Fear of drop puts freeze on deals
THIS time last year, Jose Fonte went from Southampton to West Ham, Saido Berahino switched between West Brom and Stoke and Jeffrey Schlupp exchanged Leicester for Crystal Palace. Wouldn’t happen now. In this transfer window, deals that were considered problematic — Alexis Sanchez, Philippe Coutinho, Henrikh Mkhitaryan — have gone through with barely a hitch but those taking place between teams in the bottom half of the Premier League have ground to a halt. Too risky. Too much fear. Andre Ayew looked to be leaving West Ham for Swansea, then Swansea defeated Liverpool and moved to within six points of West Ham. It would be a bold man who did that deal now. If Ayew was good for even five goals in a Swansea shirt between now and the end of the season it could be the difference between going down and staying up. And who would fall in their place? West Ham can make no guarantees of safety, not even from 11th. Freeze the league now and Watford have achieved their highest finish since season 1986-87, yet Marco Silva was sacked because it was thought a continued run of poor form could see the club sucked towards relegation. Everton are only six points off the drop zone, yet sit ninth. It is far easier for them to get Theo Walcott out of Arsenal than a player out of the clubs below. Southampton see Everton as rivals now, in a way that Arsenal do not. As the weeks pass, the 12 relegation candidates will be reduced — but not before the window closes on Wednesday. At that point, all will still be in play, which is why it is proving considerably easier to extract from Monaco and Inter Milan, than it is to agree a deal between Newcastle and Brighton for Aleksandar Mitrovic who can’t get in Rafa Benitez’s team.