My Ten Premier League Signings of the Summer

With the transfer window slamming shut late last night, I've decided to run through my top 10 signings of the summer, in no particular order.

Roberto Soldado (Valencia to Tottenham Hotspur)

The signing of Soldado seemed to solve Spurs’ striking troubles. 2012/13 saw Andre Villas-Boas’ side have only Emmanuel Adebayor and Jermain Defoe as recognised forwards. Thankfully for AVB, he had the talents of Gareth Bale at his disposal. In Soldado though, Spurs have really got that elusive 20-goal-a-season man in their ranks. A current Spain international, the 28-year-old moved to the Premier League from La Liga side Valencia for £26m, a club record until the capture of Erik Lamela. A total of 59 goals in 101 games for Valencia proves that Soldado, a former Real Madrid youth graduate, knows exactly where the net is. The ex-Getafe frontman has already netted twice in his opening three games with the north Londoners, both goals coming from the penalty spot.

GOAL-DADO: Spurs have their man

Mesut Ozil (Real Madrid to Arsenal)

It finally happened! I’m not talking about the capture of 24-year-old Ozil, who seemed to be having a medical for days rather than hours, more to the fact that Arsene Wenger finally decided to open the chequebook to go big. £42.4m was enough for Real Madrid to part with arguably one of the world’s best players on the same day that Gareth Bale rocked up at the Bernabeu. Ozil came to the attention of the world back in 2010 in South Africa, starring in a Germany team that tossed England aside on their way to bowing out at the semi-finals stage. It was Real that moved quickest to sign the German, snatching him from Werder Bremen for a fee of £13m. Over 80 assists since he joined Madrid, I have a feeling that Olivier Giroud is licking his lips. Arsenal could be sensational with their attacking options of Santi Cazorla, Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott, Lukas Podolski and Ozil.

Wenger has spent big on the quality capture of Ozil

Samuel Eto’o (Anzhi Makhachkala to Chelsea)

A player I’ve always wanted to see in the Premier League has finally arrived. Eto’o has been linked numerous times in the past, however, has pursued moves to Italy and then Russia, after departing Barcelona. A man who has scored goals wherever he's been, Eto'o didn't have the best of times at Anzhi, but still managed to find the net 25 times in 53 appearances for the Russian side. Even at the age of 32, you still expect that a man of Eto'o's quality should be fine with the quicker play and step up in quality from the Russian League to the Premier League, as he links up once more with Jose Mourinho. The duo were previously involved in the Inter Milan side that became the first ever Italian side to win the treble. The Cameroon striker has won everything on offer in Spain and Italy, will an FA Cup triumph or a Premier League title be next on his list of honours?

SAM THE MAN: Eto'o and Mourinho are back together

Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea to Everton)

A slightly surprising late move was Lukaku's more to Merseyside, departing Chelsea for his second successive season loan move, this time to Everton. An excellent campaign at West Brom in 2012/13, netting 17 goals for the Baggies, seemed to signal a stay at Stamford Bridge. However, after the signing of Samuel Eto'o and Demba Ba staying at the club, Lukaku was farmed out on loan again, Roberto Martinez pulling a rabbit out of the hat by snaring the big Belgian, adding firepower to his new-look squad, Lukaku joining the likes of Nikica Jelavic and fellow new signing, Arouna Kone up top. Lukaku should thrive on the excellent service from the likes of Kevin Mirallas and the rampaging Leighton Baines, who is regularly seen scampering down Everton's left side. Expect 15+ goals again for 20-year-old Lukaku.

THINGS ARE LUK-ING UP: More goals on the way for Lukaku?

Scott Sinclair (Manchester City to West Bromwich Albion)

After a year of disappointment for Sinclair, he finally took off from Manchester City on a temporary loan spell at West Brom. It wasn't too long ago when the winger was excelling at Swansea City, playing for Team GB at the London 2012 Olympic Games and being touted for a call up to Roy Hodgson's England side. It's finally a chance to play for Sinclair and show his worth once more. He'll certainly get games at the Hawthorns and expect him to get a few assists for Baggies strikers Shane Long and fellow new signings Matej Vydra and Victor Anichebe. An opportunity for 24-year-old Sinclair to rebuild his career once again to reach the potential he had during his days at Chelsea.

Sinclair knows Steve Clarke from their Chelsea days

Pablo Osvaldo (Roma to Southampton)

A real statement of intent from Southampton was the signing of Italian international Pablo Osvaldo for a club record fee. Roma let the striker leave Serie A for a sum of £15m, with Osvaldo another option up front for Mauricio Pochettino, complimenting the likes of Jay Rodriguez and new England international Rickie Lambert, nicely. The Argentina-born striker netted 27 times in two seasons at Roma and worked with Pochettino at Espanyol in Spain. With the service from the likes of Adam Lallana and Gaston Ramirez, Osvaldo's goals could fire the Saints into the Europa League. See you in Westquay, Pablo!

RECORD BREAKER: Pablo's a Saint

Gary Medel (Sevilla to Cardiff City)

For a team that have earnt promotion to the Premier League for the very first time, Cardiff always needed a midfield enforcer, a battler in the middle of the park. Someone to get stuck in and get their foot on the ball is vital if they aim to stay in the top flight. In Gary Medel, Malky Mackay has snapped up a tough tackling little Chilean who's known as "The Pitbull". A consistent performer during his two years at Sevilla, Medel earned himself rave reviews, with Cardiff's capture something of a coup. The 26-year-old penned a four-year-deal at the Cardiff City Stadium after a record fee of £11m was agreed.

GOLD MEDEL: Cardiff have captured "The Pitbull"

Dejan Lovren (Lyon to Southampton)

Another player that will share residence with me in Southampton is Dejan Lovren. The experienced centre back made over 70 appearances in three years during his time at Lyon, and has 17 caps for Croatia. Defenders were the main priority for Mauricio Pochettino after conceding 60 Premier League goals in 2012/13, and with Victor Wanyama also arriving on the south coast, Southampton have certainly added quality to their backline. With the centre back still only being 24, he has plenty of time to develop into a world class defender at St Mary's.

HE'S LOVREN IT!: A coup for the Saints

Darren Bent (Aston Villa to Fulham)

An extremely shrewd loan signing by Fulham boss Martin Jol was that of Darren Bent. The duo worked together at Tottenham Hotspur and Bent, a prolific scorer wherever he's been will certainly get goals in west London. On paper, the striker duo of Bent and Dimitar Berbatov looks mouth watering for Whites' supporters as Jol looks to take Fulham to the next level, especially with the recent takeover at the club by Shahid Khan. It was surprising to see Bent left out in the cold by Aston Villa last season, and could have formed an excellent partnership with Christian Benteke.

Bent is back in the capital after time at Sunderland and Villa

Ricky van Wolfswinkel (Sporting Lisbon to Norwich City)

My final choice is Norwich's purchase of Ricky van Wolfswinkel. It was confirmed at the back end of last season that the talented Dutch hitman would head to Norfolk from Sporting Lisbon, despite City's Premier League status still in the balance. A striker that scored goals a plenty in Portugal, averaging a goal every other game at Sporting, van Wolfswinkel moved to Norwich for £8m, as Chris Hughton added a proven goalscorer to his ranks after hitting only 41 league goals last term. Has also notched almost 30 times back in his homeland with Utrecht. "The Wolf" could form a fruitful partnership with fellow new striker Gary Hooper.

HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF: Norwich have got themselves a goalscorer

The Return Of The Special One Will Signal A New Era For Blues

He's done it before and he'll do it again, that's what I think anyway, after Jose Mourinho's return home to Stamford Bridge, rejoining Chelsea.

It was back in 2004 when Mourinho first came to the attention of the world. That was of course, after he'd won the Champions League with FC Porto, defeating Manchester United along the way.

SLIDE OF SUCCESS: Mourinho's passion shines through

Turning up with his swagger and arrogance, there surely would have been murmurings of "Who does this bloke think he is?" when he first arrived in England.

However, the "Special One" soon showed his specialities. Bringing in bright talent from across the globe, the Chelsea charge, thanks to the millions of pounds distributed by Roman Abramomich, was only just beginning. Chelsea, Abramovich and Mourinho had changed the way football is today. It was just the start.

Of course, the "Galactico" era at Real Madrid was and still is highly talked about with the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo and Ronaldo all pulling on that famous all white kit during the same period. However, Chelsea took it to a new level.

The likes of Arjen Robben, Claude Makelele and Didier Drogba all arrived in west-London, all with big egos, but all had big talent.

                                                                               

Claude Makelele

Arjen Robben

Drogba, of course, was the hero in the Club's Champions League success in 2012, Makelele, during his time with Chelsea provided a new role for the world to talk about, taking defensive midfield to another stage in football positioning. Chelsea have never replaced him despite years of trying. Robben always had the talent and injuries played a part in his Blues career, but when you also have Real Madrid and Bayern Munich on your CV, you must be good.

These were three of many during Mourinho's first year as Blues boss, I haven't gone into detail about the rest such as Petr Cech and Ricardo Carvalho, for example, two more that played a huge part in Chelsea success.

Two Premier League titles, a couple of League Cups, a Community Shield, an FA Cup, and three years later, the Portuguese was gone. It was to prove a case of the old saying "you don't know what you have until it's gone".

BACK FOR MOUR: Jose will want success again

Chelsea didn't do too badly during his time away from Stamford Bridge, winning another league title in 2009/10 under Carlo Ancelotti, three more FA Cups, another Community Shield and consecutive successes in Europe with the Champions League, under Roberto Di Matteo, and then the Europa League, a year later, in 2013, under the guidance of the much maligned Rafa Benitez.

Elsewhere, Mourinho was still picking up trophies, winning the treble with Inter Milan, a first for any Italian club, a La Liga title, a Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup during his three year spell with Real Madrid. Ultimately, his tenure in Spain was never enjoyable despite his success, with Jose failing to get on with the Spanish press.

REIGN IN SPAIN: But Jose's time with Madrid  turned sour

The problem for Chelsea though was the amount of bosses Abramovich hired, and then fired since Mourinho's 2007 departure from the Bridge.

Avram Grant had a season in charge after taking over once Mourinho had left, current Brazil manager Luiz Felipe Scolari then had a go but was sacked after only 36 games. Even current Sky Sports pundit, Ray Wilkins had his turn for a solitary game, only for Guus Hiddink to fill in for the rest of that season until May 2009.

Ancelotti spent two years in charge, before Abramovich paid a world record £12 million for another Porto manager, this time Andre Villas-Boas, who was part of Mourinho's backroom staff during his first spell at Chelsea. He only lasted 40 games, before Di Matteo and, a year later, Benitez had his spell in charge. Phew, got all that?

THE EXIT'S THAT WAY: Abramovich has a record of sacking managers

In a way, it signals an end to Abramovich's experiment. He's taken managers almost on a trial basis before wielding the axe. The fact that the longest spell someone has had in charge being only two years shows the high pressure job involved.

Is it a case, with Pep Guardiola heading to Bayern Munich, Abramovich had just ran out of managers? Was there no-one else to turn to?

Mourinho will bring a number of top class individuals to the Club as he bids to bring the good times back to the Bridge after a time away.

What's not to like though? He'll brighten up the press conferences and there will be another horse in the title race for the foreseeable future if he has his way. 

Days in the Land of the Famous Galacticos

Last week, I joined forces with another 25 University students to go on a trip to the Spanish capital of Madrid,  in this post, I will reveal all of what went on whilst we were there, including my own photos and a snippet on the game we watched whilst we were out there; Real Madrid vs. Espanyol.


DAY 1 - Friday 2nd March 2012


A very early start with a departure time of 3.15am from Uni wasn't helped after a night out at Yates' Bar where every Thursday is a £1-a-pint night - A few were a little worse for wear but after boarding many fell asleep but not me, who was pretty much listening to some music the whole way to my home-town of Crawley, where Gatwick is located.  As those who know me will know, I do like to kick up a fuss about the location of Gatwick Airport;  I get riled every time I hear the words "London Gatwick" considering firstly, Gatwick isn't in London and, secondly, that Gatwick is situated about 30 miles from London! Anyway, rant over!


An hour and a bit later and we had arrived, a few were a little grouchy and complaining about the cold as I was standing there in shorts and they were rummaging for their coats.


As soon as the bags were put on the conveyor-belt thing we decided to hit the Flying Horse/McDonalds situated in the food court bit of the South Terminal.  Due to the drinking antics of the night before my mouth was as dry as a bone and I ended up grabbing and pretty much downing two large cokes.

7.25 we boarded the plane and it wasn't long until a few of the lads started to take advantage of James Hughes' fear of flying and comments such as "Did you see that swan go flying into the turbine", "Did you just see that bolt come off the wing" or "That doesn't sound too good" being passed around (I think deep down he loved it).

We arrived in Madrid a few hours later and jumped on the coach that took us to "Hostal Nuria", smack bang in the city centre.  Dropping the bags off it was soon back out the door as we boarded the Metro (Similar to the London Underground) and headed to the outskirts of Madrid to visit Real Madrid TV.  A 20 minute ride and we were greeted outside by Pablo Foley-Elias, one of the presenters of the TV station and went in.

It was interesting to see how big the set was for the station, when we were there something was being set up that looked similar to a Spanish version of Mock The Week or something like that.

After a 40 minute or so tour around the facilities most of the lads seemed to be infatuated by the female presenter, Kay Murray for around 5 or 10 minutes before we departed for the Metro, bringing Pablo with us as he lived just down the road from where we were staying.

A few hours of doing nothing ensued before a quick nap turned into a full on 13 hour sleep.

DAY 2 - Saturday 3rd March 2012

Day 2 was pencilled in as the stadium tour of the Santiago Bernabeu.  Being someone who has pretty much visited little non-league grounds for the last 14 years of watching Crawley I was expecting a few more of the average 4,000 capacity stadiums that I ave been in over the years so was looking forward to what Real Madrid had to throw at me.

After a quick shower I donned my Crawley shirt (Got to be done hasn't it?!) and headed downstairs to the dining area but, to my disappointment there was no black pudding, eggs, bacon etc and, instead was just two rolls on a plate with a coating of sugar on top along with a few sachets of jam and butter.

We quickly bundled onto the Metro and escaped it as the train stopped at the "Santiago Bernabeu" station.  A flight of stairs later and there it was; an 85,000 all-seater stadium starring back at us.

A few pictures and a queue for tour tickets and we took the winding steps and the odd escalator up to the top of one of the stands to be greeted by a great view of the stadium.

IMPRESSIVE: Santiago Bernabeu

Next was the museum part of the tour where there were old shirts from players of yesteryear such as Pele, Bobby Chalton and Ferenc Puskas, Raul's first ever pair of boots, the players footwear from last season, an abundance of replica trophies that Madrid have won during their long and distinguished history including the "real" Copa del Rey trophy that the team won last season.

Raul probably scored a few in these

After this, the tour continued towards the dugouts, the tunnel, the changing rooms and the press conference room before finally coming to an end in the club shop.  It was an excellent tour and a real opener to how much history Real Madrid has; for someone of my age, the start of Real Madrid's success earlier in my life was that of the Galacticos era with players such as Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Fernando Hierro, Ronaldo, Raul etc so to look around and notice other players such as Puskas and Alfredo Di Stefano.

PUSKAS: Knew Where The Net Was

As soon as this finished then the rest of the day was yours, about 7 of us decided to give TGIs a go with it being just around the corner.  Had a "Cheesy Bacon Cheeseburger" and a beer served by the lovely waitress Maria.

CHEESY BACON CHEESEBURGER: I recommend it!

We made it back at about 4pm Spanish time which meant there was enough time to find a bar with Jeff Stelling and wait for Crawley to hammer play Torquay.  Unfortunately for me, despite Jeff leading me on to believe we had scored by saying something like "Crawley... sold all of their goalscorers and without a win in 4..."  I was here expecting him to shout "Have scored!..." or something along those lines but instead told the world about Eunan O'Kane making it 1-0 to the visitors - I wasn't happy but it made good viewing for the rest of the boys around me.


The rest of the night was pretty uneventful apart from me and a mate not bringing ID out with us as we were planning to go to a club with the rest of the group.  On the way back from the club he was pick-pocketed but, after a 15-20 second grapple he got it back as  was making sure the other Spaniard wasn't going to do anything silly - No biggy!


DAY 3 - Sunday 4th March 2012


This was game day but with the kick off time being 21.30 it meant that until the departure time of 19.00 we could do what we liked for a few hours.  Me and a couple of others popped across the road to a Starbucks and pretty much lounged around for a few hours before departing, once more for the Bernabeu.


As we walked up the steps in the Metro you could already feel the atmosphere; the Madrid fans were singing as we saw the Bernabeu at night all lit up - It looked fantastic.

Onto the game and it wasn't long until Madrid scored; 1 minute in Cristiano Ronaldo had the ball in the net just in front of us but was adjudged to be offside.


He didn't have to wait long though as he was sent clear and tucked the ball past their 'keeper for 1-0 to Real.


They got the second about 20 minutes later as Sami Khedira finished off an impressive one touch move by a number of Madridistas before putting his side 2-0 up at half time.


Gonzalo Higuain netted the clincher a minute after half time and grabbed his second soon after with two good finishes.


Ronaldo, Mesut Ozil and Xabi Alonso all had chances to add to the goal tally before Kaka  went on a mazy run before tucking the ball into the corner of the net for a 5-0 Real win.


Best player on the pitch? Kaka, by a country mile - Assisted 2 and scored 1.  If he has "lost it", as some people say he has then God knows just how good he was when he "had it"!

Back on the Metro we headed straight for a McDonalds before having an early-ish night.


Day 4 - Monday 5th March 2012


The final day in Madrid was a hectic one.  We had to check out of the Hostal at 10am but were allowed to put our bags in a room upstairs.


We then got on the Metro once more for a trip to the well-known Spanish newspaper Marca which took longer than usual because our tour guide, Jessica didn't speak a word on English and we instead had an interpreter which wasn't too bad!

After a 40 minute or so look around Marca we were told to do what we liked as long as we met back at the Hostal at 6pm.


So back on the Metro we went, back to the Bernabeu and back to TGIs, hoping to get one last glimpse of Maria - It wasn't to be but the food was excellent - 13 Euros for a three course meal and unlimited cokes - Can't complain!

MARCA: A good read!

On the way back to the Hostal we had a couple of Desperados in a local bar before heading back and jumping on the coach heading for the airport.

It didn't take long, and after checking in and getting all of that boring stuff out of the way we were on the plane .


I was playing Football Manager 2012 on James' iPad on the flight back to Gatwick and the coach back to Southampton as I was getting sacked at Crawley and taking over the managerial reigns at Hayes and Yeading      


And that was that!  Ended up getting back to Southampton at around 1am!