Transfer of the day: No. 2: Sunday is the Lord's Day

It appears that no transfer business is done on Sundays. Anyway, my sources indicate no deals have gone through today. So, instead of talking about a specific transfer, I'll discuss the transfer policy of a club. And who better than the biggest spenders of the transfer window, Barcelona?

Catalonia's flagship club has thrown 92.5 million Euros at a squad that could already have been justifiably called the world's most talented. Under Frank Rijkaard's low-key, dignified management, the club accumulated some of the world's best players--Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Deco, Henry, Zambrotta, Marquez, Yaya Toure--to add to the cream of their fantastic youth system--Messi, Xavi, Puyol, Iniesta, Bojan. As a fan, I began to feel tenderly for many of these players. But last season, it was clear that something wasn't working. Maybe there were too many personalities, maybe not enough wide players, maybe Rijkaard's tactical inflexibility and permissiveness had grown stale. Whatever the cause, there needed to be a clear-out and the club installed former great Pep Guardiola as coach to make it happen.



Departures: Ronaldinho and Zambrotta (Milan), Deco (Chelsea), Giovani (Tottenham), Valiente (Sevilla), Edmilson (Villarreal), Ezquerro and Thuram (out of contract). Total: €45m. I'm sad that Ronaldinho and Deco have to go. The former has more magic in his feet than anyone I have ever seen play the game, but though his gifts will be missed, he has not been a crucial member of the squad for a while. Deco is the real loss. He is the engine that has powered the team's great victories since his arrival, the reservoir of grit and fluidity and the club owes him a lot. And selling Giovani is a move I just don't understand. He doesn't keep his head down and do the business like Bojan, but he definitely has the talent to succeed and his confidence and will to win are something missing from many of his now-former teammates. I hope he does well in London.



Arrivals: Dani Alves and Keita (Sevilla), Caceres (Villarreal), Hleb (Arsenal), Henrique (Palmeiras), Pique (Man Utd), Pinto (Celta). Total: €92.5m. There are promising signs, such as the purchase of Alves, who will provide the width the club has lacked. But most of these transfers confuse me. The signing of Keita seems superfluous with Yaya Toure, who had a great season last year, already at the club. The strangest buy, though, is Caceres, when the club already has two central defenders under 180cm. Considering Guardiola's lack of experience and the infighting in the board room, it's difficult not to feel nervous.

Probable lineup for next year: Valdes; Alves, Puyol, Caceres, Abidal; Xavi, Toure, Iniesta; Messi, Henry, Hleb

Transfer of the day: No. 1, Matuzalem

This is the first of a series that will span the entire summer of profiles of players who have just moved clubs.


Matuzalem
Real Zaragoza to Lazio, loan
Nationality: Brazil
Position: playmaker


I think it's common knowledge that Brazilian playmakers are the most exciting players in soccer. And I've always entertained the idea that there are three or four out there better than our wildest dreams who simply haven't been discovered yet. Matuzalem, I have always believed, is such a player.

Of course, I have never seen him play. He's been in only 14 games since his move to Real Zaragoza and who has ever been able to watch the Ukrainian league. And, judging by how Zaragoza played this year, he must have been pretty bad not to get in the side. But come on: he has a really cool, biblical-sounding name. His highlights reel shows someone capable of precise finishing and great movement. It is also said that he can track back. And Lazio is a team where playmakers like Veron and Nedved have historically fulfilled their potential.

I have terrible instincts for this type of thing, but I'm bound to get it right some time, so here goes: Matuzalem will be a reasonable success at Lazio if he manages to stay there rather than returning to Zaragoza after his loan expires, he will draw interest from a bigger club, probably Juventus or Inter.

Final set, short one Arshavin.

The teams in the final are now settled in Euro 2008, and I am disappointed. Like many neutrals this summer, I have grown very fond of Russia. That is probably helped by my Slavic heritage, but it is the quality of the Russian team's play that has won me over most.

Unlike so many teams in these ever-more-negative times in soccer, the Russians are unafraid to attack. And, more than that, they not only do it well, but they do so based on the promptings of a true soccer throwback, Andrei Arshavin.

Anyone who saw Arshavin against Sweden and the Netherlands would have been impressed by him. Increasingly, star players are marked out by power, pace and flash. Not Arshavin. His game is all about a brain more complex, sophisticated and outrageously creative than those of mere mortals. Soccer players are often falsely described as artists, but with Arshavin in control, the game is a truly beautiful canvas.

He is infused with the aura of genius. How else can you explain his near-psychic ability to know where everyone else on the field is? He doesn't have Pele's feet, but it's difficult to imagine the great Brazilian's brain was much different from that of the Zenit St. Petersburg playmaker.

The final will be full of talented individuals. Michael Ballack, Germany's captain, has two feet capable of putting the ball wherever he pleases, and the muscle, temperament, and class to influence games without being seen. For Spain's best player, Xavi, like Arshavin, the game is as much in his head as it is at his feet, but he is an engineer, not an artist, constantly calculating the likeliest ball to retain possession and maintain his side's advantage. It will by no means be a poor show.

But I, for one, will miss the swashbuckling, vigorous Russians. So here's to them.