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Premiership Football News: Transfer Window

Marc Fox examines the case for the defence

If last summer it was all about signing strikers on deadline day, yesterday's countdown to closing the Premier League transfer window was headlined by a merry-go-round of central defenders.

Mark Hughes' heavy-handed £24m chase of Joleon Lescott laid the foundation for a series a last minute switches among only a handful of Premiership clubs.

The departure of England international Lescott to Manchester City prompted Everton manager David Moyes' raid for Portsmouth's Sylvain Distin. The Frenchman had previously spent five seasons in the northwest at City where he won the club's player-of-the-year in 2003 and captained the side.

Moyes splashed out another £6m of the Lescott earnings on Dutch defender Johnny Heitinga from Atletico Madrid. Heitinga, who signed a five-year deal at Goodison, offers substantial versatility and can play across the backline or in central midfield.

Portsmouth owner Sulaiman Al-Fahim only completed his takeover of the south coast club last week, leaving manager Paul Hart scratching around for central defensive reinforcements late into the summer window.

With Portsmouth's other main centre-half Sol Campbell also leaving for Notts County, a desperate Hart also took advantage of Lescott's arrival at Eastlands by swooping for forgotten Israeli international defender Tal Ben Haim on a four-year deal.

Pompey also added Watford's 25-year-old Mike Williamson. "He's a young, hungry centre-half – a big lad who's uncompromising and does the basics first," said Hart. "We've watched him play and he's shown great promise which hopefully he will build on under our guidance."

Lescott's switch to City and the imminent return of Vincent Kompany from injury also allowed Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill to sign his number one target Richard Dunne.

Dunne, the Ireland captain, will fill the void left by the retirement of Martin Laursen at the end of last season because of a knee injury.

His signing for an undisclosed fee believed to be £6 million ends a nine-season spell with City, although the Premier League will only finalise Dunne's transfer today after last-gasp wrangles with his former employers over a loyalty payment for the remainder of his contract.

With Zat Knight having been offloaded to Bolton and Curtis Davies facing surgery on a dislocated shoulder that could sideline him for over two months, Villa have showed their defence frailties already this season and were bundled out of the Europa League playoff stages by Rapid Vienna last week.

"He is just the kind of person we are looking for," said O'Neill.

James Collins, the West Ham central defender, also joined Villa for £5 million after rejecting a move to Stoke City because of the personal terms on offer.

Confusingly, Stoke manager Tony Pulis instead moved for Danny Collins, the Sunderland defender, which prompted another series of deadline day deals.

Sunderland replaced Collins with Hull City's highly rated Michael Turner for a fee which could rise as high as £12m. The 25-year-old played every minute for Hull last season and was thought to have interested Liverpool before Rafa Benitez swooped for the cheaper Sotirios Kyrgiakos.

"Michael is one of the country's premier central defenders. I have been looking to add size and strength to the back line and Michael fits the bill perfectly in that respect, as well as being an excellent technical footballer," said delighted Sunderland manager Steve Bruce.

Hull completed the three-way switch by replacing Turner with Stoke's Ibrahima Sonko on a season-long loan. The Senegal international played 14 times last season.

January Transfer 2009 Window Part One

Marc Fox

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