Makin' it Rain in the EPL

photo by goldenrail	via PhotoRee

Random thoughts on transfer activity and more, from the blog's muse, Ed.  He's always interesting, if not too accurate in his assessments:

• What to make of Spurs four-nil loss to the Cottagers in the FA Cup?  Nothing.  It’s the FA cup and Spurs needed out.

• Would have liked to see Dempsey get out of Fulham if for no other reason than a change might be fun for him and for fans.

• Spurs £35MM for Guiseppe Rossi wasn’t accepted.  Wish they could’ve gotten in the mix for Carroll.  They could have unloaded Crouch and Pav for something – maybe enough to make up for the cost.

• Charlie Adam would have been good for Liverpool.  He might have been better for Spurs.  Where, you ask?   How about where Wilson Palacios plays?  Those cross field passes to Bale and Lennon would make Spurs tough to stop.  And to hear it was missed by minutes.  What could have been . . . . .

• Adam in Blackpool means the Tangerines still have a shot to stay in the EPL.  But they still need some players.  Too bad they don’t have any money.

• Adam in Chelsea?  Hey, Lampard isn’t getting any younger, and someone with his passing ability might have been a good thing for the Blues.  At least they’d be more fun to watch.

• Nice to see Michael Bradley’s bald head is now at Villa.  He was a player at the World Cup, now we get to see if he can do it in the EPL.  I say he can.  It won’t hurt to have speed on the outside in Agbanlahor and a finisher up top like Bent.  Also nice to see the Villans trying to compete again.  I’m putting them back on my list of teams to watch.

• Pienaar (hah!) to Spurs created a lot of whiny groans of “Whyeeey????”  Well, with Bale out and so many games in front of them they needed another quality midfielder.  What’s better is that he chose Spurs over Chelsea because of their attacking style of play.  I wish the whole EPL would take notice.

• Sturridge to Bolton is a good move for both sides.  Not exciting; just good.

• Carroll to Liverpool?  With Suarez?  Well, that should add some thunder.  The nice part about Carroll is he’s a big and fast, meaning that he might be a more consistent threat than Torres has been.  But hey, I just lost the only reason I had to watch Newcastle, which is too bad I think.

• £58.5MM for Torres for Chelsea.  Hey, don’t they already have a striker named Drogba?  Chelsea’s problem, by the way, isn’t at striker, it’s in the middle with Lampard, Essian, Mikel and Ramires all playing below their abilities.  They should have spent the £14MM for Adam – he would have made more of an impact.  

• Oh, and Chelsea also added David Luiz for the defense for a mere £24MM, a move I like, putting their total expenditures at about £80-something million pounds.   That's walkin’ around money for farlieonfootie.  If you’ve ever seen the boss-man himself “makin’ it rain” at the clubs on South Beach you’d know what I mean, dog.

• Stephen Ireland to Newscastle is interesting.  Still shocking how he went from the player of the year at City to someone that can’t find the field.  Ireland’s always had some issues it seems, but it would be nice to see him get back to the stylish play he used to bring to the pitch.  Newcastle is nice, though Blackpool would have been a better fit, don’t you think?

• Too bad that Fabio Capello doesn’t feel he could break his promise to the England FA and leave for Juventus.  When is England going to start finding a British coach for their teams?  I know one that would be perfect:  Ian Holloway.  It would be worth the press conferences alone. 

• Speaking of Holloway, his signing of James Beattie from Rangers is a good move to add a more experience striker (maybe one that can be in the rights spot more often), and hopefully Sergei Kornilenko is as good as advertised.  I also like the pick of Andy Reid from Sunderland – watch to see his game expand at Bloomfield Road.  This lets Holloway sit Vaughan or Adam from time to time.  But hey, how about a few more backs? 

• Looking forward to the run to the finish.  Spoiler alert: here’s how it ends:  1. City; 2. United; 3. Arsenal; 4. Spurs;  5. Chelsea; 6. Liverpool; 15. Blackpool lives to fight another day.

This is farlieonfootie for February 2.