7 Biggest Gambles of the January Transfer Deadline

The January transfer window may have come and gone, but the repercussions of clubs actions or lack thereof on deadline day will be felt all the way until the end of the season and beyond.

Excluding the procurement of free agents, teams in the Premier League now have to make do with what they have for the rest of the campaign.

Most moves made in the final hours of a transfer window carry with them a certain element of risk. Here are seven of the signings made on January 31 which could be seen as the biggest gambles.

Louis Saha

The Everton striker's move to Tottenham Hotspur was one of the more surprising made on deadline day.

The Frenchman's ability has rarely been in question, but the concerns about his fitness have been almost constant during his time in England. 

However, a return of just one goal in 18 Premier League appearances for Everton this season suggests that the 33-year-old's powers are on the wane. 

With Emmanuel Adebayor's barren scoring run now stretching to eight games, it remains to be seen how viable an alternative Saha as Tottenham's target man in the coming months. 

Nikica Jelavic

Saha's move out of Goodison Park was facilitated by the arrival of Jelavic from Rangers.

The big Croatian enjoyed a productive 18 months in Scotland, averaging two goals every three games for the Ibrox club.

A move south of the border to a far more demanding league will provide a stern examination of just how good the 26-year-old really is.

For a club of Everton's meagre financial resources, every transfer represents a gamble for them. Jelavic needs to hit the ground running for one of the lowest-scoring sides in the Premier League if the £5.5 million spent on him is to prove a worthwhile exercise.

Sotirios Kyrgiakos

Martin O'Neill has engineered an instant and impressive turnaround in the fortunes of Sunderland since taking over the club in December.

Since he came in to replace the sacked Steve Bruce, no team has performed better than the Black Cats in terms of points accrued, so credit is certainly due.

But the loan signing of the big Greek defender from Wolfsburg has raised some eyebrows. Since Kyrgiakos left Liverpool for the German club he made seven Bundesliga appearances, and in that time was part of a defence which shipped 16 goals and only kept one clean sheet.

On the face of it, the 32-year-old is not the kind of signing Sunderland fans were hoping for to send their club onwards and upwards.

Vedran Corluka

It is clear to see why Corluka wanted out of Tottenham. After being a first-team fixture upon his £8.5 million-move to White Hart Lane in 2008, the versatile Croatian has seen every passing year has seen diminishing returns in terms of appearances.

Since making 34 Premier League appearances in his first year at the club, subsequent years have garnered 29, 15 and three. This is mainly due to the emergence of Kyle Walker, the pacey right-back who is one of the most exciting young prospects for the England team.

However, with Corluka now gone Walker is the only recognised right-back still at Spurs. Should he be sidelined through injury, the Londoners will have to be filling that round hole with a square peg.

Pavel Pogrebnyak

Bobby Zamora was a vital component of Fulham's continual punching above their weight over the last few years.

The striker's departure for neighbours QPR has deprived the Cottagers of a forward who was as adept at creating goals as he was at scoring them.

Russia international Pogrebnyak has been brought in ostensibly to replace Zamora. Fulham manager Martin Jol's acumen in the transfer market is still under heavy scrutiny as big-money summer signing Bryan Ruiz continues to struggle for form.

Should Pogrebnyak—who scored just once in the first half of the season for Stuttgart in 18 league games—toil in a similar way on his introduction to English football, then Jol could find himself under real pressure come the end of the season.

Ravel Morrison

We have been consistently told by those in the know how Morrison is one of the brightest talents to come out of Manchester United youth system since the emergence of Paul Scholes, David Beckham et al in the mid-1990s.

However, the midfielder barely saw any first-team action in a United shirt, his first-team action limited to just 65 minutes across two Carling Cup matches.

Alex Ferguson gave the 19-year-old's reportedly exorbitant contract demands short shrift and sold him to West Ham—managed by his good friend Sam Allardyce—for a cut-price £650,000.

The hope is that if Allardyce cannot whip a teenager with a big ego and a chequered past into shape then no one can, but if Morrison does not put in the effort Big Sam demands then he could find himself frozen out, and as such his presence in the Hammers squad could more harm than good.

Thomas Eisfeld

Arsenal fans have become well used to reading reports of a new signing for their club and asking: "Who's he?"

That was fine in the days when the club was signing the likes of Emmanuel Petit and Patrick Vieira watching them blossom into world class players who brought trophies to the club with alarming consistency.

However, at a time when manager Arsene Wenger is under more intense scrutiny than at any other time during his tenure at Arsenal, a teenage midfielder who never made a first-team appearance for Borussia Dortmund is not exactly an addition to fill the fans with confidence.

Eisfeld may well be a valuable investment in the future—though if he were cut from the same cloth as fellow Dortmund product Mario Goetze it is unlikely the German champions would have sold him for £420,000—but Gunners supporters are nowhere near as patient as they used to be with young talents.

If he impresses on his first few run-outs in the first team—as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has—then all good. If not, then Wenger's judgement will again be called into question by the club's dissatisfied followers.