The January Transfer Window was opened early doors when Manchester City paid something in the region of £27 million to Wolfsburg for Bosnian international striker, Edin Dzeko. But unless I’ve forgotten something, nothing much more of note happened until last week when Liverpool announced their bid to buy Uruguay International striker Luis Suarez from Ajax for around £23 million.

Suarez had a great World Cup following a season as top scorer in the Dutch league.  I enjoyed watching Suarez in the World Cup and was surprised he wasn’t tempted to the Premier League last August. However, being a top scorer in the Holland doesn’t automatically equate to success in the Premier League.  Serbian international Mateja Kežman was the top goal scorer for PSV Eindhoven when he was brought to Chelsea by Jose Mourinho but never made the grade.  He is currently playing his football in the Hong Kong League; and Dirk Kuyt was top scorer for Feyenoord when Liverpool bought him in 2006 (though to be fair to Kuyt Liverpool have rarely used him as a centre forward!)

After the debacle of the Liverpool Tom Hicks & George Gillette ownership, the signing of Luis Suarez by new owner John W. Henry must have had Liverpool fans believing the club was at last back on track and the beginning of a new era of prosperity with King Kenny Dalglish back as manager.  But no sooner had a partnership between Suarez and Fernando Torres been discussed, Chelsea threw a giant and somewhat surprising spanner in the works by offering an official bid to buy Torres with only four days of the January Transfer Window to go.

Liverpool rejected the initial bid out of hand but what possibly happened behind-the-scenes was they told Chelsea the door of negotiation was open, but only at a price. To speed things along and change the goalposts slightly, Fernando Torres showed his hand by stating he was interested; a move that later became an official transfer request.  At this stage the scene had been set.  If Chelsea were prepared to pay the asking price, Liverpool were prepared to sell their star striker.

This created a chain reaction.  Liverpool had a player who hadn’t performed consistently well for over a year and now had the chance to cash-in on Chelsea’s offer but with a squad that was just about to lose one third of their World Class talent, they needed to bring in a replacement, quickly.

Andy Carroll has all the potential to become a World Class striker but is currently only a ‘potential’ talent when given a £35 million + price tag.  Because Newcastle were not keen on losing their new local hero, it was only going to happen this January with an inflated price.  And it did!

With a late flurry of big money moves, there was a record spend of well over £200 million in this January Transfer Window.

Winners and losers?
Chelsea needed to strengthen their squad last summer when they failed to replace first team players such as Michael Ballack, Deco, Joe Cole and Ricardo Carvalho.  In the past couple of seasons they have relied too heavily on Cech, Terry, Lampard and Didier Drogba.  The acquisition of Fernando Torres and the excellent last minute signing of Brazil international defender David Luiz from Benfica prove Roman Abramovich is once again prepared to spend big money.  Stamford Bridge will be all smiles and no sacking of the manager as long as they qualify for next season’s Champions League, preferably as this season’s winners.

I believe Liverpool have done well by this month’s merry-go-round.  Effectively they have swapped one out-of-form striker for two strikers hungry to prove themselves.  Like Chelsea, it also proves a turning point in Liverpool’s recent history, as a club prepared to spend big money to buy success.

With Blackpool managing to hang on to their captain and talisman Charlie Adam by their fingernails, if only until the summer, the main losers are Newcastle United who lost their star asset too late in the January Transfer Window to complete a deal to replace him.

The Luiz Suarez deal has been going on for some time now whereas Liverpool made their initial bid for Andy Carroll either late last night or early this morning; and though Liverpool are in desperate need to strengthen their squad in all areas, I believe they will let Torres go to Chelsea if the price is right.

Allegedly Chelsea had a £35 million bid for Fernando Torres turned down on Friday, stating he is not for sale.  But then reports over the weekend suggest their asking price is £50 million.  Another report suggests Chelsea have offered a bid of £43 million + Nicolas Anelka; a deal that I believe would be beneficial for both teams.  That is a big price tag for an out-of-form striker who has had his fair share of injuries over the past 18 months. However, if Chelsea were to get the same player Liverpool signed, arguably the best striker in the world, then it would be worth every penny.

Whatever happens today it looks as though someone at Stamford Bridge has finally managed to explain to Roman Abramovich that Chelsea need to spend some serious money to boost their squad and replace the likes of Michael Ballack, Joe Cole, Ricardo Carvalho and Deco.

Chelsea play Liverpool in the Premier League this Sunday.

Hodgson left out the entire starting eleven players from the previous encounter against Manchester United; and when Liverpool went  ahead after only nine minutes, it looked like a good decision.  But when Northampton drew level in the second-half, and even more shocking, went ahead 2-1 in extra-time Roy Hodgson was probably wondering what was going on.

David Ngog appeared to save the day with an equaliser four minutes from the end of extra time to take the cup tie to penalties. Beforehand, both teams had chances cleared off the goal line to win the game.  But it was Northampton who went on to win on penalties 4-2.

Listening to football phone-ins after the match several callers suggested the Liverpool job was too big for Hodgson, a step too far and that he couldn’t cope with the pressure of expectation.  Maybe those fans don’t know the level of success Roy Hodgson has had in football management, and why he was targeted as a replacement for Rafa Benitez this summer.

As a player Roy Hodgson was on the books with Crystal Palace in the 1965-66 season but only ever played at non-league level, most notably for Gravesend & Northfleet (now Ebbsfleet United) between 1969-71.  But as a manager he has had success at club level in Sweden with Malmo, in Italy with Udinese and Inter Milan and in England with Fulham; though his time at Blackburn was less successful. Possibly his greatest managerial achievement was taking Switzerland to the last 16 of the 1994 World Cup & qualifying for the Euro 96 finals.  Before then Switzerland hadn’t qualified for a major tournament since the 1960s.

There’s no denying the poor start Hodgson has made at Liverpool, who are currently 16th in the Premier League with five points from a possible 15, but things need to be considered here.  Firstly, Roy Hodgson has by and large inherited a squad from Rafa Benitez; and the squad is not that good.  Steven Gerrard, Pepe Reyna, Fernando Torres, Glen Johnson and possibly Martin Skrtel & Dirk Kuyt on their day aside, Liverpool are not a team with strength all over the pitch, let alone in depth.

The addition of Joe Cole is a step in the right direction but there is no way that Liverpool can continue to be considered one of the best sides in the Premiership, let alone a member of the so-called ‘Big Four’.  Past glories need to be forgotten and money needs to be made available to rebuild a depleted squad left in a worse state by Rafa Benitez than he inherited from Gerard Houllier.

Whether Roy Hodgson is the right man for the job or not, I believe Liverpool have got to be satisfied with a mid-table finish at best this season, and hope that new owners are put in place by next summer and money made available, not simply to buy new players but to reinvest in their academy to bring on a new generation of young players like Steven Gerrard & Jamie Carragher.

I’m not going to knock the players, because that would be the easy way out of it. What seems obvious to the viewing public is that there seems to be issues deeper than on the pitch, but politically and the way Fabio Capello is running our side.

The England players seemed completely and utterly despondent throughout the match. Some people may put this down to them not wanting to be there, but I put it down to the single minded, conservative style fashioned Fabio Capello who is putting fear into the players minds and is stopping them from expressing themselves on the pitch. What’s naming his side 2 hours before the game all about?  David James didn’t know he was even in the side for this evening until he got on the coach.

I mean look at Diego Maradona the Argentina manager, totally vilified throughout the world’s press but because of the laid back attitude style of his management, his players are able to perform to their capabilities and there is a fantastic team spirit as shown by the whole team and bench jumping, smiling and dancing together. Would you see Fabio Capello do this? No. Do we ever see our players enjoying themselves? No. Is there disharmony within the camp? Yes there is, and it isn’t helping our campaign to win the 2010 South Africa World Cup.

The tactically naive and negative Stuart Pierce is our under 21 coach and Fabio’s assistant. So having Pierce and Capello working together, what we can’t expect is our quality players to play free flowing football with the negativity coming from above. Overall this false dawn under Capello has been a total myth. When he was first appointed England Manager he needed to bring the players down to earth. But ever since then, we’ve played awful football with some of the best players in the world like Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney whose main forte is to play expansive football.

Every side needs organisation and the need to be humble, but Capello needs to work out a middle ground between organisation, fear and the ability to let his players express themselves. There is though something about his character that suggests and confirms that he is stubborn and won’t change his all out disciplinarian, mobile phones banned from dinner, bed by 11 and tailored suit wearing ways.

Am I saying he should go if we don’t win on Wednesday? Yes. With the FA appointing him as our manager was them confirming to us as a footballing nation that they were happy to maintain the image of English football being all about `gritty determination, hard working, technically limited but committed, strength over skill and kick and rush football.` This isn’t going to win us anything. Its all about the grassroots as well, the kids need to learn how to play attacking, free-flowing and flexible football.

The fact that Capello has left Joe Cole, the most creative player in the England squad on the bench for the first two games against USA and Algeria, shows his ignorance and shows he has a blind spot when it comes to attacking football that any team from any level needs to win games.

Furthermore, for Wayne Rooney to have the audacity to complain to the camera saying “nice for our home fans to boo us” is a total disgrace. Well Wayne, how dare you say that and degrade the passionate support of our England fans in South Africa currently. The fans over there have spent thousands of pounds flying to South Africa to support England and deserve better.

The players may not understand that our fantastic England fans could still be heard singing our national anthem over the noise of the great Vuvuzela, showing their sheer passion for the cause. Does he acknowledge this? No, because he is an out of touch, arrogant and an over commercialised spoilt child.

So, can on the basis of tonight, England win the World Cup? No we can’t.

Does that mean anything? No it doesn’t because we have another opportunity to win against Slovenia on Wednesday and finish top of the group.

We have got a lifeline, so the players need to grasp it with their manicured hands, otherwise its game and tournament over. Remember, Italy weren’t brilliant in 2006, but they dug in; and France were dreadful throughout the whole competition but still made the final. They achieved scrappy one nil’s here and there and most significantly, stuck together as a unified team unit.

England’s display against Algeria was worse than the French display against Mexico, but if the squad collectively confronted Capello last night with frank, open and honest opinions hopefully issues were resolved. Otherwise we should expect the same again, the same complaints and the same players underperforming.

So c’mon England. We know we put too much pressure on you, but that is because we believe in you as players and that belief is the reason why we’ll beat Slovenia on Wednesday and achieve top spot in the group irrespective of previous performances.