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Premier League Betting: The Meaning of Life

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So the transfer window shuts tonight and we´ve got four dull months to go through. No more secret sessions logging into your club´s website at work in the hope they´ve announced a big new arrival. On the other hand no more worrying that your brightest star is about to be lured away, says Ralph Ellis.

The transfer window is a bit like the meaning of life. Everybody has asked the question "why?", but nobody has ever come up with an answer. Or ever will, probably. In fact you´re more likely to have a cogent theory on why we are all here than for why it made sense to limit footballers to a few weeks a year when they can change jobs.

In the meantime it means four months to find out just how good the new arrivals can be, and who has made best use of the chance to strengthen their squad. And on the face of it Mark Hughes has not done so badly at all.

He already had Brazilian striker Jo lined up for him when he took over at Eastlands. But his dealings since have been outstanding - very much in the tradition of the man who found the likes of Benni McCarthy and Roque Santa Cruz for bargain prices at Blackburn. Belgian defender Vincent Kompany had already looked like quality in last week´s win over West Ham, and then Shaun Wright-Phillips turned up and helped himself to two debut goals at Sunderland. For a club that´s supposed to be in chaos while the owner unlocks his fortune from Thailand, it was the perfect morale booster and another sign that Hughes is a quality manager. Just to add to his pot he´s now gone out and signed Argentine defender Pablo Zabaleta from Espanyol. City are now [3.35] for a top six finish, and looking far better value than Tottenham who are [2.1]

They´ve certainly used the window better. Spurs may or may not wave goodbye to Dimitar Berbatov today, but whether he goes or stays the whole summer has damaged them. Losing Robbie Keane was bad enough, even though some reckon getting 20 million quid was good business. The truth is that selling your goals is never good business and that showed at Stamford Bridge, despite Darren Bent helping take a point. Bent, incidentally, is now [10.5] to be top English goalscorer.

Jermaine Defoe has taken over as favourite at [4.6], but I´m not sure I´d be that swayed by his first couple of goals in a Portsmouth shirt. Harry Redknapp is traditionally the master of the transfer market, but while he´s bought too good forwards there still must be long term doubts about the quality of supply to go with them. Defoe is in Fabio Capello´s first competitive England squad, as is Jimmy Bullard who now looks like staying at Fulham.

Aston Villa were the biggest spenders until today, and Martin O´Neill must have been pretty happy with how his new boys looked in the 0-0 draw against Liverpool. The defence needs time to settle, and it was encouraging that Nicky Shorey looked for the first time like the left back who used to play for Reading instead of his twin brother from a Sunday pub team. He still needs a genuine goalscorer to push the club into the top four, though.
Robbie Keane is quality but there was little sign at Villa Park that any of Rafa Benitez´s other additions to his squad will do anything much more than make up the numbers. They have to be listed among those who´ve done worst in the window, headed by Newcastle who let James Milner go and have not brought in nearly enough numbers. All of Kevin Keegan´s problems were clear in the 3-0 mauling at Arsenal and the Toon who talked big about winning things again under Keegan are now as long as [19.0] just to make the top four.

West Ham have done even worse with their Icelandic owners suffering from the credit crunch. But here´s a thing - they´ve just got Craig Bellamy back fit, and fifth in the table this morning, they are [21.0] to be top at the end of September. With West Brom, Newcastle and Fulham to play. Might just judge them on last year´s transfer window dealings and have a punt on that one!