GET’EM WHILE THEY’RE
BIG COUP: The January signings of Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidic (inset) were key for Manchester United
YOU CAN always get a bargain in the January sales.
After all this was the month when Manchester United famously picked up Patrice Evra one week, then Nemanja Vidic the next, for a €14 million total. They weren’t the only shoppers who saw value for money, Chelsea using the 2012 January window to sign Gary Cahill, Eden Hazard and a scrawny kid from Belgium called Kevin de Bruyne for the paltry sum of €51m.
Sure, for every Luis Suarez — costing €25m in January 2011, there is an Andy Carroll, bought for €40m that same day.
This can be a month that launches or ruins a career and here Starsport looks at the big deals that Irish football desperately need to happen before the clock strikes midnight on deadline day. (below) silverware than his one-time Blackburn colleague but at what price?
By the end, May was picking up a weekly wage but precious little appearance money, a grand total of 13 games coming from his final four years at Manchester United.
Aside from the lolly, you wonder why May bothered hanging around when he was barely getting a look-in and similar thoughts stem from your observation of Caoimhin Kelleher, the brilliant young Irish goalkeeper at Liverpool.
Rivals
We say young when describing Kelleher when really that should be young(ish). The Cork-man is 24 now but has played 20 matches for Liverpool, whereas Mark Travers (23) and Gavin Bazunu (20), his rivals for a starting position with Ireland, have notched up 176 games between them.
There is an argument that one appearance for Liverpool is worth two