The last-minute scramble: Arsenal get Arteta
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Your support makes all the difference.Arsenal last night persuaded Everton's Spanish midfielder Mikel Arteta to take a £20,000 cut in his weekly wages to secure a move to the Emirates in the most dramatic deal in another transfer deadline day of frantic activity across English football.
Over the course of yesterday evening the deal for Arteta collapsed at 7pm with Arsenal agreeing a fee of around £10m for the 29-year-old only to see the transfer slip away from them over the player's personal terms. However, the move was resurrected at 9.30pm with Arteta the driving force in getting it back on track, taking a £20,000 reduction in his £75,000-per-week wages at Everton.
David Moyes said last night: "Mikel indicated to me that he wished to join Arsenal. I am very disappointed to lose him but the prospect of Champions League football was something I wasn't able to offer him."
Everton were hopeful of taking Royston Drenthe from Real Madrid on a one-year loan. Arsenal also completed deals for the Germany international defender Per Mertesacker from Werder Bremen, for £8m, and the Brazilian left-back Andre Santos from Fenerbahce for £6.2m. They were also tying up a one-year loan move for Yossi Benayoun from Chelsea.
Peter Crouch last night completed a medical with Stoke City with a £10m fee agreed with Tottenham and a four-year contract for the 30-year-old. Having turned down preliminary offers earlier in the week from Stoke and Sunderland, Crouch changed his mind, with manager Tony Pulis impressing the England striker. Stoke also agreed a £4m fee form Birmingham's Cameron Jerome yesterday.
However, Tottenham failed to persuade Craig Bellamy to change his mind about a move to Liverpool. Bellamy was given permission to leave the Wales team camp to have a medical at the club while Liverpool and Manchester City tried to reach an agreement. In the meantime, the Spurs chairman, Daniel Levy, offered him a three-year deal but Bellamy decided to stick with Liverpool's two-year offer.
Tottenham also failed to land the Bolton Wanderers defender Gary Cahill, which meant that Sebastian Bassong was not given permission to join Queen's Park Rangers.
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