He was joined by Egyptian midfielder Hossam Ghaly from Feyenoord.

Leaving White Hart Lane are Michael Brown, to Fulham, and Wayne Routledge who becomes yet another Spurs player to move to Portsmouth as Harry Redknapp's attempts to rebuild the side he left last year continued. Also moving to Fratton Park are Serbia and Montenegro midfielder Ognen Koroman and, in a coup for Redknapp, young Argentinean playmaker . . .and another once considered an heir to Diego Maradona . . .Andres D'Alessandro from Wolfsburg. All three are loan signings.

Both West Ham and Manchester City looked to strengthen with Alan Pardew getting Argentinean midfielder Lionel Scaloni on loan from Deportivo la Coruna and Stuart Pearce signing Heerenveen's Greek striker Georgios Samaras for £6m as well as Southampton's Matthew Mills.

One of his ex-teammates Quincy Owusu-Abeyie joins Spartak Moscow while one of Aliadiere's ex-clubs, Celtic, got a new striker of their own by reuniting 36-year-old Dion Dublin with Gordon Strachan. Liverpool also looked to give two squad members extra experience on loan, Florent SinamaPongolle going to Blackburn and Mark Gonzalez moving to Real Sociedad.

At the bottom of the table, there were a number of last minute moves made as managers look to quick-fix problems. Mick McCarthy signed Rory Delap from Southampton while West Brom bought Nigel Quashie.