Ins and Outs: No dream move for Schwarzer

This week's news and rumours on player transfers and trades from the world of sport.

NRL / AFL / Football

NRL

Former Queensland and Australian Test lock Dallas Johnson will be back in the NRL next season after signing a three-year deal with the North Queensland Cowboys.Johnson, who played for the Melbourne Storm until last season, has been playing for France-based Super League club Les Catalans in 2010 after being forced out of the Storm, presumably, for salary cap reasons.

In other moves, the Raiders have added another promising young outside backs to their ranks, swopping on Cronulla winger Blake Ferguson. The 20-year-old made the move after activating a clause in his contract allowing him to leave if Sharks coach Ricky Stuart departed.

And Melbourne have started buying players again, bringing in ex-Knights and Panthers front-rower Adam Woolnough, Raiders forward Troy Thompson and New Zealand Warriors winger Elijah Niko.

Melbourne forwards Aiden Tolman, Brett White, Jeff Lima and Ryan Hoffman, plus star centre Greg Inglis, are among those on their way out at the end of the season.

AFL

Essendon have surprised nobody by finally axing Matthew Knights as coach, terminating his contract after the Bombers won just two of the past 12 games.

The axing ends weeks of speculation, with the club agreeing to pay out the final two years of his contract at a cost of $800,000.

The Gold Coast Suns officially unveiled Adelaide Crows key defender Nathan Bock and Port Adelaide utility Nathan Krakouer as new recruits on Wednesday, with Krakouer apologising for the way he left the Power.

The club apparently first heard the 22-year-old was on his way out at 9.30am Wednesday morning, an hour before Krakouer fronted a Gold Coast media conference.

North Melbourne has announced the delisting of five players at the end of the 2010 season. Josh Smith, Warren Benjamin, Alan Obst and Conor Meredith were all cut, with veteran forward Corey Jones retiring.

And seven Geelong players were named in the AFL's All Australian squad for this season. See the full squad here.

FOOTBALL

The usual mad rush took place on deadline day of the European transfer season, although in the end nothing much was done.

Mark Schwarzer didn't make his dream move from Fulham to Arsenal, with Fulham unable to organise a replacement in the form of Manchester City's Shay Given – who decided to fight for a place in the City side rather than switch to the London battlers.

Probably the biggest name to make a switch was City forward Robinho, who left for AC Milan after spending last season on loan at Brazilian club Santos. Robinho, who exited on a £12 million transfer, will join Brazil internationals Ronaldinho and Pato plus fellow new recruit Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Milan.

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp pulled off the best buy of the day, snatching Netherlands and Real Madrid midfielder Rafael van der Vaart on a £9 million deal – after only hearing the Dutchman was available two hours before the transfer deadline.

Another last-minute purchase was Australia's David Carney, who was picked up by newly promoted EPL club Blackpool, while Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan – who scored the penalty against Carney's Socceroos at the World Cup – was recruited for £13 million by Sunderland (a new record purchase for the Black Cats).

Elsewhere, Newcastle United signed mercurial French winger Hatem Ben Arfa on loan from Marseille, while Birmingham picked up former Arsenal midfielder Alyaksandr Hleb on loan from Barcelona.

After more? Well here's every English Premier League move from the entire transfer window.