Last minute transfer news

Last updated : 09 August 2002 By Tony Scholes

Paul Ince - latest Wolves signing
Two of the signings have captured the headlines as former England players have stepped down from the Premiership into the Nationwide League. The first of these was Aston Villa’s Paul Merson who signed for Portsmouth at the beginning of the week. Harry Redknapp has been linked with a number of top names over the summer and finally got his man when Merson agreed to a deal at Fratton Park.

He was quickly followed by Paul Ince who left Middlesbrough because he wanted to be based in the North West again. This week he signed a one year deal with Wolves although to my knowledge they have not done a Wimbledon and moved the club 70 miles up the M6.

Even Bradford City got busy today and made three free signings taking Andy Gray from Forest, Brentford’s Paul Evans and Gus Uhlenbeek from Sheffield United. Not bad for a club that doesn’t bother to pay its player during the summer. There have been departures though and Gary Locke has signed for Hibs whilst Eoin Jess swapped places with Gray and signed for Forest.

He is not the only new face at the City Ground in Nottingham they also today clinched the signing of Marcus Hall, released at the end of last season by Coventry City. Forest’s Gareth Edds though has now signed for Swindon Town.

Meanwhile just down the road from Nottingham Micky Adams has been able to take in two players today and has signed Nicky Summerbee and Billy McKinlay two players who seem to have played for just about everybody in the last year. There has been a departure at the Walkers Stadium though with Jacob Laursen finally agreeing a loan move to PAOK Salonika.

Nicky Summerbee in action against the Clarets for Forest - he has now joined Leicester
He was apparently a Clarets target but Neal Ardley has finally left Franchise FC and signed for Watford and has become Ray Lewington’s second signing. Also out at Selhurst Park or wherever they think they are playing are Ian Selley who has joined Southend on loan and former Burnley loan man Paul Robinson who has joined Grimsby on loan again after ending last season with them. He has joined the Mariners for three months.

Reading have involved themselves in a bit of goalkeeper swapping. Frank Talia has left for Wycombe and they have signed Marcus Hahnemann from Fulham. He was linked with the Clarets last January, after a loan spell at Reading, when Nik Michopoulos was injured.

The only club to spend any money again this week are Crystal Palace. They finally completed the signing of Andy Johnson from Birmingham for £750,000 and then added Brentford’s Darren Powell in a £400,000 deal.

Preston finally sold Sean Gregan to West Brom for £1.5 million and then replaced him with Marlon Broomes much to the disappointment of Stan who was hoping to bring him in at Burnley. Broomes had already spoken to Preston before the friendlies against Bolton and Bury but they only wanted him if Gregan went.

Just two more incoming signings, Brighton have signed goalkeeper Andy Petterson and Gillingham have picked up their third striker of the summer with the acquisition of Frenchman Mamady Sidibe from Swansea. A couple of loans out have seen Ipswich Town’s Steve Burton join league newcomers Boston United and Benoit Croissant leave Sheffield United for Dutch club Telstar.

Below we list all the ins and outs at the First Division clubs since the end of last season. The list does not include players who were on loan at clubs at the end of last season and have since returned to their clubs.

Bradford City

IN: Paul Evans, Andy Gray, Gus Uhlenbeek

OUT: Benito Carbone, Gunnar Halle, Eoin Jess, Gary Locke, Stuart McCall, Gareth Whalley, Jon Worsnop

Brighton and Hove Albion

IN: none

OUT: Darren Freeman, Phil Hadland, Daniel Harding, Chris Jones, John Keeley, Simon Morgan, Lee Steele

Burnley

IN: none

OUT: Kevin Ball, Luigi Cennamo, Tony Ellis, Paul Gascoigne, Lenny Johnrose, Mitchell Thomas, John Williamson

Coventry City

IN: Gary Caldwell (loan), Dean Gordon, Gary McAllister

OUT: Gary Breen, Thomas Cudworth, Andreas Dahl, Marc Edworthy, Marcus Hall, Magnus Hedman, Roland Nilsson, Gary McPhee, Richard Spong, Craig Strachan, Paul Trollope, Ysrael Zuniga

Crystal Palace

IN: Danny Butterfield, Shaun Derry, Andy Johnson, Darren Powell

OUT: Cedric Carasso, Scott Gooding, Matt Gregg, Richard Harris, David Hopkin, Jovan Kirovski, Robert Kember, Clinton Morrison, Jamie Pollock, Simon Rodger

Derby County

IN: none

OUT: Stefano Eranio, Patrick Foletti, Gareth McKeown

Gillingham

IN: Tommy Johnson, Mamady Sidibe, Rod Wallace

OUT: Marcus Browning, Mark Lovell, Iffy Onuora

Grimsby Town

IN: Steve Chettle, Terry Cooke, Darren Barnard, Bradley Hughes, Paul Robinson (loan)

OUT: Michael Boulding, Wayne Burnett, Robbie Busscher, Danny Butterfield, Ben Chapman, Ronald Ermes, Willie Falconer, Mike Jeffrey, Chris Kiwomya, David Smith, Menno Willems

Ipswich Town

IN: none

OUT: Lee Beevers, Titus Bramble, Steve Burton (loan), Alan Connell, Gary Croft, Guillermo Graaven, Steve Moffat, Ashley Nicholls, Mike Salmon, Matteo Sereni (loan)

Leicester City

IN: Billy McKinlay, Nicky Summerbee

OUT: Ian Andrews, Arnar Gunnlaugsson, Jacob Laursen (loan), Ashly Lyth, Michael Price, Gary Rowett, Robbie Savage, Tommy Williamson, Dennis Wise, Nicole Wright, Tommy Wright

Millwall

IN: none

OUT: Marc Bircham Leon Constantine, Sean Dyche, Ryan Green, Christophe Kinet, Giovanni Savarese, Daniel Steele

Norwich City

IN: Paul Heckingbottom

OUT: Lewis Blois, Danny Bloomfield, Paul Dalglish, Arran Lee-Barrett

Nottingham Forest

IN: Marcus Hall, Eoin Jess

OUT: Gareth Edds, Andy Gray, Nicky Summerbee

Portsmouth

IN: Arjan De Zeeuw, Hayden Foxe, Shaka Hislop, Richard Hughes, Paul Merson, Carl Robinson, Matthew Taylor

OUT: Garry Brady, Shaun Derry, Stefani Miglioranzi, Michael Panopoulos, Robert Prosinecki, Mladen Rudonja, Thomas Thogersen, Alessandro Zamparini

Preston North End

IN: Marlon Broomes, Ricardo Fuller, Tyrone Mears

OUT: Pawell Abbott (loan) Steve Basham, Sean Gregan, Paddy Quinn, Steve Robinson, Clyde Wijnhard

Reading

IN: Marcus Hahnemann

OUT: Chris Casper, Keith Jones, Antony Malessa, Matt Robinson, Neil Smith, Frank Talia

Rotherham United

IN: none

OUT: Trevor Berry

Sheffield United

IN: Wayne Allison, Karl Colley, Laurens Ten Heuvel, Paddy Kenny (loan), Stuart McCall, Iffy Onuora, Steve Yates

OUT: Kevin Blackwell, Adam Burley, Benoit Croissant (loan), Keith Curle, Paul Devlin, Laurent D’Jaffo, Bobby Ford, Adrian Littlejohn, Shane Nicholson, Lee Sandford, George Santos, Patrick Suffo, Gus Uhlenbeek, Mark Ward, Buba Yohanna

Sheffield Wednesday

IN: John Beswetherick, Paul Evans, Leon Knight (loan), Lloyd Owusu

OUT: Marlon Broomes, Alan Cawley, Dean Cropper, Kevin Gallagher, Neil Gibson, Steve Harkness, Danny Maddix, Adam Muller, Sean Roberts, Phillip Scott, Richard Siddall, Anwar Uddin

Stoke City

IN: Chris Greenacre

OUT: Ian Brightwell, Matthew Bullock, Rikhardur Dadason, Laurence Hall, Mikael Hansson, Jonathan Mills, Stefan Thordarson, Gavin Ward, Andrew Wilkinson

Walsall

IN: Darren Bazeley, Steve Corica, Danny Hay, Dani Rodrigues, Danny Sonner, David Zdrilic

OUT: Tom Bennett, Frederick Biancalani, Matthew Gadsby (loan), Carlos Garrocho, Don Goodman, Lee Harper, Craig Jones, Dean Keates, Adolphus Ofodile, Fitzroy Simpson

Watford

IN: Neal Ardley, Sean Dyche

OUT: Patrick Blondeau, Filippo Galli, Nigel Gibbs, Elliott Godfrey, Bradley Hughes, Pierre Issa, Matthew Langston, Barrie Matthews, James Panayi, Simon Patterson, Nordin Wooter, Ramon Vega

Franchise

IN: none

OUT: Gareth Ainsworth, Neal Ardley, Dean Blackwell, Kenny Cunningham, Ian Feuer, Michael Hughes, Neil Jenkins, Alan Kimble, Simon Mensing, Sam Okikiolu, Andy Roberts, Paul Robinson (loan), Ian Selley (loan)

Wolverhampton Wanderers

IN: Paul Ince, Ivar Ingimarsson, Denis Irwin

OUT: Darren Bazeley, Colin Larkin, Kevin Muscat, Carl Robinson, Cedric Roussel (loan), Andy Sinton