World Football Transfer Window: 3 Biggest Underachievers

The three biggest underachievers in the transfer market can all be characterised by the same unfortunate similarity—lack of big money investment. These teams have done wonderful things domestically over the past few years and yet the rest of Europe continue to invest and prepare for battle once more. These clubs may soon be left behind in the dust of runaway financial giants in Manchester, Paris and Malaga.

Everton FC

David Moyes has always been regarded as one of the Premier League’s best managers by his peers, consistently able to take Everton into European competition without the backing of wealthy owners and with terrible luck on the injury front.

As was the case last year, Everton went into the final few days of the transfer window without having done any business. The club are in dire financial straits and there is simply no money for Moyes to enhance a squad who continue to overachieve in the face of adversity.

This year there will be no European competition payout, the club unfortunately being unable to take a place in this years Europa League due to domestic cup qualifications going to Birmingham City and Stoke City. This is yet another blow to Everton’s hopes of kicking on from their fairly consistent league placing come May.

David Moyes had very little to work with come deadline day, with the club’s sellable asset in Phil Jagielka unable to get a move to Arsenal because of Everton’s high valuation of the player. When Arsenal did come back, however, they managed to pick up creative talisman Mikel Arteta for a very fair £10 million. But too little too late for Moyes, as he was only able to bring in Royston Drenthe, the Real Madrid right sided player who has lost his way as of late, and a relatively unknown loan-signing in Argentine Denis Stracqualursi.

The lack of outside investment and the crippling debts mean David Moyes could decide to pack his bags and move on to a team more suited to his abilities and ambition. The Manchester United job may come available in the next few years and he may finally get to test himself on the biggest stage.

Until then, Moyes will continue to do an outstanding job at Everton and use the clubs successful youth academy as his means of new signings. But this year’s distinct lack of summer activity may finally be the straw that broke the camels back for David Moyes.

Villarreal

Villarreal’s great piece of summer business might just have been being able to hold on to star striker Giuseppe Rossi, with the Italian courted by Barcelona for a number of months leading into the transfer window before they ultimately decided on Alexis Sanchez of Udinese.

Villarreal go into this season on the back of a tremendous outing last year, finishing fourth in the league and managing to secure a place in the group stages of the Champions League.

But the small club from Castellon may be punching well above their weight this year as they look to battle on three fronts with an incredibly small squad and little to no investment over the summer.

Another club with no outside investment, and very much one who needs to sell in order to buy, the sale of Santi Cazorla to Malaga for £21 million meant the club had a lifeline to hang onto going into this season.

From the outside it seemed like Villarreal were banking on Giuseppe Rossi moving to Barcelona for the big £40 million that had been quoted. Unfortunately, or maybe for the better, they only lost Cazorla and were able to pick up Cristian Zapata to shore up the defence, and make Borja Valero’s loan move permanent.

Still, it doesn’t cover up for the fact that this is still a very small squad, one who will need to secure Champions League again next season amidst the spending of Atletico Madrid and the threat of Sevilla and Valencia.

I don’t think anyone can doubt Villarreal’s ability to perform, as they are often at the top of the second tier of Spanish football in terms of entertainment and possession football. But sadly, with the ageing Marcos Senna and the over reliance on Rossi and Nilmar to provide the goals, this team may be destined for a thunderous halt before the game is up.

Borussia Dortmund

Jurgen Klopp’s side were a revelation in European football last year, storming the Bundesliga to their first league title in 10 years. They now look to a tough Champions League campaign. Coupled with the threat of domestic giants Bayern Munich and very little transfer activity, Klopp will be hard pressed to reach the promised land once more.

The club started the summer by losing their captain, Nuri Sahin, to Real Madrid for a very small £12 million. You almost feel sorry for the side, losing a player of Sahin’s quality for such a meagre sum meant they had very little to work with in the way of new signings.

A good bit of business meant they were able to replace Sahin with another creative midfielder, with Ivan Perisic arriving for £5 million. But injury to striker Lucas Barrios and failure to capture long-term target Nicklas Bendtner means Robert Lewondowski has to go it alone as the club’s only alternative to the out of favour Mohamed Zidan.

Any serious lack of investment this summer means we’re unlikely to see the impressive Signul Iduna Park rocking as it did so often last year, and this team may find itself in hot water very quickly with Arsenal and Marseille in the Champions League group stages.

But I sincerely hope we get to see the Klopp dance many more times this season. An outstanding manager with fire and ambition a plenty, he will no doubt rise to the occasion for Dortmund.