Soccer

Andrews a late mover to the Hawthorns

Soccer: After six months spent on the fringes at Blackburn, or farmed out on loan, Keith Andrews can look forward to regular…

Wed Feb 01 2012 - 00:00

Soccer:After six months spent on the fringes at Blackburn, or farmed out on loan, Keith Andrews can look forward to regular Premier League football having completed his move to West Bromwich Albion ahead of last night's deadline. The midfielder will join gellow Irish internationals Shane Long and Simon Cox after agreeing a deal until the end of the season.

Baggies boss Roy Hodgson said he was delighted to finally sign Andrews, whom he admitted he had tried to buy when he was manager of Fulham. Hodgson told Albion’s official website wba.co.uk: “Keith is a player I know well and have admired for several years.

“He is a flexible midfielder who can play in a number of roles across midfield. He will bring experience to the squad and also has a good goalscoring record. We’re delighted to have him on board as we look to achieve our primary target, which is to secure a third successive season of Barclays Premier League football.”

The 31-year-old has been at Ewood Park since he joined from Milton Keynes Dons in 2008, making 76 appearances for the club.

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QPR were the Premier League’s biggest spenders on transfer deadline day with over €10 million invested on strikers Bobby Zamora and Djibril Cisse. Most of the day’s money went on forwards, with Everton bringing in Rangers’ Nikica Jelavic, Fulham signing Stuttgart’s Pavel Pogrebnyak and Chelsea taking teenager Patrick Bamford from Nottingham Forest.

There was also some traditionally late business for Tottenham who completed a surprise short-term move for Everton’s injury-troubled striker Louis Saha, allowed Roman Pavlyuchenko to join Lokomotiv Moscow and gave loans to defenders Vedran Corluka (Bayer Leverkusen) and Sebastian Bassong (Wolves) with midfielder Steven Pienaar returning to Goodison Park until the end of the season.

But there was no late escape for Manchester City’s wantaway forward Carlos Tevez as interest from the continent failed to manifest itself into anything stronger, leaving the Argentina international in limbo again.

Overall, spending was down massively compared to 12 months ago as clubs tightened their belts with one eye on UEFA Financial Fair Play regulations. That said, only Stoke and Liverpool failed to sign anyone in January.