Game of football anyone?

As we enter into August I find myself even more anxious than ever for the football season to begin.

This summer seems to have been ‘the summer of the drawn out transfer’ and I can’t wait for clubs to actually have some matches to focus on.

Only in the last few days have any ‘big’ transfer deals been done, with Robbie Keane moving from Spurs to Liverpool for around £20 million and Blackburn’s David Bentley arriving at White Hart Lane for a reported £18 million.

But how many transfer sagas seem to have been going on for weeks with no end in sight?

Gareth Barry to Liverpool, Cristiano Ronaldo to Chelsea, Dimitar Berbatov to Manchester United, Robinho to Chelsea… need I go on?

I have no doubt agents have their parts to play in drawing out these stories and increasing speculation and, of course, sports writers need to fill their back pages with something during the off-season.

But all of these will he/won’t he situations could be easily nipped in the bud by the players themselves.

All it takes is a public statement from the player to quash any gossip or admit he is looking for an exit strategy.

To be fair to Barry, he has been honest in his desire to leave Villa and the protracted nature of the (non)transfer is more due to different valuations between his current and prospective employers.

But it seems there has hardly been a day since the Champions League final on May 21 that there hasn’t been a story regarding Ronaldo and Real Madrid.
Surely he would have come out and committed himself to United if he wanted to stay at Old Trafford.

But he has not even gone public with his desire to leave – the Portuguese star is trying to give Real every encouragement on one hand by not denying the speculation, while at the same time he does not want to alienate the United support in case a deal falls through.

Say what you like about Thierry Henry (my turn first: he’s a moody Frenchman), but whenever there were rumours linking him with a move away from Arsenal he would immediately come out in public and commit himself to the club.

As soon as he decided he wanted to jump ship to Barcelona he admitted he wanted out and the deal was done.

Ronaldo, on the other hand, has been slyly flirting with Real as he tops up his tan in Los Angeles while at the same time trying to keep up a façade of fidelity to United.

And this seems to be the pattern of the summer with several players on the brink of a transfer, in limbo, but few big money transfers actually taking place.

I’m know the managers have another month to sign players and many deals are hinged on funding from other sales, but I would have thought most bosses would want any major new signings to have a decent amount of pre-season to settle in with their new teammates.

I think the Keane move to Liverpool is an interesting one.

The Irishman is a highly intelligent player who has been the modicum of consistency at Premiership level, but his success depends very much on Benitez’s treatment of him.

On signing Keane, Benitez almost immediately highlighted his versatility and ability to play on the right as well as up front.

But there is no doubt Keane is not a winger and it would be a pity if Benitez consigns him to a grafting role out on the right in the mould of Dirk Kuyt.

Keane’s best position would undoubtedly be playing just behind Fernando Torres, linking up as he did so effectively with Berbatov at Spurs, but the problem is that just happens to be one Steven Gerard’s preferred role as well.

Whether Benitez can find a formation to get the best out of Gerard and Keane could be the key to the Reds’ success but I also feel that, whether or not they sign Barry as well, the Merseysiders are still at least one quality wide player short of a title challenge.

At least Keane, a boyhood Liverpool fan, has got his dream move, now what about Barry, Ronaldo and the rest?