Wigan Sign Bramble, Will Go Down
In what can only be seen as some sort of obscene joke, Wigan will disgrace the Premiership next season by naming a Laurel & Hardy-like line up including Titus Bramble and Emile Heskey. New manager Chris Hutchings has, surely, only turned to the ex-Newcastle man after failing with bids for every other player in the world, including this correspondent.
This was a problem for Wigan that The Late Flag saw coming, and predicted in earlier posts. Whilst it’s all well and good for Dave Whelan to pledge £20m to strengthen the squad, the free transfer capture of the worst defender in the Premiership proves how few players actually want to sign for Wigan and get beat week-in, week-out, in front of about 15,000 rugby fans. A look at their ins and outs from last summer clearly shows an exodus of quality in the likes of Bullard and Roberts, and an influx of Scandinavian nobodies and Emile Heskey. Should a similar trend develop this summer, expect Baines and Camara to leave, and Wigan to beat Sunderland’s record for lowest Premiership points tally.
Interestingly, Portsmouth seem quite happy to have allowed Bramble to head for the North-West, suggesting (at least to me) that Sol Campbell will be staying on the South Coast. In a similar “we’ve plenty of cash but no-one wants to come here” position to Wigan, it was widely assumed that Pompey would be part of the bidding for Bramble, as Campbell was off to Newcastle. As it happens, Dirty Harry Redknapp seems quite content with the signing of Sylvain Distin, who will surely be a replacement for Primus, rather than Campbell. A Portsmouth bid for Bramble would have signified the end of Campbell’s stay at the club, but the lack of a fight for the fat-arsed one’s services suggest Pompey won’t be selling their best defender this summer.
Which all means further headaches for Newcastle and Sam Allardyce. Rumours abound that a predicted move for Tal Ben-Haim may flounder due to the breakdown in relations between defender and manager during Allardyce’s last few months at the Reebok. Bearing in mind that situation involved a player refusing to sign a contract and a manager refusing to let him become a millionaire at Chelsea, I’d be guessing there was a fair amount of animosity there, and I’d be surprised to see the Israeli captain wearing black & white next season. In fact he may well end up at Liverpool.
This may well be why Fat Sam has been in Cardiff all weekend, negotiating with PSG & Czech Republic defender David Rozehnal about a possible move to St James’. I don’t know much about this lad, except that I signed him for Rangers on Football Manager and he was bloody brilliant. So he’s probably a decent player, but until this weekend was expected to move to Borussia Dortmund, so Newcastle may still have a fight on their hands to land him.
This was a problem for Wigan that The Late Flag saw coming, and predicted in earlier posts. Whilst it’s all well and good for Dave Whelan to pledge £20m to strengthen the squad, the free transfer capture of the worst defender in the Premiership proves how few players actually want to sign for Wigan and get beat week-in, week-out, in front of about 15,000 rugby fans. A look at their ins and outs from last summer clearly shows an exodus of quality in the likes of Bullard and Roberts, and an influx of Scandinavian nobodies and Emile Heskey. Should a similar trend develop this summer, expect Baines and Camara to leave, and Wigan to beat Sunderland’s record for lowest Premiership points tally.
Interestingly, Portsmouth seem quite happy to have allowed Bramble to head for the North-West, suggesting (at least to me) that Sol Campbell will be staying on the South Coast. In a similar “we’ve plenty of cash but no-one wants to come here” position to Wigan, it was widely assumed that Pompey would be part of the bidding for Bramble, as Campbell was off to Newcastle. As it happens, Dirty Harry Redknapp seems quite content with the signing of Sylvain Distin, who will surely be a replacement for Primus, rather than Campbell. A Portsmouth bid for Bramble would have signified the end of Campbell’s stay at the club, but the lack of a fight for the fat-arsed one’s services suggest Pompey won’t be selling their best defender this summer.
Which all means further headaches for Newcastle and Sam Allardyce. Rumours abound that a predicted move for Tal Ben-Haim may flounder due to the breakdown in relations between defender and manager during Allardyce’s last few months at the Reebok. Bearing in mind that situation involved a player refusing to sign a contract and a manager refusing to let him become a millionaire at Chelsea, I’d be guessing there was a fair amount of animosity there, and I’d be surprised to see the Israeli captain wearing black & white next season. In fact he may well end up at Liverpool.
This may well be why Fat Sam has been in Cardiff all weekend, negotiating with PSG & Czech Republic defender David Rozehnal about a possible move to St James’. I don’t know much about this lad, except that I signed him for Rangers on Football Manager and he was bloody brilliant. So he’s probably a decent player, but until this weekend was expected to move to Borussia Dortmund, so Newcastle may still have a fight on their hands to land him.
I’ll be back tomorrow or Wednesday to discuss the rest of the transfer news, and to preview England’s latest must win game for McClaren.
2 comments:
i have to say this is quite possibly the worst transfer deal of the summer....so far, big titus is a sham and any nufc fan will say it
chris hutchings may just regret putting him on the wage list!
Worst deal of the summer?
Worst deal ever. "We're Wigan, we're s**t. What can we do to improve? I know! Let's get Titus Bramble!"
How any man who thinks like that can get a Premiership management job is totally beyond me.
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