Take Manchester City out of the equation, and football’s transfer window has been a relatively quiet affair. Almost a non-event.
A frenzy before the August 31 deadline may yet materialise, but for most clubs there has been little in the way of major moves.
It has frustrated supporters, and managers too.
At Blues, Alex McLeish pointed out that he had not been adding to the squad with Ben Foster, Nikola Zigic and Enric Valles, but replacing players.
McLeish is desperate to sign a striker and a wide player to the St Andrew’s ranks, at the very least.
Bids for players have either been rejected or Blues have balked at the asking prices, with the domestic market very inflated.
Amid the stalling and the stand-offs, some would have you believe that McLeish has put himself on collision course with Carson Yeung and the board. Show me the money, and all that.
Peter Pannu, Yeung’s right-hand man, came out to robustly defend Blues’ transfer business. And the acting chairman insisted Blues were working feverishly to bring in Big Eck’s targets.
“Our manager works very closely with the board and we are, of course, committed to taking this club forward on and off the pitch,” said Pannu.
“We are working hard, day in, day out, to that end. All of us want to enhance the squad and we will continue to do so within the budgets the club has set that ensure a financially secure long-term future and work within the framework and spirit of the ‘financial fair play’ rules that are being introduced in football.
“We have shown we will spend money where it is required - since we took over at this club we have signed no less than Michel, Craig Gardner, Enric Valles, Nikola Zigic and Ben Foster.
“When you include salaries this represents an outlay of over £30 million so I don’t think we could be accused of not spending money.
“And, as Alex has eluded to, we have other situations that we are currently looking at with a view to making further signings.”
Last week, Yeung nominated four areas to strengthen for his ‘target team’.
Blues, meanwhile, go into Saturday’s St Andrew’s friendly against Real Mallorca defending an unbeaten record in pre-season so far.
They have won five and drawn one of their warm-ups after the 3-2 victory at MK Dons. McLeish, who insisted that there were no problems between himself and the board, said: “The results we have had augurs well.
‘‘But it was great to get the players minutes again against MK Dons. We’ve amassed a fair amount of minutes for every player, that’s the important thing.”
