“?The January transfer window has been part of the Premier League landscape in the middle of every season since 2002/03, and now it’s hard to imagine the post-festive period without all the gossip and rumours that used to be a little more spread out over the whole year.
It’s not always easy to find good deals in January – Chelsea will surely attest to that after paying £50m for a fading Fernando Torres – but, sometimes, such arrivals can have significant impacts, both right away and for a number of years thereafter.
As for the best ever January deal in Premier League history, 69,347 fans responded to a 90min poll to determine exactly who, and the result was fairly unanimous.
With 57% of the vote, former Liverpool forward Luis Suarez was considered by the majority of supporters to be the best signing in the 14 years since the window system came into effect.
Suarez arrived at Liverpool on transfer deadline day in 2011, a £22.8m capture from Ajax. The Uruguayan signed on the same day as Andy Carroll in his £35m move from Newcastle, remembered for entirely different reasons, and started reasonably well before exploding.
He scored four times in his first 13 Premier Leagues games, but it was from 2012 onward that Suarez really hit his stride. He netted 30 times in all competitions in 2012/13 and then scored an incredible 31 league goals in 33 appearances in 2013/14 to claim the Golden Boot and almost drive Liverpool to a first title since 1990 – a wait that still continues.
It took a £75m bid from Barcelona to prise him away from Anfield after that campaign.
The clear second in the standings was Manchester United’s 2006 capture of Nemanja Vidic, with 24% of the votes cast. The imposing Serbian defender was a relative unknown outside eastern Europe when he arrived from Russian giants Spartak Moscow, but quickly endeared himself to the Old Trafford crowd with his uncompromising and aggressive style of play.
Vidic helped United end a four-year title drought in his first full season, eventually finishing his career in England with four additional league trophies, the Champions League, Club World Cup and three League Cup wins to his name, as well as becoming club captain in 2011.
Compared to Suarez and Vidic, who accounted for 81% of the vote between them, the rest of contenders stood little chance of grabbing much attention.
Jermain Defoe, who has helped keep Sunderland in the Premier League against the odds ever since returning to England from Toronto FC, was the choice for 6% of fans.
Gary Cahill was backed by 5% of fans after he left a Bolton side destined for relegation midway through 2011/12 to join Chelsea, as was Theo Walcott after his 2006 move from Southampton to Arsenal at the age of just 16.
Mikel Arteta, such an important figure at Everton for so many years, made his Toffees loan from Real Sociedad permanent in January 2005. The Spaniard only received 3% of the vote.
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