So the transfer market closed during the week with clubs pulling off signings that ranged from the obvious, to the ridiculous, to the bizarre. It’s easy to judge these signings now and the amount of money that was spent but only time will tell on whether all the money was worth it.

A record amount of£630 million was spent during the window from Premier League clubs but not a great amount of common sense was on show. Some pretty weird stuff goes on during the last week of transfer windows but this window has seen strange happenings throughout with the saga’s of Bale, Rooney, and Suarez as well as a few clubs just being all round dumb. Moyes has struggled in the window, Wenger has been sleeping, and some clubs have just done bad business.

First of all the amount of money spent is a bit mental. City predictably spent loads of money but Spurs really have pushed the boat out – obviously bank-rolled by the sale of Bale……eventually. Spurs have gone mental even out-spending Man City all on players that have no Premier League experience and can’t speak English, don’t get me wrong I know this is the case with most big signings but I just feel they have over-done it. I keep hearing how good a dribbler Lamela is but he will he be tearing Stoke to shreds? No, because he’s the size of a 12 year-old, I bet Shawcross has had heavier shits. Now like I said it’s easy to judge players now but he cost about 30m! Bale eventually went to Madrid for a fee of about 85m (reportedly), this being just a few months after rules were put in place for financial fair play. Well what a waste of time that was then. On top of this we have the principle of spending that amount of money on a player, what this says about our society, how can Madrid spend that much money on a player when Spain as a country is on its ass? There are young Madrid fans out there who worry about food every day, will never be able to afford to see their team play, at least they can hear the roar of the rich as Bale scores a goal though I suppose.

City have spent a ridiculous amount of money on Fernandinho, a player who seems to be a poor man’s Toure and at 28 will only have about 3 decent years at the club. Most bizarrely signings such as Fernandinho and Jovetic were made before Pellegrini had arrived, so what’s going on? More money than sense. City also let Tevez go for quite a modest fee of 11m when they could have got about 30m for him a year or so ago if they let him go! I don’t care if their owners are rich enough to wipe their asses with pound notes you can’t just throw it away like that! Surely this current state of football can’t go on too much longer? Where clubs are just toys for the mega-rich and teams are immortal when it comes to political and economic changes.

Man Utd and Arsenal have baffled me with their transfer activity. They’ve been lazy and stupid and to me it feels like they’re just not ready to challenge. Don’t get me wrong Man Utd will still be in the top 4 as well as Arsenal but the fact that they’ve had over 2 months to prepare for this season and have done nothing to install confidence in their fans is a worry. Arsenal have let go of a lot of players and have only brought in Sanogo and Ozil. The German cost the Gunners a record 42m and Arsenal fans are going ape-shit, “We’re gunna win the league!” “This is what we been waiting for!” but it seems strange that of all the money they have had to spend that a huge chunk of it goes on a kind of player that they have plenty of. Ozil may be world-class but Arsenal were in more need of spending money in other areas like a defender who doesn’t jump into tackles, a midfielder with a backbone, and a striker who can score goals regularly, oh and how about a few actual leaders who have genuine experience and pedigree? Ozil is a good signing as he is a brilliant player but it’s a big fee for something that they already have in Cazorla, Wilshere, and Ramsey. Ozil isn’t going to score 20 goals a season nor is he going to help protect the back four. Not only this but why have they waited until the last day to pull this off? What have they been doing? Don’t tell me everything went according to plan and that Wenger has concrete faith in Giroud and Podolski to score goals because otherwise he wouldn’t have wasted a month chasing Suarez – and what a balls-up that was. I don’t think Arsenal are that better off after the Ozil transfer at all?

Now Man Utd have got a hard season ahead as it is as they transition themselves from Gill and Sir Alex to Woodward and Moyes but the latter have made it harder for themselves. They’ve just stood still during the transfer window as everyone else (except Arsenal) have pushed on and strengthened. They may be the Champions but they’ve lost Scholes and Fletcher in the last year and not replaced them, they have no proper right-back, and no one knows what the future holds for Rooney. They looked stale against Liverpool and the fact that they have offered Nani a 5-year-deal after he seemed half-way out the door speaks volumes, especially as it was AFTER they failed to sign anyone during the window. They have however signed Fellaini, and that in itself is a strange one. Man Utd paid 4m over what they had to as they decided to pursue Fellaini after his release clause deadline. Basically if they had bid 23.5m before July 31 then Everton would have to accept but they decided against this! It’s 4 million! Its poor business what’s Woodward as Chief-executive doing here? This comes after they failed to attract Fabregas AND seemed to roll over and just let Munich take Thiago without a fight. So they’ve paid over the odds for a player who was their third choice. Sir Alex wouldn’t have that. Anyway, how does Fellaini fit in this team? Will he play behind a striker or will he play in front of the defence? He has great ability and will no doubt be useful but is he what United need? I don’t know we’ll see what Moyes plans are for the lanky Belgian but either way I don’t like the look of their squad.

It’s been a strange window of chopping and changing (or lack of) and it seems strange that this is a record-breaking window for money as not a lot of business has impressed me. Not many shrewd moves at all, a load of hype and over-spending. Bale isn’t worth half of his fee, neither is Soldado, nor is Fernandinho or Lamela. There is too much money in football and its matter of time before this way of doing business comes to an end. It’s not sporting and it’s not smart. You would think that a bit of money would be very useful to a club that’s looking to improve and push on but for all the money they have they seem to lack in common sense, unfortunately one of the things you can’t buy.