The pride St James Park - Photo Paul Blank CCA
The biggest sides were having a quiet time of things back in 2002, with newspapers just warming up for the first January transfer window without realising that people were interested in reading transfer rumours for January from about mid-September. On this day in BBC’s transfer gossip column in 2002, struggling clubs needing emergency repairs were making the headlines, and there was a pretty strong case for dropping the contributions of the general public from the front page of the gossip column.
Spurs have joined the hunt for Argentine striker Luciano Figueroa. Leeds, Blackburn and Southampton have all been keeping tabs on the exciting 21-year-old Rosario Central striker. (Daily Mirror)
The most exciting thing about Figueroa proved to be the controversy surrounding his eventual transfer to the Premier League. The four attempts the Mirror had at guessing his destination proved unsuccesful, with Birmingham winning his signature in August 2003 despite Osasuna claiming they had already signed him. FIFA ruled in favour of the Blues, and for £2.5m, Bruce got himself a prolific reserve team striker he never back to perform in the Premier League, giving him one outing before selling him to Cruz Azul of Mexico, where he carried on being prolific.
Under-fire West Ham boss Glenn Roeder has been scouting in France prior to the transfer window opening in January. His targets are believed to be Monaco’s Shabani Nando and Auxerre striker Benjani Mwaruwari. (The Sun)
We can only hope Glen Roeder was paying more attention than the Sun, who mispelt Shabani Nonda to make him sound like a high street chicken franchise. Nonda remained at Monaco until 2005, and was probably glad he did, impressing on the way to the Champions League final in 2004, which Monaco lost to Mourinho’s Porto. West Ham, meanwhile, got relegated at the end of the season and Roeder was fired three games into the promotion campaign. Benjani, meanwhile, stayed at Auxerre until 2006, then moved to Portsmouth where he took 14 games to get off the scoresheet. A good run of form followed, earning himself an £8m switch to Manchester City where after the best possible start, netting the winner against Manchester United, Benjani has slipped down the pecking order to about 16th choice as the Arab billions lavished City with much better strikers than the Zimbabwean.
Leicester chairman Martin George has told troubled Premiership clubs Leeds and West Ham they are wasting their time in considering Micky Adams as a possible replacement for under-fire bosses Terry Venables and Glenn Roeder. (Daily Express)
Adams maintained Leciester’s flying start to their promotion charge, getting promoted back to the Premier League as runners-up to Portsmouth. West Ham didn’t attempt to replace Roeder with him, unappealing as that was with West Ham heading in the same direction. Leeds stuck with Venables for just 3 more months, replacing him not with Adams but with Peter Reid. at the end of the 2003-4 season, Ledds and Micky Adams’ Leicester were relegated with an equal number of points, and shortly into the new season Adams resigned, later joining Coventry.
Arsenal are set to make a £5m bid for Inter’s French utility player Stephane Dalmat. Former French Under-21 international Dalmat is a close friend of Robert Pires and Gunners’ boss Arsene Wenger believes he can get the best from a player who has fallen out of favour with Inter boss Hector Cuper. (The Sun)
A degree of logic from The Sun, with Wenger boasting a track record of reinvigorating the careers of talented players floundering in Italy, notably Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp. Still, given it was probably based on nothing but logic (still something of a novelty for The Sun), it didn’t happen. Instead went on loan down the road with Spurs the following season, where David Pleat failed to get the best from the player Arsene Wenger-style.
Birmingham City boss Steve Bruce is hoping to boost his side’s Premiership survival hopes by swooping for Lyon striker Tony Vairelles (Daily Star).
Bruce didn’t sign Vairelles, but hindsight shows this was no oversight: the Frenchman has been transferred every season since then, heading first to Stade Rennais, and has never really done the business, he best return being 5 in a season until last year he netted 13 goals in 21 games for F91 Dudelange in the highly competitive Luxembourg league.
Bjorn Helge Riise, the younger brother of Liverpool defender John Arne, is to return to Maine Road to Manchester City for a second trial with a view to a free transfer move from Norwegian club Aalesund. (The Times)
His second trial went no better than the first and he headed for Standard Liege instead at the end of the season. Finally made the Premier League a few years after older and better brother John left for Roma, linking up with the Scandanavian-friendly Roy Hodgson at Fulham.
Not the most exciting day in transfer gossip history. Thanks then, to Stoney, for this fully informed contribution from a ‘geezer’:
I went to Chelsea the other night and the geezer at the box office told me John Terry is definitely on his way to Newcastle
Stoney, England
“Definitely?” Brilliant.
Rumours that Stoney and ‘the geezer at the box office’ are now both in the payroll as “sources” for major tabloid newspapers are unconfirmed.
