On This Day – 31st August
31st August is always one of the busiest days in the football calendar when it comes to last minute transfer deals. This is because 31st August is the end of the summer transfer window.
Sky Sports make a day of it and presenter Jim White presents a rolling news broadcast, becoming almost too excited about news of any transfer deal that comes from clubs up and down the country.
It was on this day back in 2006 that one of the most shocking transfers happened. If it happened during Jim White’s show, he would almost certainly go into a complete state of excitement and spontaneously combust! Alright, a slight exaggeration there but the deal that I’m about to mention definitely took the football world by surprise.
Argentinian duo Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez were unveiled to the press at West Ham United’s Upton Park ground weeks after helping Argentina reach the Quarter Finals of the World Cup in Germany. Mascherano had played in every minute of the competition and Tevez had scored one goal, in a Serbia & Montenegro.
Tottenham Hotspur had signed two Argentinians back in 1978 when they brought both Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa to the English game. There was something more to this transfer involving Mascherano and Tevez though, with a third party ownership deal. A transfer of this kind would be deemed illegal nowadays.
Their signing had been a real shock as West Ham were hardly a big name club. Alan Pardew was probably as shocked as the rest of the world when Mascherano and Tevez both joined. The two signed for nothing but had the freedom to join another club at a later date as part of a deal involving a third party ownership of the pair.
Alan Pardew was sacked from his role as United manager. He was replaced by Alan Curbishley, a former West Ham player who had made his name as a manger at Charlton Athletic during the 1990’s.
In the pair’s only season at Upton Park, Mascherano was loaned to Liverpool a few months into the season and Tevez became the Hammer of the Year after scoring seven goals in the run-in to the end of the season.
Tevez’s most important goal came at Old Trafford on the last day of the season, in a 1-0 victory for the Hammers which ensured Premier League survival at the expense of Sheffield United.
The club were fined £5.5 million a few weeks before the end of the season for the transfers. The Premier League deemed that the club knew that they were unable to afford the players and so used the Third Party Agreement.
A year later, West Ham and Sheffield United agreed on a £20 million out-of-court settlement because the Sheffield club were relegated instead of the East Londoners. They would no doubt have stayed up if Carlos Tevez hadn’t struck his rich vein of form towards the end of the 2006/07 campaign.
Carlos Tevez left Upton Park for Manchester United at the end of the 2006/07 season and Third Party Ownership transfers were banned from the start of the 2008/09 season.
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