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F365's Top Ten Summer Sale Bargains

Everyone on this list is either free or available for less than £2m. We might not like Filthy Lucre Neill or Jermaine Pennant, but we'd certainly take them for nowt. And then there's the former EMO...

Last Updated: 24/06/09 at 09:06 Post Comment

Everyone on this list is either free or available for less than £2m. We might not like Filthy Lucre Neill or Jermain Pennant, but we'd certainly take them for nowt. And then there's the former EMO...


10) DIDI HAMANN (FREE)
He's been strongly linked with a move to 1860 Munich but the German midfielder who turned the Champions League final has been busy telling Sky Sports this week that he thinks he can do a job in the Premier League. At 35, he's not going to be a box-to-box option, but a calm presence in the middle of the park might be just the ticket for Hull or Burnley. Failing that, Football365's Forest fan Nick Miller reckons he'll make a mess of his chair if he opts to drop down to the Championship to join a certain team with an illustrious history.


9) SOL CAMPBELL (FREE)
Although it seems likely that Sol will fulfil a lifelong ambition to play his football on foreign shores, that's what he said just before he joined the very English Portsmouth in 2006. His legs might have let him down towards the end of last season but he could be a decent 20-game-a-season bet for a team needing a cool head. The Pompey move re-ignited his career, and there's a chance that a switch to Aston Villa or West Ham could do the same again.


8) NICKY BUTT (FREE)
There's talk of Newcastle wanting to keep hold of Butt, but can Newcastle afford to keep anyone on the payroll in the Championship who earns £3m a year? There will be suitors for a player with over 15 years of top-flight football under his belt, even though Butt is now 34 and realistically only has two years left in his legs at this level. Wolves have been linked and you can certainly see the attraction, while Blackburn might see him as a successor to Tugay as an older, though rather less hairy, head in the middle of the park.


7) HABIB BEYE (£1m)
One of the few players who can walk away from Newcastle this summer with their head held high, Habib Beye has not only become a fans' favourite because of his song-friendly name, but because he genuinely put in the hard yards for Newcastle over two very difficult seasons. He says he'll happily stay but Newcastle are unlikely to turn down a million for a 31-year-old and the likes of Sunderland, West Ham, Stoke and Hull should be very happy to take a very good right-back off their hands for a pittance.


6) BENJANI (£2m)
Remember back in January 2007 when we all loved Benjani - 12 goals to the good and played the game with a massive grin on his face that almost made you want good things to happen to a Harry Redknapp side. He joined Manchester City in a late, late deal allegedly made later by the Zimbabwean falling asleep at the airport. Surprisingly, he only cost an initial £3.87m, with more paymenmt due to Portsmouth after 25, 30 and 75 games. Interestingly, Benjani has played 21 times so City will likely take some money and run rather than keep him around to cost more cash - they have a striker or two around to take up the slack. Don't be surprised to see Benjani back at Pompey.


5) SYLVAIN DISTIN (£2m)
One of the most consistent centre-halves outside the Big Four over the past five or six years, it's said that the Frenchman turned down Chelsea and Liverpool for first-team football at Portsmouth. That was an understandable move at 29, but at 31 he might want to make a different decision if the big boys come calling again. He would be a perfect fit for either club, who both need a Premier League-ready, auxiliary defender to replace the departing Sami Hyypia and Ricardo Carvalho. The fact that he can also play at left-back could come in rather handy too.


4) LUCAS NEILL (FREE)
We might call him Filthy Lucre Neill and still gape in awe at the ridiculous decision of rejecting Liverpool for more money at West Ham, but we have to admit that he's a very decent right-back (and auxiliary centre-back) indeed with eight years of solid if unspectacular Premier League appearances under his belt. As long as he's not expecting £80,000 a week, at 31 he'd be more than worth the investment of a two-year contract. Chelsea have been linked but we fancy that Everton might look at Neill and say 'hmmm, he's a sight better than Tony Hibbert'.


3) JERMAINE PENNANT (FREE)
You don't have to like him to appreciate that he would be a cracking free signing for a mid-table side, and at only 26 there's always the chance that he'll fulfil his potential, look very good in an average side, and you can sell him on for a tidy profit in a year's time. It worked for Birmingham. Ish. He will be slightly harshly filed under 'Liverpool flop', but anyone who watched the 2007 Champions League final will testify that he wasn't always floundering out of his depth for the Reds. For someone like Sunderland - and supplying someone like Kenwyne Jones - he will look quality.


2) MICHAEL OWEN (FREE)
This one comes with a massive 'if', and that 'if' is a pay-as-you-play deal that means the man previously known as EMO only gets his moolah if he can drag his fragile arse out on the pitch. A record of less than 80 games in four years tells you exactly why Newcastle fans resent £110,000-a-week Owen, but a record of 29 goals in those games indicates a strike rate of better than one in three. That's a ratio on a par with someone of Jermain Defoe's calibre and it's a ratio worth a certain kind of contract at a club looking to finish in the top six. You know we're looking at you, David Moyes.


1) RUUD VAN NISTELROOY (£1.25m)
Yes, he'll be 33 and there are several question marks opposite the word 'fitness' on his virtual resume, but this is a striker who has scored 232 league goals in 384 games for his five clubs, with close to a phenomenal two-in-three record in the two strongest leagues in the world. When fit he is a goal-scoring machine, so any club who can talk him down from his £90,000-a-week wages will have themselves a bargain. He might not play 40 games a season, but when 25 games can reap 15 goals, who cares?

Sarah Winterburn

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