Stoke get the point as summer transfer window closes

Stoke chairman, Peter Coates - evidence that gambling can be good for you. 

Especially if you own the company.

In spite of some frantic last day buying and selling in the Premiership yesterday, West Midlands clubs have not featured amongst the big spenders and Stoke City will be awarded the Braggers' League bonus point for their purchase of Kenwyne Jones from Sunderland for 8 million pounds.

With a rumoured consensus that the value of Stephen Ireland may have been around the 9 million pounds mark when he joined Villa from Manchester City as part of the James Milner deal, unfortunately because the real value of the transfer remains undisclosed, it means that Villa can not in fairness be awarded the Braggers' bonus point for highest local purchase.

Birmingham City arguably spent more than any the 5 West Midlands teams in the summer transfer window with the combined purchase of Ben Foster from Manchester United and Nicola Zigic from Valencia, both for 6 million pounds each. Albion's top declared purchase was 1.5 million pounds paid out for Nicky Shorey from Villa, whilst Wolves paid £6.5 million for Steven Fletcher from Burnley, £3 million for Stephen Hunt from Hull and £2.5 million for Jelle van Damme from Anderlecht.

This is the full list of the local comings and goings during the summer:

Aston Villa

Players in:

Stephen Ireland (Man City, U/D)

Players Out:

Wilfred Bouma (released), Marlon Harewood (released), Stephen O'Halloran (Coventry - free), Andy Marshall (released), Jack Dyer (Burton - free), Harry Forrester (Kilmarnock, loan) Nicky Shorey (1.5 million).

Birmingham City

Players in:

Enric Calles (NAC Breda - free), Ben Foster (Man Utd £6m), Nicola Zigic (Valencia, £6m), Matt Derbyshire (Olympiacos, loan), Martin Jiranek (Spartak Moscow, U/D), Alexander Hleb (Barcelona, loan), Jean Beausejour (Club America, U/D).

Players out:

Gary McSheffrey (Coventry, free), Gregory Vignal (released), Jared Wilson (released), Lee Carsley (Coventry, free), Artur Kryslak (Exeter, free), Franck Queudrue (released), Robin Shroot (Cheltenham, loan), Luke Hubbin (Notts County, loan), Colin Doyle (Coventry, loan).

Stoke City

Players in:

Eidur Gudjohnsen (Monaco, U/D rumoured £2 million), Carlo Nash (Everton, free), Florent Cuvelier (Portsmouth, U/D), Kenwyne Jones (Sunderland £8 million), Jon Walters (Ipswich £2.75 million), Salif Diao (re-signed), Jermaine Pennant (Zaragoza), Marc Wilson (Portsmouth).

Players out:

Andy Griffin (reading, U/D), Steve Simonsen (Sheffield United, free), Amdy Faye (released), Diego Arismendi (Barnsley, loan), Ibrahim Sonko (Portsmouth, loan), Nathaniel Wedderburn (Northampton, free), James Beattie (Rangers, U/D), Carl Dickinson (Portsmouth, loan), Salif Diao (released), Ben Marshall (Carlisle, loan), Liam Lawrence (Portsmouth), Dave Kitson (Portsmouth).

West Brom

Players in:

Pablo Ibanez (Athletico Madrid, free), Gabriel Tamas (Auxerre, U/D), Steven Reid (Blackburn, free), Peter Odemwingle (Lokomtiv Moscow, U/D), Somen Tchoyl (Salzburg, U/D), Marc-Antoine Fortune (Celtic, U/D), Boaz Myhill (Hull, U/D), Nicky Shorey (Villa, £1.5 million), Paul Scharner (Wigan, free), Craig Dawson (Rochdale).

Players out:

Andwele Slory (released), Robert Koren (released), Filipe Teixeira (released), Jonathan Greening (Fulham U/D), Borja Valero (Villareal, loan) Joss Labadie (Tranmere, free), Leon Barnett (Norwich, loan), Kayleden Brown (Tranmere, loan), Craig Dawson (Rochdale, loan)

Wolves

Players in

Jelle van Damme (Anderlecht, £2.5 million), Steven Fletcher (Burnley £6.5 million), Stephen Mouyokolo (Hull, U/D), Stephen Hunt (Hull £3 million), Adlene Guedioura (RSC Charleroi, free), Michael Macncienne (Chelsea, loan), Geoffrey Mujangi Bia (Charleroi, loan), Marcus Bent (Birmingham, loan).

Players out:

Jason Shackell (Barnsley, U/D), Mark Little (Peterborough, free), Daniel Jones (released), George Friend (released), Chris Iwelumo (Burnley, U/D), Andrew Surman (Norwich, U/D), Andy Keogh (Cardiff, loan), Same Vokes (Bristol City, loan)

Kenwyne - looks fantastic, but can he play football?

Remember, all players purchased during the season will be contenders for a special award in our Braggers' League Annual Awards next summer for the player who turns out to be the 'Biggest Flop', i.e. a high expectation signing who spends the season on the bench, fighting with the coach on the training ground, going on strike, etc). It looks like we're relying on Kenwyne to hit the booze and poker then, as there ain't a lot else to build our hopes up around this bloody shower!

The bonus point will be duly awarded to Stoke City, taking them to second position in the Braggers' League table, unless anyone shows us convincing evidence of a higher transfer fee having been paid (perhaps one of the undisclosed fees) before this weekend.