» The Gooner World

On the other side of the closing window, there would have been guardian angels, guiding football players and angels on their lofty quest to extract the penny from the club before signing on the dotted line, to establish an allegiance with a new club-not for the love- but for the money.

This summer has seen curtailed transfer spending from most of England, London has been pretty frugal if you exclude Spurs, while in the North East, Manchester City went bonkers. They were the race car-like a Ferrari or should we say Red Bull- while the rest have been like the erstwhile Minardi's.

Spain, much to the irritation of every pundit with a cockney accent, have spent the most. It could be argued that Madrid's spending can be compared to Citeh while the rest have pretty much been content enough to develop their squad. Barcelona have spent more than a 100 Million quid themselves, Sevilla have snapped up Alvara Negredo, a very promising Spanish striker. Valencia and Atletico have managed to keep hold of their stellar men, undoubtedly the best bits of business done by them, while the rest have pretty much been shopping at any place which does not sound like HARRODS.

Arsenal created quite a stir after declaring an interest in re-signing their former captain Patrick Vieira, but much to the consternation of the romance writers, the Frenchman decided to stay at Inter. Thomas Vermaelen, the only notable addition for the Men in Red, is looking like a great addition and many have already labelled him as CHOTTA VIDIC (small Vidic).

But as far as i'm concerned, the best bit of business we have done-or not done- is the absence of not doing a deal with FC Barcelona over a certain MR Cesc Fabregas. Many people-me included- think his departure to the Nou Camp is a foregone conclusion, but the more years we keep him, the chances of us winning some silver will keep getting stronger.

Man United look like a school bound child without the school bag after C. Ronaldo's world record transfer to Real Madrid. The United mid-field were looking impotent against Arsenal-so impotent that Almunia and Diaby decided to give them a helping hand alongwith Mike Dean. With Valencia looking likely to put more hours in a gym than on the football pitch, they could have huge problems come the business end of the season. Their fortunes, however, will only be written of by a blind man. They are slow starters and are more likely than any other team to win an endurance test-which the 38 game long BPL is.

Liverpool have sold Alonso and got in G. Johnson, who has arguably has had the biggest transfer impact so far among all the English clubs, along with Alonso's replacement Aquilani. Sadly, the Italian punters will have to wait till October to see the Italian in action.

Portsmouth were a circus; First, there was a fire sale and then there were auction style buys on the final day of the window.

From an Arsenal point of view, we were always living in a surrealistic world hoping for the return of Vieira. At least, this time next week, we can herald the return of Mozart- no, not that Mozart, I meant Tomas Rosicky, who has finally washed all the plagues in his body.