Chantome Out, Camacho In

By: Daryl | January 28th, 2009

I’ve had a busy summer.

Outs:

Just one big one… Clement Chantome is gone, baby, gone. Signed for £12m last summer and one disappointing season later I’ve sold him to Valencia for £15m. How did that happen? Not sure. But I think it has something to do with France winning the World Cup and Chantome being in the squad (even though he spent the whole tournament on the bench). Either way, I took Valencia’s money and ran away laughing. Suckers.

Here’s how I spent it:

The board gave me £18m to spend, and the was before the Chantome sale. So was feeling pretty flush

Ins:

Ignacio Camacho £17.25m
Obviously this was my big purchase. Yes, he was expensive. But look at those stats momma. Hopefully Camacho will be the player Chantome was supposed to be. Solid defensive mid with an eye for a pass.

Andrei Arshavin £5.75m
This could turn out to be a mistake. But I’ve always wanted to work with the lad, and Man City were willing to sell cheap. No idea what Mark Hughes is up to, but he just spent £19.5m on Aiden McGeady.

George Wijnaldum free
Very excited about this young man.

Rodney Sneijder £875k
Yep, Wesley’s brother. Another Dutch youngster. Lacking in pace, but has plenty of skills.

Matts Hummels free
Big German defender that Bayern no longer wanted. Looks the business, but broke his leg in pre-season.

Stephane Friedrich free
Hummel’s former teammate at Bayern, so signed him just to keep Hummels company. What Friedrich doesn’t know is that I’m going to break his leg too – Misery style – to make sure he and Hummels share the same experience.

Dwayne Miller 700k
Needed a backup for Shay Given, and Miller seemed like the guy. Plus he makes a mean jerk sauce.

Per Ciljan Skjelbred £2.5m
Norwegian mid signed on deadline day. To be honest I’m not 100% keen. But Chris Hughton kept saying our midfield looked weak and David Appleton gave Skjelbred such a glowing recommendation in the comments here that I though he was worth a gamble for £2.5m. Will give him a go and see what happens.

I’m already regretting this little spending spree to be honest. I’ve put faith in Marquinhos and Arshavin to get me some goals alongside The Pog and Lewandowski, but starting to think they’re not really the 20 a season type and I might have been better off buying one expensive striker instead.