Deadline Deals

Rafa Benitez's decision to omit Keane from Sunday's squad to face Chelsea signalled the end for a player who can rightly feel aggrieved at being used as a political football rather than footballer during his time at Anfield

Quotes of the week

The heaviest snowfall to have cloaked Britain in close to 20 years may have hit the economy to the tune of £1billion yesterday, but it would appear the news failed to leak to North London as Tottenham and Arsenal led the deadline day spending.

Given that just six points separates 20th from tenth in England's top flight it was expected FA headquarters would be inundated with last minute panic buys. Managers across the land would fall into the perennial trap of failing to realise that the reason a Hawaiian shirt in Selfridges has 70 per cent off is because it's a Hawaiian shirt. And it's February.

However rumours that Tony Pulis had sent his chief scout to stake out caravan parks across Holland in a bid to convince Marc Boogers to return to England proved to have little foundation, while Hull City's effort to add their name to a Christian Panucci roll call that reads Milan, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Chelsea, Monaco and Roma recalled the scene in Blackadder when he talks about the three great universities: 'Oxford, Cambridge and...Hull'.

It was then the strange case of Robbie Keane that dominates the column inches, as snow turns to sludge and the majority of managers realise that rather than crisp, white and new their squads are in fact still an intermittent grey.

Rafa Benitez's decision to omit Keane from Sunday's squad to face Chelsea signalled the end for a player who can rightly feel aggrieved at being used as a political football rather than footballer during his time at Anfield. Clearly Keane was not a Benitez signing but instead the symbol of a fractious boardroom that seems to be pulling in every direction except the right one.

Keane, brought to Anfield in the summer for £20million and sold back to Spurs for considerably less, appears to have been the victim in what has frankly been a debacle, but let us not forget the Irishman's career has encompassed more clubs than John Daly and that he could probably buy Liverpool outright with the signing-on fees he's accrued at just 28. Loyalty cuts both ways however deep the scars.

Prodigal son

Still, for Spurs it was undoubtedly a day of celebration as a favourite son, albeit one who's had a girlfriend the folks didn't approve of, returned to the family nest. Add to Keane's signature those of Jermain Defoe, Wilson Palacios, Carlo Cudicini and Pascal Chimbonda and it's fair to say Redknapp has been backed unequivocally by his chairman Daniel Levy.

If Keane's homecoming has largely been greeted with glee in the capital, at Liverpool a reoccurring motif of bewilderment is seeping into the Merseyside air.

If Liverpool end a 19-year wait for the title this season Benitez will become not only the first Spanish coach to get his hands on the trophy, but also the first manager in history to do so with only one recognised senior striker.

Forget the politics or economics involved in the transfer, Benitez has left his squad woefully bereft of front men. Dirk Kuyt has completed a metamorphosis from unremarkable striker to industrious wide man but will never score enough goals to spearhead a title tilt, while Ryan Babel claims he is a centre-forward but is another who Benitez appears to have waning faith in.

Benitez may feel he has won this particular battle with Rick Parry but should Fernando Torres pick up another injury between now and the season's close, the clock will read 19 years and waiting.

At the time of going to press, January's most protracted signing is on the cusp of being done as Andrei Arshavin's £15million move to Arsenal awaits Premier League approval. The Russian's capture appears to go against Arsene Wenger's tried and tested mantra of never signing players at their peak and in January but given Arsenal's lack of invention in the final third since Cesc Fabregas was sidelined, it comes as little surprise.

The diminutive playmaker spent much of yesterday looking glum on his mobile phone as he tried to convince his club Zenit St Petersburg that he was entitled to a £2.3million signing-on fee, while they argued entitlement to at least half of that sum as he had broken a four-year deal he had signed with them. At least he didn't ask for a loyalty bonus.

It was expected Manchester City would lead the deadline day spending as Mark Hughes has long-since fluttered his eyelashes at housewives' favourite Roque Santa Cruz, but Blackburn boss Big Sam is impervious to the charms of small talk and refused to budge from a valuation that could have funded a modest Hollywood blockbuster.

City restraint

Having already acquired Nigel De Jong, Craig Bellamy, Wayne Bridge and Shay Given in the January window, City were on the contrary a model of restraint as rather than plunge into their bottomless pit of lucre they lowered their wage bill by allowing Jo and Tal Ben Haim to move out on loan. They did, though, block Michael Johnson's mooted £8million switch to Newcastle, citing a desire to keep their young blood and allow them to flourish amid a stable of world stars. Such noble intent certainly explains the acquisition of 32-year-old Given. England hopeful Joe Hart will surely flourish via a spell on the bench.

Jo's move to Everton ends David Moyes' desperate search for striking reinforcements as Tim Cahill's remarkable performances as a makeshift centre-forward can only paper over so many cracks at Goodison Park. While Jo swaps sky blue for a darker variety replete with a goalscoring record that inspires groans rather than awe, his exploits in Russia with CSKA Moscow saw him plunder 44 goals in 77 appearances and he could yet prove to be a canny coup on Moyes' part.

As Roman Abramovich feels the pinch just like the rest of us, I'm certainly down to my last yacht, Chelsea no longer have the financial muscle of their halcyon days as Luiz Felipe Scolari was left to make do with a solitary loan acquisition. Inter Milan winger Ricardo Quaresma is a player he knows well from their time together with the Portuguese national side and could provide a thrust down the flanks that has been missing since Arjen Robben's move to Real Madrid.

Hull may not have been able to land Panucci but earlier in January they showed their ambition to halt an alarming slide with the capture of Jimmy Bullard. It took a sizeable chunk of Phil Brown's budget to land one of the division's most popular characters and whether Fulham have adequately replaced him with Olivier Dacourt, will likely determine whether Roy Hodgson's side are looking upwards or downwards come May.

Mike Ashley, Joe Kinnear and Dennis Wise spent the whole of Monday holed up at St James' Park headquarters and after collective head scratching managed to bring in Ryan Taylor and a reported £6million for Charles N'Zogbia.

Enquiries were made for Michael Johnson and Kieran Richardson but came to nothing as Ashley was left to reflect that it might not only be Charles that suffers from insomnia in the next few weeks. Kevin Nolan's signing injects experience and vigour but is unlikely to quell the tide of unrest on Tyneside.

Wigan boss Steve Bruce must have the league's largest phone bill following a month in which he lost JJB favourites Emile Heskey and Palacios - excellent additions for Aston Villa and Spurs respectively - while Mido, Ben Watson and N'Zogbia will be aiming to prove their manager's Midas touch in the transfer market has not deserted him.

Tony Adams has been given the vote of confidence this week by Portsmouth chairman Peter Storrie and backed in the transfer market as deadline day swoops saw two new arrivals at Fratton Park.

Adams reprieve

Having cooled interest in Real Madrid's established Argentina international Javier Saviola on the basis he wanted 'people that know the league and can come in and hit the ground running', Adams plumped for Angelos Basinas and Theofanis Gekas. Apparently Basinas once holidayed in Devon.

Gekas has a more than respectable record in German football having been the Bundesliga's top goalscorer one year when at Bochum, but the fact he has played only two league games for Bayer Leverkusen this season suggests he could be shy of both form and fitness. Reports that he arrived at the airport wearing a Hawaiian shirt are as yet unfounded.

West Brom boss Tony Mowbray will be praying Juan Carlos Menseguez turns out to be the new Mauro Zarate having signed the Argentine wide man on loan until the end of the season, while Stoke's capture of Henri Camara adds pace to a strikeforce that already houses the power of James Beattie and unpredictability of Ricardo Fuller.

Pulis is a manager known to have a full range of poker faces and double bluffs in his transfer armoury and has spread his cash wisely with the arrivals of Matthew Etherington and Beattie. Although neither perhaps set the heart racing, at this stage of the season it is perhaps a case of better the devil you know.

West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola will be content the window passed without any further Upton Park departures, having lost Bellamy to Manchester City earlier in January. The departure of Lee Bowyer will have less of an impact in East London, as will that of Julien Faubert, who was loaned to Real Madrid for a £1.5million fee that goes a long way to explaining Spurs' struggles at the start of the season. Savio arrives very much as a work in progress, while Radoslav Kovac will add further steel to a midfield already functioning well to date.

In total Premier League clubs signed only 18 new players as the majority of bosses conducted their business earlier in the month or more likely decided deadline day is like the final day of the sales. Plenty of tempting offers but invariably the fit of what's left just isn't quite right.