FRIDAYSEPTEMBER 6

2013

YABA6

RAHUL BOSE19

DAVID FROST27

VOL 1 ISSU E 20

WEEKEND TRIBUNE FRI DAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

24 GAME ON EuropEan TransfEr MarkET

You’re in, you’re out!Sheikh Mohammed Irfan summarises the exhilarating details of the transfer market

The football transfer season has finally come to an end, and a few of our predictions were confirmed.

Clubs across Europe invested heavily during the summer transfer window. Not only did the world witness some exciting transfer battles, but the footballing world has undergone a paradigm shift. It all started in the beginning of July, and the action was nothing short of a soap opera.

Let’s begin with who was hot and who was cold this season. Our predictions nailed the most exhilarating players in the transfer market. The Gareth Bale saga has left the English Premier League and English media exhausted, and he finally secured his move to Real Madrid for €91m

(Tk9.34bn). This eclipsed the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to the Galacticos, the previous world record deal.

The beneficiary club, Tottenham Hotspur, made maximum utilisation of profits from the sale of Bale and invested €121.9m (Tk12.6bn) on some of the most promising stars of Europe, including Christian Eriksen, Erik Lamela, Etienne Capoue, Nacer Chadli, Roberto Soldado and Paulinho. However, Spurs were left reeling after the Bale saga, as it triggered Madrid to sell Mesut Ozil to their local rivals Arsenal, a move that’s being considered one of the biggest coups of this transfer window. Arsenal finally broke their banks to secure their biggest signing, for a whopping €50m (Tk5.61bn). This transfer was more of a pacifier for many disgruntled Gunners fans, who were left frustrated over the club’s previous failed transfer attempts – most notably to lure Luis Suarez from Liverpool, Wayne Rooney from Manchester United, and Gonzalo Higuain from Real Madrid.

Speaking of Higuain, the Argentinian superstar made his own special move to SSC Napoli for €39m (Tk4.03bn) as part of the restructuring at Stadio San Paolo by their new coach Rafael Benitez.

Their new project includes a reunion of Pepe Reina with his former boss from Liverpool, and signings of Raul Albiol and Jose Maria Callejon from Real Madrid, among others.

These moves were without doubt fuelled by the departure of Edinson Cavani to Paris St Germain for €64m (Tk6.61bn), a Ligue1 record, as French clubs AS Monaco and PSG went neck-and-neck during the transfer season. This massive spending on players is something completely new for the French, who have offloaded their biggest stars for decades. In fact, the change was so extreme that these two clubs invested a total of €277m (Tk28.6bn) during the summer.

The financial injections by rich

billionaires have truly transformed Ligue1 into a battlefield of superstars. AS Monaco led the way throughout the transfer season by signing in players like Radamel Falcao for €60m (Tk6.2bn), James Rodriguez for €45m (Tk4.65bn) and Joao Moutinho for €25m (Tk2.58bn).

In Italy, Juventus and Milan made some solid signings this season. Juventus nabbed Carlos Tevez from Manchester City, Fernando Llorente from Athletic Bilbao and Angelo

Ogbonna from Torino. Milan ensured the return of their prodigal son, Kaka. All these deals were carefully calculated and highly selective. Therefore, some of the best players went to Italy without bank breaking transfers.

The same cannot be said for Germany, whose rise continues. Due to their recent position at the pedestal of Europe, some of the most promising players chose to move to Germany. Borussia Dortmund signed players like

Pierre Emerick Aubameyang from AS St Etienne, Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Shaktar Donetsk and Sokratis from Werder Bremen. Bayern, with their new coach Pep Guardiola, have signed rising stars such as Thiago Alcantra from Barcelona and Mario Gotze from Dortmund. Schalke, on the other hand, signed Kevin Prince Boateng from Milan, raising jibes from local rivals Dortmund. That wasn’t the only controversy surrounding Dortmund. When Gotze’s arrival to Bayern was confirmed before the Champions League Final, their fans were left fuming.

Overall, this year’s transfer activity saw clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City sidelined by the more vigorous saga of transfers from newer competitors. Even so, the English giants still managed to sign some great players with fairly quiet but astute moves. The biggest loser of this season was none other than Manchester United, who were eventually able to buy Marouane Fellaini for €32.5m (Tk3.35bn) from David Moyes’s old club, Everton. The Red Devils were not ready to give in to such a price, but their failure at other transfers forced them to eventually make this signing. On the other hand, Barcelona fought a tug of war with Real Madrid and procured Neymar.

Consequently, money and prestige weren’t the only elements involved in this year’s transfer market, which experienced an entirely new development that ensured the competitiveness of football remained alive even outside the field. So watch out for this season, as the national and continental leagues kick off for another fascinating season of football. n

Fact boxTop 10 clubs by expenditure 2013/14Number Club Gross Outlay1 Real Madrid €181.5m2 Monaco €166.2m3 Tottenham €121.9m4 Man City €116m5 PSG €110.9m6 Napoli €87m7 Chelsea €77.9m8 Barcelona €70m9 Dinamo Moscow €67.9m10 Shakhtar Donetsk €67m€1 = Tk103.2

Sheikh Mohammed Irfan is a pragmatist,

bringing spotlight to the persistent

problems in Bangladesh

Everton can confirm that it

has received bids from Manchester

United for two players. Those bids were immediately

rejected out of hand as derisory

and insultingEverton Football

Club

Photos: AFP

Part 2

WEEKEND TRIBUNE FRI DAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

25Curzon hallTHE WAY DHAKA WASBangladesh O

ld Photo ArchiveSyed Zakir H

ossain/Dhaka Tribune

I was never a student of Dhaka University, but my

older sister was. I remember when I used to accompany her to the campus, Curzon

Hall was always my favourite. The whole area is just steeped

with so much history, but what really used to strike

me even back then was the architecture behind it. It just reminded me so much of the

Mughal architecture that I read about in books. Makes

me really regret not spending study hours in this glorious

building

Sadia Sharmin, 47, Tongi resident

Today

1944