Off the hook?

I know everyone's really excited about the Kaká deal but there's an important point to be made about our recent transfer activity.

We heard from Ian Ladyman after the Nottingham Forest game (3rd January) that Hughes was furious with the transfer men for only buying Wayne Bridge by then. He demanded that they work much harder to bring in new players for the next match.

A week passed until the Portsmouth game. We would have put out a very weak team and probably got beaten. But Portsmouth's poor facilities intervened on our behalf, to save us from defeat (and, possibly, to save Mark Hughes).

We then had another week to bring in players for the Wigan game. But the Kaká story broke and everyone stopped talking about Craig Bellamy, Scott Parker, Roque Santa Cruz and the Touré brothers. By Saturday though, Bridge remained the only new purchase. But a rejigged team and some pieces of good luck got us through for us first win since Boxing Day.

Garry Cook and Paul Aldridge were off the hook again. Of course trying to sign Kaká is important and worthy of time and resources. But so, surely, is a new holding midfielder, centre forward and centre back? Kaká is a miraculous footballer, but that doesn't mean all our deficiencies would be fixed by his arrival.

Cook and Aldridge were meant to bring in a set of new players early in January. They have not. A combination of bad weather in Pompey and bad heading by Zaki has meant that this is not a big deal. But I do think their failure in this regard ought to be acknowledged.