Last minute deals are good for English youth

As the conclusion fell on Tuesday’s transfer deadline day, the importance of a few particular late night deals would have been lost on many behind a full schedule of match action in an entertaining night of football. Of course, the final hours of the transfer window may have been as dull as Andy Warhol’s 1964 Empire film, but there were pleasantries to be found in some particular eleventh hour deals.

The ones we are talking about specifically are Bolton’s capture of striker Marvin Sordell from Watford and also Norwich’s signing of young right-back Ryan Bennett.

Nothing significant here I hear you all say, but look deeper and you find that Sordell transferred for £4 million and Bennett was prized away for £3.5 million, two members of the England youth set-up, signed for pittance in football relevancy and without the over-inflated premium that accompanies these youngsters? What is wrong with the World we ask? Quite exactly, it seems as though times are indeed-a-changing.

Sordell comes at half the price as Bolton were attempting to sign Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha and is a highly reputed product of Watford’s famed academy which produces more good apples than the farm down at Granny Smiths.

20 year old Sordell possesses the raw technical ability to become a Premier League force and will get the experience he needs to add substance to his talent when surrounded by an up-turn in quality in a higher-league.

He’s scored 27 goals since his league debut and has a potential that has seen him break into England’s under-21 youth set-up and he now has the chance to ply his trade in better surroundings without the weight of a spectacular fee or the threat of stagnation which may have come by transferring to a top-end Premier League club. Owen Coyle and Bolton are sure to give this lad a chance and aid his progression, rather than let’s say Chelsea’s late acquisition of Nottingham Forest’s 18 year old Patrick Bamford. Will he go straight into the team? No. Will he be given a chance against an influx of foreign stars at the mercy of Roman Abramovich’s cheque book? We’ll have to wait and see.

Also, with Norwich’s purchase of 21 year old Ryan Bennett, and then subsequent month-long loan-back to Peterborough, also an established member of England’s under-21 squad, to add to the highly successful Carrow Road policy of signing ambitious products of the lower leagues, we can’t really go wrong. Paul Lambert has shown he can mould these youngsters into Premier League regulars without fear and Bennett’s progression can only benefit from that, again without the over-inflated fee that crushes so many of these English youngsters like a huge boulder.

Swansea’s signing of Wrexham’s right-back Curtis Obeng, plucked all the way from the forgotten land of the Blue Square Premier League, further restores some faith in the system as he heads into a club with a respected youth set-up and will now get to benefit from Brendan Rodger’s wisdom in producing young players.

So there you go, put reports of Bobby Zamora earning £90,000 a week now at QPR and focus on these heart-warming deals. It may have been boring, but transfer deadline day went someway to restoring the faith in the English transfer system.

@AdamGray1250