...God opens a window.

Well, the transfer window is officially closed in the world of soccer, and I'm ready to assess how my two favorite European soccer teams fared on the final day of the transfer period.

We'll start with the Magpies of Newcastle United. The Toon Army were getting mighty worried that we would have a crappy transfer period, or no transfer period, based on the fact that the team is still in transition and not an EPL elite type of squad any longer. I'm going to have to say that we were all wrong. Newcastle made a fairly significant splash, in my opinion, as a way to try and solidify their top spot in the Coca Cola Championship table thus hoping to shore up promotion back to the EPL by '10/'11. We loaned up Fitz Hall and Patrick Van Aaholt (of Chelsea fame) earlier in the week to offset letting go of Fabio Zamblera to AS Roma. Meanwhile, after going through a year of losses of Newcastle greats like Oba Martins, Seb Bassong, Beye, Irishman Damien Duff, and weak sauce Geremi, 'Castle sucked it up and picked up Danny Simpson from Man U, Wayne Routledge, Mike Williamson from Ports, and the big splash of Leon Best from Coventry City. Best is a stud, getting 19 goals in his 3 years at Coventry, and it a Republic of Ireland started 7 times over since 2008. He had back to back hat tricks last season in CC, and earned the nickname "Socko" after wearing protective socks even after an ankle injury healed (kind of like that dude from the Pistons with the face mask). Not too long ago, back in October, has was named player of the month in the Championship, and now he's here at St. James'. Despite not being a starter, Shola is still my favorite Mag, but Socko Best is clearly gaining as an Irish native (now the only Irishman on the squad outside of the rarely playing defender Callum Morris). Best will be the biggest acquisition, but hopefully Williamson will get the defense a little more solid, along with Danny Simpson (but I'm sure Andrew will tell me he sucks), Van Aanholt (but I'm sure Brandon will tell me he sucks), and Fitzy. Next up for 'Castle is a battle with Cardiff City on Friday, and hopefully Best can get in there and help increase our 4 point table leading mark.

How did Celtic fare on the final day of the transfer period? Wow, talk about a weird day for me as a fan of the Hoops. Middlebrough stole my favorite player on the team, Aussie Scott McDonald, adding to the losses of Mark Brown, Danny Fox, Stephen McManus (on loan), and the earlier losses of Naka, O'Dea, and Kennedy. On the flip side, we picked up the amazing Irishman Robbie Keane on loan from Tottenham. Born in Dublin, Keane scored 11 goals in his 29 EPL games thus far, and should bring a shockingly awesome offensive prowess to my Bhoys. He should more than make up for the loss of Scottie Mac, although the tears still fall for the Aussie. The Green & White also added Edson Braafheid from Bayern Munich, Paul Slane from Motherwell, and Diomansy Kamara from Fulham. That's all just from today, adding to the previous pick ups of Morten Rasmussen, Thomas Rogne, Jos Hooiveld, and Ki Sung-Yong (from FC Seoul). I think the Sligo faithful are going to be pretty stoked on our acquisitions, despite our losses, and hopefully Robbie Keane can push us to the next level and help us catch Rangers. Tomorrow, we'll see a Groundhog Day battle against Kilmarnock, as step one in a multiple step plan to improve on our -10 position from first place in the SPL. Slow down Rangers, we're coming to get you.

Just to wrap up on the soccer info, props to Chivas de Guadalajara for opening the latest season of Mexican football with a 3-0-0 start. 6 goals from super stud Javier Hernandez Balcazar has really got us going, and hopefully he can continue the lovely play on Friday against Queretaro. Is this a championship season for the Goats? Let's try, yes.