Clingan a sweetener but Fox deal leaves sour taste

Danny Fox, part of the Coventry City side that defeated Northampton Town earlier in the week, played the final 15 minutes of Celtic's Wembley friendly against Al Ahly on Friday, proving that a day, let alone a week is a long time in football.

Every player has his price of course and Championship clubs are especially susceptible to raids from the Premier League and from clubs playing in the Champions League.

Sheffield United for instance sold two of their top young talents to Tottenham this week, prompting much gnashing of teeth in South Yorkshire that the Blades were not prepared to gamble on keeping together a side capable of winning promotion and then making an impact in the top-flight.

What the Bramall Lane club have done however (as well as extracting a seemingly top-drawer price out of Spurs) is immediately make a statement of their own with a £3m deal to sign striker Ched Evans from Manchester City as well as announce two other new signings.

The Sky Blues are not revealing the Fox fee but fans will be hoping that newspaper stories claiming it is £2m are well wide of the mark.

Sammy Clingan's arrival on Friday afternoon is a welcome one but hardly makes a statement of intent when Chris Coleman now needs to replace one of his key players in a specialist position in addition to signing the other people he wants to improve his squad.

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