IN A stunning last day of the transfer window yet again there were winners and losers – often at the same club.

At Blackpool manager Ian Holloway was a winner, thanks to time running out on a deal, as he retained his prized asset midfielder Charlie Adam.

The loser may well be Adam himself, who has missed out on a move to a ‘glamour’ club in either Liverpool or Spurs and will now need to keep his standards high for the rest of the season if he is to attract the same interest again in the summer.

At Chelsea the fans are the real winners as, after a dormant spell, owner Roman Abramovich has shown he has not lost interest in Stamford Bridge by lashing out £76.5m on Fernando Torres and David Luiz.

The potential loser is manager Carlo Ancelotti, who now needs to produce results quickly. Certainly the addition of Luiz in defence is a bonus, but the Italian will have to juggle the talents of Torres, Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka and others up front when what he really might have liked was some genuine midfield cover for Frank Lampard whose absence through injury has been one of the Blues biggest problems this season.

At Liverpool the winners could be the losers in the long run.

The new owners have been pretty astute in that the sale of Torres and Ryan Babel for £56m sees them break pretty much even on the purchase of Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez for £57.8m, given that the newcomers have brought a cut in the wage bill – a tangible victory.

However, the £35m paid for Carroll is arguably about three times more than they should have paid and the young striker will need to be the best thing in the Liverpool No9 shirt since Ian Rush if he is deemed to be a success – and even then it is unlikely Liverpool will ever recoup anything approaching the same fee for the player.

Newcastle’s big winner is Mrs Kevin Nolan, who now has a free spare room as the biggest kid in her house is going to live in Liverpool, but boss Alan Pardew could be the loser as he will have the Toon Army to placate all over again as the Magpies have parted company with a hometown hero without having had the time to buy in a replacement striker.

The major in-comer at Newcastle is Stephen Ireland. That means at some stage the Magpies will try and team the combustible talents of Ireland and Joey Barton in midfield (or maybe that should be minefield). If the Manchester City rumour mill is right, these two never really saw eye to eye, so best of luck with that one Alan!

But most importantly English football is the major winner as El Hadji Diouf has left the country – even if it is only on loan.

And even better the biggest loser is the Senegalese striker.

Celtic fans hated him anyway after his previous meeting with them as a Liverpool player saw him end up Glasgow Sherrif Court after a spat that cost him a £5,000 fine.

Now he is up in Scotland wearing the blue of Rangers – bring on the Auld Firm game!