Roman Abramovich and John Henry win fan Support

Inspired by Phil McNulty’s blog on Friday about the Fernando Torres transfer being a test for the owners of both Chelsea and Liverpool (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/philmcnulty/2011/01/torres_transfer_will_tell_us_m.html), I decided to write one about how both owners come out in good light following the transfer deadline day dealings.

Despite being known for their free spending in the early days of the Roman Abramovich era, Chelsea’s purse strings have been kind of tight with no big names been seen since Nicolas Anelka arrived in January 2008. More so Chelsea lost out on both Daniel Alves and Rohinho by just a little bit in recent summers, while looked to be priced out of a move for David Luiz, a much needed defensive reinforcement.

Chelsea had a stunning season last year winning the Premiership and FA Cup double in Carlo Ancelotti’s first season. And following a magical start (including back to back 6-0 wins at the start of the season), the season started crumbling following the defeat against Liverpool (ironically with Fernando Torres scoring both goals) and the sacking of Ray Willkins. The blues went from league favorites to champions league hopefuls. Signing just Yossi Benayoun (who’s been injured since September) and Ramires (who’s just starting to find his feet) to replace Micahel Ballack, Joe Cole, Deco and Ricardo Carvalho certainly was not enough. Not to mention most of the squad is over 30 and key players like John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba have been injured and out of form.

Over in the north, John Henry and New England Sport Ventures had just taken over England’s most successful club following a desastrous spell under George Gillette and Tom Hicks - which lead to massive debts and the resignation of much loved Rafa Benitez due to lack of funds. Sure they brought in Torres to being with soon after taking over, but they were also the ones who sold Javier Marsherano and Xabi Alonso without really replacing them. The growing debts and broken promises of a new stadium make them very unpopular among the Kop.

Following a dismal season where they just about managed to qualify for the Europa League, finishing in 7th place. In came NESV, owners of Boston Red Sox, and soon new manager Roy Hogdson lost his job with Liverpool even below the likes of Sunderland and Blackpool in the league.

Neither club were having a good season, and both needed reinforcements. With 4/5th of January over both sets of owners, one to win over its new fans and the other to convince his fans that he still cared about the club, needed to sign players, and do so fast. Didn’t look like happening with Benfica claiming a deal for David Luiz was off due to failure to agree a fee, while Ajax gave Liverpool and ultimatum for Luis Suarez.

But on Friday everything changed. With the reds running out of time on the Uruguayan, they doubled their 12.8 million offer and agreed a club record 22 million deal for the contraversial striker. But their joy was short lived with local hero Fernando Torres, who was subject to a rejected 25 million bid earlier in the week, handed in a transfer request.

Intent for both owners. Abramovich showing he still wants the best at Stamford Bridge, but John Henry needed to show the power to resist temptation in order to win the support of his new faithful. Seemed like only one could win.

With Fernando Torres’s transfer seeming imminent for a massive 50 million pounds, and rumors of a settlement for David Luiz, Roman Abramovich had done his part. He spent 71 million, almost more than his last three summers put together. The Chelsea faithful seemed happy with the Russian once again.

It was now Henry’s move. He realized one thing that most owners don’t - fans want players not money. Having already brought back fan favorite Kenny Dalglish as manager, Henry and NESV had to spend the 50 million as quickly as they got it. And they did just that.

For starters they refused to sanction the Spaniard's transfer until they had a replacement. And then they shocked the world with a 35 million transfer for young England striker Andy Carrol. Once that was confirmed they were happy to let Torres go. And even then tried to spend the remaining money on acquiring Charlie Adam, who’s transfer only failed because of a row between him and his chairman at Blackpool. Rumors of a move for Aston Villa’s dazzling winger Ashley Young was also on the cards, but nothing materialized there.

On a day when it seemed like only one owner could please their fans, John Henry did brilliantly to win over the Anfield faithful. Having signed Luis Suarez and Andy Carrol, and showed a lot of intent with trying to get Charlie Adam, he ensured that the only looser on the day was Mike Ashley. And since the time he’s bought Newcastle United his decision making has been so poor, that you almost want to believe that he invented the self demolish button himself!

Nothing really ever happens in the January window. Yeah right!

People, me included, often saw the January transfer window as a waste of time, maybe sign in a small player or two to cover up injuries but that was about it. Nothing exciting ever happened. Jose Mourinho even once said he doesn't even count it as a transfer window. But all that changed today in England. I even lost count how many times the British record transfer was broken (none if you count exits though, Cristiano Ronaldo still holds that).

When Edin Djeko and Darren Bent signed for Manchester City and Aston Villa, everyone was already surprised at a high spending window and thought this was it. Two big money moves were already huge considering that the previous big moves were Jose Reyes to Arsenal and Nicolas Anelka to Chelsea. Players continued to be linked (David Luiz to Chelsea, Luis Suarez to Liverpool, every striker in Europe to Spurs) and adding a third big money move to this window would have made it a historical one.

Then the unexpected happen. Chelsea's failed bid for Fernando Torres led to the spaniard handing in a transfer request - 4 days before the window closed shut. And then the drama began!

Few hours before Torres handed in a transfer request, Liverpool had tied up a club record deal with Ajax for Luis Suarez. A quiet weekend on the transfer front turned out to be the calm before the storm in what can only be described as the most historic winter deadline day ever!

Fernando Torres was keen to leave, and for the first time in a few years, Roman Abramovich was keen to spend. Having lost the deal to sign brazilian defender David Luiz just a couple of days ago, Chelsea were in for one hell of a transfer deadline day.

Then came the day - January 31, 2011. Seems like everybody had left business for today. With the media confident Chelsea would make another move for Torres, the media braced themselves for a long day. While rumors had it that a £50million pound fee was agreed, Liverpool refused to confirm it till they found a replacement.

And then the news broke - Liverpool bid a staggering £35 million for Newcastle United's Andy Carrol (Darren Bent's fee doesn't sound so bad now does it), a player with just 6 months and 11 goals in the Premiership. With the Torres and Carrol moves resting in Mike Ashley's hand, the England under-21 striker was forced to hand in a transfer request. And then the merry go round began.

However record signings for both Chelsea and liverpool were not enough. The londoner's continued their chase for David Luiz, who's club Benfica suddenly seemed willing to do business again while the reds chased targets Charlie Adam and Aston Villa's Ashley Young.

Rumors of Sabastian Larsson to Manchester city and Diego Forlan and Gusippe Rossi to Tottemham also started to float around. But Adam, who's wanted to leave Blackpool all month, was leading the headlines. A rumor of a £10million bid from Manchester united seemed to make worry Liverpool and John Henry, and it looked like they wound spend the Torres money faster than it came in by offering £14million on their own.

Back to Luiz who seemed to be set to board Roman Abramovich's private plane to London was stopped last minute with Benfica claiming they were still considering chelsea's offer. High drama with less than 2 hours to go.

Charlie Adam hit the self district button when he had a war of words with his chairman who refused to let him leave the club as a result. On the topic of revenge, Tottenham, who were chasing Carrol all season, revealed that they had a last minute bid for Adam accepted but it was too little too late in terms of time and couldn't get the paperwork through.

David Luiz's stop turned out to be nothing more than an effort to beat the deadline with his contract signing and medical taking place in Lisbon rather than london.

So a deadline day with high drama - Chelsea & Liverpool signing their record signing, and the most expensive incoming transfer to an English club broken twice in a day! The last time it was broken in the same window was when Stan Collymore signed for Liverpool for a million pounds more than Dennis Bergkamp's move to Arsenal in June 1995.

A record amount of money spent for a January transfer window. No less than 6 player costing more than £20 million - a record that would make most summer windows proud! A day when Liverpool's website had so much traffic that they had to shut it down due to overload and come back with just a simple announcement's page. So who ever said that winter transfer markets are boring?

PS: Some of the other transfers concluded today include Michael Bradley to Aston Villa, Eidur Gudjohnsen to Fulham, Daniel Sturrage to Bolton and Stephen Ireland to Newcastle all on loan while Tuncay signed for Steve McLaren's Wolfberg.

Why bother having a window, we should just have a transfer day!

What Can We Expect From Real Madrid in 2011?

Will 2011 finally be the year when Real Madrid win the elusive 10th Uefa champions league title? Will the 2 year dominance by arch rivals FC Barcelona which has left the club trophy less for the last 2 years finally come to an end? Or will it just be another disappointment for president Florentino Perez and the fans?

Saying that expectations are always high at the Santiago Bernabeau is like saying that the aim in football is to score more goals than their rivals - unnecessary and obvious! But still none the less expectations are high, and why not. Other than a horrific 5-0 loss at the camp nou, Real Madrid have been in stunning form this season. Second in the league, through to the last 16 in the champions league and all but set for the semi final of the copa del ray after a magnificent 8-0 win in the first leg over lavente.

Another major reason for the high expectations has to be the appointment of the special one. Jose Mourinho, who rated this year as a 11/10 after winning the treble with former club Inter Milan earlier in the season, comes to Real Madrid having won every competition he has ever taken part in as a manager. Add to that the fact that he hasn't lost a home game since 2002, the that he has won the league in three countries and his incredible record in the champions league - which he has won twice and made the semi final on two other occasions.

So with expectations as high as ever - or probably even higher with Jose Mourinho and the massive investments in excess of €300 million over the last two years - what can we expect from Real Madrid in 2011.

Let's start with the transfer market. Its a well known fact that Florentino Perez is not a fan of January signings, although in the last few years Real have made some key signings like Gonzalo Higuain, Marcelo and Lassana Diarra in January. And with Mourinho demanding a striker, it would be foolish to bet against another signing in the winter market.

The special one was not thrilled starting the season with just 2 center forwards, specially when he did not have much faith in one of them, a certain Karim Benzema. When Gonzalo Higuain injured his back, Mourinho's worst fear came true. The French forward has been in poor form since making the switch to la liga, and was clearly not in the manager's first team plans at the start of the season. Jose has been asking for a new striker ever since, and despite Benzema getting two hat rics in 3 games against Auroxe in the champions league and Lavente in the cup, he was quite poor in the match in between against Sevilla. And could the stories have been written any better with Manchester City's Carlos Tevez claiming he wants to leave the east lands! Although it is highly unlikely that Tevez will make the move to Madrid, it seems almost certain that mourinho will get himself a smaller name striker.

On the topic of expensive signings trying to prove themselves, another one set to face the test is Kaka. A much fancied signing when he arrived smashing the 8 year long transfer record set by the club by signing Zinedine Zidane. Just like his transfer record, the hype behind the signing was also short-lived with a below par debut season rocked by injuries. A long term knee operation left the 28 year old former world player of the year out till the new year, but now that period has ended and he is set to return. Some have a lot of hope with the return of the Brazilian, while many others are questioning where exactly he would fit in the current Real Madrid team.

With the current set of midfielders doing so well - specially the man filling in for Kaka, a certain Mesut Özil who arrived from Werder Bremen after a fantastic showing at the world cup in South Africa - there are calls for that same team to continue. Another option could be using Argentine winger Angel di Maria as a super sub while pushing Özil out wide. Cristiano Ronaldo could also play up top which would make up for the missing Gonzalo Higuain in the meantime if Benzema doesn't show his Auruxe / Lavente form. But either way, the return of Kaka is surely likely to boost the team. And specially with Xabi Alonso being in the form of his life, the two have the potential to be devastating with their distribution of the ball.

The defense is surprisingly superb at Real Madrid this season. New signing Ricardo Carvalho was voted as the best signing in la liga this season, while defensive parter Pepe has been amazing ever since his big money move from FC Porto. Full back Sergio Ramos has shown why the club were right to not sign Maicon and is arguably the best right back in the world right now and brazilian Marcelo has done very well at the other side of the defense. Alvaro Arbeloa and Raul Albiol, both fresh world cup winners, are providing wonderful back ups for the starting back 4. Let's not forget Sami Khadera and Lassana Darra who are giving the coach the right kind of selection headache and deep lying playmaker Xabi Alonso being the central man of the side.

One thing we are likely to see from this side in 2011 is squad rotation. Jose Mourinho has been reluctant to change his first 11 who he trusts very much through the first have of the season. But if Real are to progress further ahead in their various competitions, we will have to see Esteban Granero, Pedro Leon, Fernando Gago and Eziquel Garay more often that we did the opening half of the season.

Having not made it beyond the last 16 of the champions league in the last 6 years, Jose Mourinho's been will come all out blazing in their tie against Lyon - a team that has knocked Real out for 2 of those 6 times. 9 managers have come and gone since they last won the champions league in 2002, and Mourinho, who's already won it with two different teams will be looking to set that record straight.

The league doesn't look impossible either, being just 2 points behind Barcelona at this stage of the season. Although the catalans don't look like dropping points anywhere at the moment, one cannot rule out the side from the capital either who under Manuel Pellegrini knocked up 96 league points and over a century of goals in the last season.

We can be sure that this well settled side will be blazing on all fronts in every game that they play. And with the team still very much alive in all competition, fans have a lot to look forward to in 2011. And one of the biggest differences this season is that Mourinho has finally made Real Madrid the team that everybody fears once again.

Real Madrid Team of the Decade

Everywhere you look people seem to be making their team of the decade, and with the decade coming to an end that makes perfect sense. So I listed down my Real madrid team of the last 10 years.

Goalkeeper: Iker Casillias

A fairly obvious choice. Any keeper who's being an undisputed starter for the last 10 years will make the team of the decade. Currently captain of both club and country, Casillias has saved the club on countless occasions specially with an awful defense ahead of him during a major part of the middle of the decade. Certainly one of the club's most valuable assets.

Right Back: Sergio Ramos

This was a tough one considering the years of service Michael Solgado has put in and also considering that Ramos only shifted to his right back role in 2007. But if you look at his performances since his move from Sevilla in 2005, one cannot argue that he is fully deserving of a place in the team of the decade. And at only 24 years of age, the vice captain has many years of service still left for the blancos.

Left Back: Roberto Carlos

Argubially the best left back of all time, Roberto Carlos spent a large part of his career in the capital of Spain. Seldom only did he put in a below par performance and never did he come not the pitch and not give his all. Blistering pace and cracking free kicks made him one of the most feared players in the world and was the club's longest serving foreign player of all time when he left in 2007.

Center Back: Fernando Hierro

Left the club in 2003, but was the backbone of the side until he did. The club were at their best at the start of the decade winning the champions league and the league twice, and Hierro was at the back of the defense of that team the entire time. Scored a fair share of goals for the team, both from headers as well as from the penalty spot.

Center Back: Pepe

The Brazilian born Portuguese arrived from FC Porto in the summer of 2007 and has been Mr Consistent ever since. A major factor in fixing the Real Madrid defense, Pepe has been a key to this side ever since he has signed for the team.

Defensive Midfield: Claude Makelele

The best defensive midfielder of all time and probably the decade's biggest mistake was selling him to Chelsea in 2003. The departure of the Frenchman saw the team's move from good to awful virtually overnight and led to a three season trophy less barren run. Sold to help pay the wages for David Beckham, this proved to be one of the worst moves by the team in the recent past - probably only comparable to not fighting hard enough to re sign Samuel Eto'o.

Attacking Midfield: Luis Figo

One of the most controversial signings of the time, we all know about how Real signed him from a arch rivals Barcelona for a world record fee. Comparable in today's day to Lionel Messi joining Madrid or Cristiano Ronaldo going to Barcelona, the Portuguese winger did not disappoint. Pig's heads apart, Figo showed a lot of class and versatility for Madrid where he won 2 league titles and 2 champions leagues before leaving for Inter Milan in 2005.

Attacking Midfield: David Beckham

Came as the final piece of the galactico jigsaw. Jose Angel Sanchez told president Florentino Perez that "United want peanuts for Beckham" when they quoted €25 million for a man who went on to make the club and excess of €400 million in his 4 years at the club. but revenues apart, Beckham always delivered where it mattered the most - on the pitch. And his professionalism when told by Fabio Capello that he would never play for the club again was testament to a wonderful player who later went onto playing a major part in the club's 30th league title.

Attacking Midfield: Zinedine Zidane

No team, be it for the decade or all time, is complete without Zinedine Zidane. The world's most expensive player for 8 years, the Frenchman was a true genius on the pitch. His breathtaking goal in the 2002 UEFA Champions League final was just a piece of what he could do, and he was just superb in his 5 seasons at the Bernabeau.

Forward: Ronaldo

One of the best strikers of the decade. Despite his bad knee keeping him out for many many months, even years actually, the Brazilian still managed an excess of 350 goals in his career. He spent a major part of it at Real Madrid finishing top scorer for the club in all his full seasons at the team. Ronaldo found it hard not to score when he was on the field and his four and a half years at the club will certainly not be forgotten by any fan

Striker: Raul

This was a hard one, and I was almost tending towards Ruud van Nistelrooy over Raul for this one due to his inconsistency between 2005-2007, but the club's all time top scorer cannot not be in this team. A brilliant start to the decade and two consecutive seasons of 18 league goals each sandwiched a large poor run of form and goals for about 3 seasons. But finally the champions league and club's all time top scorer had to make this team

Substitutes:

Fabio Cannavaro
Michel Solgado
Cristiano Ronaldo
Ruud van Nistelrooy
Gonzalo Higuain
Robinho

Player of the decade: Iker Casillias
Signing of the decade: Zinedine Zidane
Worst player of the decade: Pablo Garcia
Worst decision of the decade: Sacking Vincent del Bosque
Manager of the decade: Vincent del Bosque
Rival of the decade: FC Barcelona
Disappointment of the decade: Watching FC Barcelona winning the treble
Achievement of the decade: 9th Champions League and dramatic 30th league title
Idiot of the decade: Ramon Colderon
Professional of the decade: David Beckham
Worst professional of the decade: Antonio Cassano
Moment of the decade: Guard of honor from Barcelona before beating them 4-1