we near the frenzy of the deadline day, every football fan in the world would be glued to the Internet trying to find out who his/her beloved club will sign.
Deadline day signings are sometimes the result of long sagas whereas sometimes they are termed as ‘panic buys’. Claude Makelele, Carlos Tevez (West Ham, Mesut Ozil and Jermain Defoe (Spurs) could be termed anything but panic buys. Whereas the likes of Michael Owen moving to Newcastle from Real Madrid may go down as one of the worst deadline days signings. Nonetheless, the deadline day is filled with excitement for the footballing fraternity worldwide.
Here we will look at what each of the top 6 clubs in England need to achieve in order to describe their summer as a successful one and to help them achieve what they aim to during the course of the season:
1) Arsenal
No, we are not putting them 4th on this list as we are doing it alphabetically. Jokes apart Arsenal really need to dig deep and find a couple of key signings, their performance against Liverpool was the most disappointing Arsenal performance ever and mind you we have lived through an 8-2 defeat at Old Trafford and a 6-0 drubbing at Chelsea. Xhaka was absolutely poor on the ball and the partnership with Ramsey does not seem like it can bear fruit. Benching Kolasinac and Lacazette did not work for Wenger as his side struggled against an energetic Liverpool side. Wenger has to go and find another quality centre back if he wishes to persist with 3 at the back because Monreal and Per are way beyond the quality and discipline needed in a back 3. Ideally finding a good centre back or keeping hold of Mustafi along with finding a good combative midfielder like N’Zonzi should be a good end to the summer transfers for Arsenal. Of course, all this provided Alexis Sanchez remains at the Emirates which if he does not could be the final nail in the coffin for the Gunners.
2) Chelsea
Chelsea have kept the core of last season’s key player except for Nemanja Matic’s move to Manchester United and the imminent departure of Diego Costa from Stamford Bridge. Alvaro Morata and Tiemoue Bakayoko look like classy signings already so does German Antonio Rudiger. But the team lacks enough squad players and will struggle for depth especially as they return to their favourite competition, the Champions League this season. The will need to complete all the signings they are linked with currently. Oxlade- Chamberlain, Drinkwater, Barkley are 3 players who would definitely beef up the side and it would bode well for them as they look to defend their title. Anything more than these 3 would be an achievement but anything less than that could really hurt them in the long run. Of course offloading Costa would be another important matter of concern for Abramovich as his wages keep burning a hole in his pocket without any useful service being provided.
3) Liverpool
Liverpool showed their attacking quality and their big game pedigree in the 4-0 drubbing of Arsenal at the weekend. They do look increasingly scary in the attacking areas but their defensive frailties are not easily hidden. Virgil van Dijk saga seems to bear no fruitful outcome but that is the level of signing they need if they are to bolster their defence and mount a serious title challenge. Coutinho looks like he is on his way out and it would be really disappointing to lose such a key player at this stage in the window but they can quickly go out and find a replacement for him from the available talent in the market like Julian Draxler or Thomas Lemar. Klopp will be looking to press hard as he aims to add quality to the Reds.
Part 2 will feature what both the Manchester clubs and Tottenham need to do.
