Top 10 transfer buys of the 2016 summer window (Non-Free)

During the 3-month football summer break, teams try to improve their squad by buying new players as well as selling some. With my team of Experts, I have decided upon the top 10 transfers this summer transfer window.
P.S: this list does not include free transfers

#10 Nico Gaitan to Atletico Madrid (from Benfica) for 25 million euros

Gaitan has been on the radar for many big clubs since his 2014/15 at Benfica and unlike last season Benfica couldn’t retain him as Atletico have signed the argentine for 25 million euros. This could be a great buy for Atletico.

#9 Kevin Volland to Bayer Leverkusen (from Hoffenheim) for 20 million euros

Volland has been Hoffenheim’s best attacking player for the last few seasons and one of the best in the Bundesliga. At 20 million (euros), Bayer Leverkusen have made a great signing in a player who can at either wings, in the no. 10 role or as a striker. 

#8 Miralem Pjanic to Juventus (From Roma) for 32 million euros

Pjanic was one of the best if not the best Serie A midfielder during his tenure in Rome. In Turin(Juventus), he can expect more domestic trophies but also challenging for European trophies. In return, his team can expect a complete midfielder who can not only pass well but also have deadly shooting and good defensive skills. Pjanic is a versatile central midfielder who can play at CDM, CM or CAM equally effectively.

#7 Renato Sanches to Bayern Munich (From Benfica) for 35 million euros

The Portuguese made his senior team debut in November 2015 but his meteoric rise has seen him become the young player of the euros, win the euros and become a Bayern munich player for 35 million euros just 8 months later.

#6 Grzegorz Krychowiak to PSG (From Sevilla) for 34 million euros

The polish midfielder has been one of the best holding midfielders of La-Liga and showed his class in the euros by putting in some excellent performances. He was instrumental in Sevilla’s 3 back to back Europa league wins with Current PSG (and ex-sevilla) manager Unai Emery and PSG would be hoping for european glory (champions league) with duo in Paris too.

#5 Granit Xhaka to Arsenal (From B. Monchengladbach) for 45 million euros

The Swiss International has been solid with both country and club by providing defensive strength to his team as well as fluidity in attack with his passing and clutch goals. The young midfielder is a very versatile central midfielder who play in a holding role as well as no. 10 with the same quality/efficiency.  

#4 Ilkey Gundogan to Manchester City (From B.Dortmund) for 27 million euros

The German was great during his time at Dortmund and moving to Manchester City under Guardiola seems the perfect move for Gundogan. The german is one of finest and versatile midfielders in Europe. Gundogan’s perfect position would be one of the two holding midfielders in a 4-2-3-1 as not only can he do the defensive work well but his passing and vision combined with his great shooting skills means he can be an attacking asset too despite playing in deep role.

#3 Mats Hummels to Bayern Munich (From B.Dortmund) for 38 million euros

Hummels started his career from youth system of Bayern but moved to Dortmund for more opportunities. His career in Dortmund was amazing as he won two league titles and the world cup in 2014 too and became one of the best defenders of Europe. 7 seasons after he left them, Hummels has joined Bayern back for 38 million euros as a first-team player. Bayern already have Hummels’ German partner (with whom he won the WC), Jerome Boatang so it shouldn’t take hummels too much time to adapt the Bavarians’’ Backline.

#2 Henrikh Mkhitarian to Manchester United (from B.Dortmund) for 42 million euros

Manchester United struggled for goals last season and new manager ‘Jose Mourinho’ has decided to implement this problem by buying one of Europe’s best Playmakers. Mkhitaryan contributed to 55 goals (23 goals, 32 assists) for Dortmund last season. With the ability to play on either wing or as a no. 10, it's fair to say Manchester United have made a good signing in the Armenian.

#1 N'Golo Kante to Chelsea (From Leicester) for 32 million euros

N’Golo Kante was an integral part of Leicester’s fairytale story. Not only was the Frenchman an amazing defensive player with his tackling and work rate but Kante also proved to be asset in an attacking sense by providing precise passes and assists in Leicester’s counter-attacks. Not only is Kante an excellent midfielder but he is a premier-league proven midfielder which makes him our no.1 signing of the season.

 

Why Bayern Munich 12/13 is the best team of the 21st century yet

The 21^st century has seen many great teams from the ‘Invincibles’ of Arsenal (03-04) to the ‘Miracle of Istanbul’ Liverpool (05/06) to the ‘La Decima’ Real Madrid (13-14) to the ’gegenpressing’’ of Dortmund in 2010/11. While we’ve seen some great teams, very few have been dominant in every competition they’ve played in. Very Few teams have been so dominant that they have won all 3 major trophies (treble) in the same season. Only 4 teams have managed the treble in the 21^st century: FC Barcelona in 2008/09 and 2014/15, Inter-Milan in 2009/10 and Bayern Munich in 2012/13. While 2 Barcelona teams have won the treble as well as Jose Mournho's Inter of 2009/10, I think the Bayern-Munich treble winning team has out-performed all of these teams.

The Barcelona treble winning team of 2014/15

The Barcelona treble winning team of 2008/09

Today it’s very normal to hear Bayern Munich won the league but at the beginning of the 2012/13 this was not the case at all. Dortmund had won the league in the previous 2 seasons and Bayern Munich were trophy-less in the previous season. So the Bavarians didn’t have too much investment/money either. So winning one trophy was a big thing let alone a treble.  The Bayern Munich league domination started with Jupp Heynkes and his team in 2012/13 as they completely outperformed the former champions and rivals Dortmund as they finished 25 points ahead of them with a record 91 points from 34 matches. The more remarkable thing about this feat was the fact that Dortmund themselves were having a great season and one of the best clubs in Europe and reached the champions league final. So unlike 2014/15 when Bayern won the league by more than 25 points but Dortmund struggled to reach 7^th and the second placed (Wolfsburg) were in the Europa league, the standard of Bundesliga was at its peak and it was the best league in Europe. The all-German final was a reflection of how strong the Bundesliga was at that time. The German cup/DFP Pokal was dominated by Bayern Munich as they won all their games in 90 minutes in route to win the knockout tournament including a win over Borussia Dortmund. But the tournament that defined the greatness of this team was the champions league. The Bavarians cruised through from their group in first place before beating Arsenal in the Round of 16. After that they thrashed Italian champions Juventus in the quarterfinal 4-0. The match which made the Bayern Munich of 2012/13 the best of the 21^st century was their semifinal tie against European ‘Powerhouse’ Barcelona. Barcelona had had a great season too, they had cruised to the semi-final of the champions league and they were dominating La-Liga eventually ending with 100 points. So this was supposed to be a very close match. It was a 2-leg tie but the 1^st leg had seemed to already have finished the tie. Bayern had absolutely dominated Barcelona. Muller opened the scoring after 25 minutes and German club didn’t seem to look back. The final score was 4-0. Before the second-leg, though the majority was expecting Bayern to win on aggregate, they were also expecting Barcelona to at least close down the gap. Instead it was a completely different story, Bayern Munich demolished Barcelona at the Camp Nou 3-0. They had just defeated the Spanish champions 7-0. It was one of the worst humiliations in Barcelona’s history. Bayern beat Rivals Dortmund 2-1 to win the champions league to show the world why they were the greatest team of 21^st century. Even the Mastermind of the 2008/09 Barcelona’s treble winning team ‘Pep Guardiola’ couldn’t replicate the success of this team despite the extra investment he had got.

The Team of the century so far: 2012/13 Bayern Munich

So how is this team better than the treble winning Barcelona teams of 2008/09 and 2014/15 as well as the inter-milan of 09/10:

The 2014/15 Barcelona team won the treble but it wasn’t smooth at all times. In January, the manager had a fallout with some players and had almost lost his job after his team lost a game. For a lot of the season, Barcelona weren’t even 1^st in the league and won the La-Liga only on the penultimate match day of the season. Also, Barcelona were heavily reliant on goals on their trident of Messi, Suarez and Neymar. On the other hand, Bayern Munich (of 12/13) had a smooth sail to their league title and were 1^st for almost the whole season despite also having the finalists of the champions league in their league. On the other-hand their top-scorer (Muller) had 23 goals showing how much more a team-effort it was and not just a trident-based team as in the case of Barcelona’s 14/15 team.

The 2008/09 Barcelona team was better than their 2014/15 version because of how consistently they played and how they sailed through the league. They weren’t reliant on a goal-scorer unlike the 2014/15 team. However, what makes Bayern better than them is the fact that Barcelona 08/09 didn’t deserve the treble as they progressed through the semi-finals on away goals of the champions league despite their opponents having so many clear penalty calls against them and then a last-minute equalizer from Iniesta sent them through on away goals. It’s fair to say the Barcelona 08/09 was lucky to win the treble. Meanwhile Bayern Munich didn’t need such luck thrashing European Giants like Juventus and Barcelona themselves en route to the champions league and treble.

The Inter team of 2009/10 was undoubtedly great with their success but they weren't the greatest. They won their league title on the last match day and scraped through the semi-final of the champions league in contrast to Bayern Munich's heavy league triumph and their thrashing of Barcelona. Unlike Bayern Munich, they were much more reliant on the management in comparison to the players as after Mourinho left Inter have not won a league or European trophy in contrast to Heynkes' Bayern Depature who made the platform for 3 more league titles in 3 seasons.

This is why Bayern Munich 12/13 is the best team of the 21^st century yet

West Ham vs Liverpool: First game of 2k16

In a highly anticipated first game of 2016, West Ham completed the double over Liverpool for the first time in the premier league era. Even though, the 3-0 away win could be said to be more remarkable of the double, it was no minor result for the hammers to beat Liverpool 2-0 (at home).
The hosts took the lead through an Antonio header from a cross from the right hand side in the 10th minute.

The hosts could have been two up by the first 20 minutes as Manuel Lanzini was denied by the crossbar.

The crossbar denied another goal but this time for Liverpool in the stoppage time of the first half. At halftime, The score was West Ham 1, Liverpool 0.
At the beginning of the second half, Andy Carroll effectively sealed the game as he headed a similar goal to the first one against his former club to give west ham a 2-0 lead.

Both teams created a few more half-chances but failed to covert these into goals.The full-time score was 2-0 in the favour of West-Ham.
With this win, The Hammers moved to 6th and 2 points clear of Liverpool who are now 8th.

Arsenal: Year in Review

Arsenal have had a great year in 2015. They beat all the top-6 teams of the premier league (of 2014/15 season). The last time they achieved this feat they won the league that season.They are currently in second and have a great chance of winning the league due to their excellent form having losing just thrice this league season .We review their 2015:

Arsenal started their 2015 horrendously losing 2-0 at Southampton with Wojciech Szczesny making two errors causing the goals. This was to be his last match as a first-team keeper in the team.

This was followed by a 2-0 win in the FA cup with Sanchez and Mertesacker scoring their first goals of the year. The Gunners then faced stoke city in their first league home game of the year and comfortably dispatched them 3-0 to win their first game of 2015.Alexis Sanchez was involved in all three goals, Scoring two and assisting one. The first big-game followed as Arsenal went to Etihad to face nd place Manchester City. In the 24th minute,Most people had Manchester City as the favourites but what followed was absolutely remarkable.Vincent Kompany fouled Monreal on the edge of the box. The resultant penalty was calmly converted by Santi Cazorla. Arsenal plyed with a defensive mentality and attacked on the break.The Second Goal came in the second half, Santi Cazorla putting in a peach of a ball for giroud to head goalwards. This victory put arsenal in high stead winning in Manchester for the first time in almost 5 years.

Arsenal countinued this form with the trashing of Aston Villa 5-0 at Home.Mesut Ozil marked his first start of 2015 with a goal while Hector Bellarin scored his first ever goal for Arsenal.This was followed by the north-london derby which was against tottenham. Mesut Ozil gave the lead to gunners after placing a mis-hit Giroud shot into the goal. At the break, Arsenal led the game but an in-form Harry Kane equalised in the 55th minute for Spurs. Kane then scored again in the 86th minute to give Spurs the lead and they hold on to win the match 2-1.

This loss was followed by an 8 game win streak in which Olivier Giroud netted in 6 consective games and even won the 'Player of the Month' award for March. This run included a 4-1 demolition against Liverpool and a 3-0 win against West-Ham.4 out of these 8 games saw arsenal winning by a scoreline of 2-1.

Between this League Run, Arsenal faced Manchster United at old trafford in the fa cup and beat them 2-1 with Danny Welbeck scoring the winning goal. This was a huge result the club who had not won in Manchester in almos 5 years, beat both Manchester clubs in Manchester inside the first 3 months of 2015.

Their League Win-Streak though was broken by Chelsea who played out a 0-0 at the emiratess.This Draw was followed by a 3-1 win at Hull with Sanchez and Ramsey staring in the game. Then they played the FA Cup Semi-Final against Reading in which Sanchez scored a brace in 2-1 Extra Time win.  From this game, Arsenal had a poor run of form losing 0-1 to Swansea at the emirates before drawing 0-0 against Sunderland at Home as well. After These Disappointing results, Arsenal went to Old Trafford to face Manchester United in the League and played a 1-1 draw. Their final game of the league was an exciting one with Theo Walcott scoring a first-half hat-trick while Wilshere scoring a blinder as Arsenal went into half-time 4-0. They conceded once in the second-half as the game 4-1 in heir favour. The Season was not over for Arsenal as they faced AstonVilla in the FA cup final. There was a gulfing class between the two teams. For the first 35 minutes, the game was balanced. The rest of the game Arsenal absolutly battered Villa. Theo Walcott opened the scoring in the 40th minute to give Arsenal a 1-0 lead at the break. Arsenal then scored early in the second-half through a Sanchez Long-shot before Per Mertesacker made it 3 in the 62nd minute. Olivier Giroud came on as a substitute and scored in Stoppage as Arsenal won the FA Cup Final with a 4-0 win. This was their 2nd consective FA Cup in a row.

Arsenal were not really active in the off-season with only 1 major signing, Goal Keeper Petr Cech from Chelsea for 15 million pounds. Sanchez and David Ospina went for international duty at the copa america with Sanchez leading Chile to Copa Glory while Ospina  putting great performances including a cleansheet against argentina.
Due to this, this duo was not fully fit to face Chelsea for the community shield in Arsenal's first official game of the season but new signing Cech did play his first game against his former club.
Arsenal scored in the 24th minute throuh an oxlade chamberlin left-footed finesse shot and then defended really well to stop chelsea from scoring. The full-time result was Arsenal 1, Chelsea 0.
This was morale boosting for Arsenal and especially Arsene Wenger who finally beat a Jose Mourinho team.

The team went it full confidence for their first league match against West Ham.

This was to be a shoking match lost 0-2 with both goals due to Petr Cech's mistakes.

After this shock, Arsenal started their recovery with 2-1 win at Crystal Palace. This was followed by a poor performance in which Petr Cech produced one of his carrer's best performances to keep a cleansheet against Liverool in a 0-0 draw at home.This home result was followed by 1-0 victory at Newcastle from a colocini own-goal.This away win was followed by Arsenal's first home win against Stoke, winning 2-0. Arsenal then played Chelsea for the second time in the season, this time losing 2-0 as arsenal ended the game with 9 men. Kurt Zouma opened the scoring just after the second half and Calum Chambers delected Eden Hazard's shot for the second goal in the stoppage time of the second half.This loss was followed by a 5-game league win-streak including wins against Leiceister City and Manchester United. The Streak started at Leiceister where Jamie Vardy opened the scoring before Walcott equalised to make it 1-1, then Sanchez scored a beautifl hat-trick before Vardy and Giroud scored as the game 5-2 in the favour of Arsenal. This league win was followed by a second consecctive champions league loss, this time against Olympiacos.The scoreline was 2-3.This loss was followed by a 5 game win-streak in all competitions. First Up was Manchester United who had just become the league leaders. What happened in the game was sensational. Arsenal went 3-0 up in the first 20 minutes .Even though, the score didn't change from 3-0, the chances arsenal had, they could have had atleast 6 goals.This was a huge resut for then under-pressure arsenal (beause of their champions league).

This win was followed by another one against Watford of the identical scoreline with Giroud,Sanchez and Ramsey scoring a goal each while Ozil assisting two of those. Then came the big Game, Arsenal vs Bayern Munich, Champions League. Bayern dominated the game creating chances throughout the game but still failed to score. Arsenal hit Bayern on the break and Giroud Scored in the 77th minute to make it 1-0. Arsenal sealed the game late on as Ozil scored in the stoppage time of the game.Final Score Arsenal 2, Bayern 0.

This Mid-week win was followed by another won in the weekend Everton, Winning the game 2-1. Arsenal had more chances but Everton could have have equalised but cech had to make a few good saves to save the victory. This victory was followed by argubly Arsenal's shock of the season, losing 3-0 at Sheffield Wednesday in the league cup.

Arsenal did recover from this shock with a 3-0 win at Swansea in the premier league. Giroud, Koscielny and Campbell scoring a goal each. This was to be their only win in the next 4 games as Arsenal went on a poor run that started with 1-1 in the north-london derby before losing at West Brom and then drawing at Norwich. In between, this poor league run was a champions league victory against Dianmo Zagreb at Home, winning 3-0. Ozil opened the scoring before Sanchez scored a brace to seal the game. As of 25th December, Arsenal haven't been on a win-streak of 4 in all competitions since drawing at Norwich. The Streak started with a 3-1 win over Sunderland with Olivier Giroud scoring for both teams.This was followed by a 3-0 win  at Olympiacos with Gioud scoring a hat-trick to ensure arsenal reached the knockout rounds.

This performance was followed by another clean-sheet in a 2-0 win over Aston Villa which was to be Petr Cech's 169th Cleansheet in the Premier League.Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey were on the scoresheet for this game. This win was followed by another one aginst title contenders 'Manchester City'. Walcott opened the scoring with a great shot before Olivier Giroud scored just before half-time. Both Goals were assisted by Mesut Ozil.  Yaya Toure pulled one goal for Manchester City in the Second Half but that the visitor's only goal. The final goal was Arsenal 2, Man City,1. With this win, Arsenal were 2nd in the table.

                

Best Signing of 2015 :Javier Hernandez

There have been many great signings this year but I think the one which has stood out for me is Javier Hernandez from Manchester United to Bayer Leverkusan(August 2015) .
Hernandez came into the limelight in 2010 after an impressive world cup with Mexico before signing for Manchester United for a low undisclosed price.

He marked his debut for the club with a goal and had a great first season becoming the first player to score 20 goals in their first-season. Goals did not stop for the mexican as he netted 30 goals in the last 2 fergy-seasons.

But like many players, his form suffered under new manager 'David Moyes". Just like the team, Hernandez struggled and became a bench player scoring 9 in the 13/14 season as the team ended in a disastorous 7th position. Not so suprisingly, Moyes was sacked and the next season 'Loius Van Gaal' took charge and without much trial, he was loaned to a star-studded Real Madrid. He was obviously not a starter but still got a bit of gametime. He managed to score 9 goals including a chmpions league quaterfinal winner against atletico madrid.

After his Loan-Spell, he was sent from Manchester United again but this time on a permenant deal to German Club 'Bayer Leverkusan' for 7.3 million pounds on deadline day. Fast Foreward to 4 months and he is 1 goal short of meeting his goal tally for his last two seasons (combined). He has scored 17 goals from 18 starts.  Leverkusan haven't been any different in league position since his arrival because of their defensive fragilities which have meant that the attackers have to perform and he has more than sucesseded at doing that.The most impressive thing about his performances are that all the other players have not been very consistant and in his first bundesliga season (till now), he has almost half the goals which the team have scored.

Since October, He has 5 more goals than the entire goal tally of his former club 'Manchester United' who let him for just 7 million pounds.