It’s barely a week since the end of the season and the Jewell out Hutchings in malarkey, we’ve not had time to put together our end of season review, but column inches wait for no lazy journalist and the transfer rumour mill is already back in full swing. There’s absolutely no chance of us here at Not a Patch on Towers keeping up with all the tittle tattle and less of us being first with the got news, but we will endeavour to keep you abreast of our thoughts as the summer progresses. If the first seven days are anything to go by, it’s going to be a busy old couple of months.
The first action happened as Jewell allegedly rose from his slumbers in a posh Southport apartment, Hutchings’ decision to release both De Zeeuw and Unsworth may have raised eyebrows in some quarters, but you can see where he is coming from. The lack of similar news on Jackson, Skoko and Pollitt leads to the assumption that they’ve been offered deals. Only time will tell whether the right members of the Whelley pensioners have been let go but the two lads go with our best wishes, leaving up with fond memories, after playing big, if very different parts in Latics’ success.
As soon as there were two spare pegs at Christopher Park the manager made moves to fill them with contracts waved under the noses of Andreas Granqvist and Everton’s Lee Carsley. The missing Swede made some promising noises before disappearing on holiday, where, no doubt, he’ll accidentally bump into representatives from a few different clubs ahead of moving to Holland. PSV are said to be interested in the lad who didn’t get a sniff after doing alright against Chelsea.
Carsley is a different matter and, whether there was any truth in the link or not, it seems that the link was simply a bargaining tool to get a better offer from the toffees. It appears to have worked as the Tomas Graveson look-a-like has just signed a one year deal at Goodison.
Back to outgoings and Paul Scharner is first to lay his marker, in that mainstay of rumour mongers ‘an interview with a foreign newspaper’. Whether he actually claimed that Latics played rubbish football or not, the statement is close to the mark but claims that he is up to Champions League football are more debatable. Everton are said to be interested, but only if their interest in Joey Barton and a host of others comes to nowt. Scharner has done alright at the JJB, but I suspect not enough to attract much attention over the summer.
Henri Camara seemed to be going down the same line, for all of two hours, until someone who can actually speak French read the article rather than relying on Babel fish to do the translation. It turns out that he’s off to Paris to see his doctor, not to play and that if feels that if has been part of something special at Latics. Obviously that doesn’t mean he’s planning on staying at the JJB, but you never know.
More worrying are the clubs said to be hovering over Leighton Baines’ head. Spurs and Newcastle are said to be interested and with a new broom sweeping through St James’ Park the Geordies are a much tastier prospect than they were last time around. That said bigger clubs than either of those two are likely to cast a beady eye in his direction if it looks like a move may happen, if you remember the Roy Carroll and Everton situation you’ll probably get the same feeling at some point this summer.
Now onto the real competition of the summer, how many links can you fit into a £20 million war chest? To be fair there have been little in the way of new links, the press preferring to dredge up the likes of Jagielka and Etherington from last summer and Darren Purse from January. Michael Tonge has been mentioned has have a few Bosmans, most notably Titus Bramble. Just think of the shivers that a pairing of him and Hall would send down spines of Premier League strikers. I didn’t mention Laughter, it must have been you.
There’s bad news for those of you who had May in the Nathan Ellington rumour sweep. With West Brom still in the play off reckoning, it will be at least a week before Tony Watchamijig gets around to deciding which club presents his best option of making a quick buck, erm… I mean the Duke’s best chance of a longer stay in the top flight.
That’s your lot, quite enough for one week I think you’ll agree. Just wait until the new manager really gets his feet under the table.
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