Transfer Update | Centre Back? Not Half.

As it had just started to feel like the January transfer window was getting going, Everton announced the signing of Darron Gibson from Manchester United and suddenly people are uninterested again. The Gary Cahill saga has overtaken the Carlos Tevez affair, as Sky Sports News look to reduce their viewing figures even further, and managers continue to lie about never having heard of the players they’re linked with. “Ganso? I have never heard of him” quipped Harry Redknapp, though we are led to believe that he was being serious. Who needs Ganso when you have Jake Livermore? Seriously.

Cahill is just one of a number of centre backs who are likely to be on the move this January. One of the other names being bandied about in the gossip columns is Alex of Chelsea, who has somehow found himself behind John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic, Jose Bosingwa, David Luiz, and Paulo Ferreira (if he’s still there) in the pecking order at Chelsea, which is strange considering that he’s better than all these players.

Christopher Samba is next on our list of centre backs who is likely to move. “Things have not happened as I was told they would. The club is not improving at all” commented the Congolese defender/striker as he stated a view widely held at Blackburn Rovers. Another defender who is more than capable of playing at the highest level, his next move could be a career defining moment and with this in mind he hopes to push through a move to PSG, whose moneybags may have arrived too close to the financial fair play rules to make them anything more than a domestic force.

With The African Nations Cup approaching, scouts will be out and about visiting the stadiums in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea during the coming month. Whilst the current scouting team at Spurs may not find anyone other than promising box to box midifielder Yaya Toure, a few more keen, globalised eyes, will be on Gabon defender Bruno Ecuele Manga. Having already read one preview article which states he’s as good as Christopher Samba, it seems there are already one or two people talking up the athletic centre back, and a club could get a real bargain if they took a risk on him before the competition starts. This could be said of many of the players due to take part in this competition, and hopefully there’ll be a preview of it on this site soon.