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      The Problem With Chelsea (Hint: It May Not Be the Manager)

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      Six days after spending more in a single transfer window than any club in history, Chelsea’s new owners fired the team’s coach, Thomas Tuchel. Now what?The caveat, right from the start, was experience. The consortium, fronted by Todd Boehly and bankrolled by the private equity firm Clearlake, had the money. That much was plain. They had, after all, paid $2.8 billion to buy Chelsea in a frantic, opaque auction, making it the most expensive acquisition in the history of sports.They had expertise in the business, too, or some form of it: Neither Boehly nor Mark Walter, a comparatively late addition to the ownership group, was a sporting neophyte. Both own a slice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and that investment, in recent years, has proved a relatively adroit one.No, the only thing that could be held against the new owners, the only thing that gave Chelsea’s fans pause for thought as they considered what a post-Roman Abramovich future might bring, was that none of them — Boehly, Clearlake, Walter or Hansjorg Wyss, the octogenarian Swiss billionaire who had brought the group together — knew the first thing about English soccer.Three months in, those doubts have been overcome. Scarcely 100 days have elapsed since the group took official control of Chelsea. In that time, it lavished more than $300 million on new signings — more than any club had ever spent in a single transfer window — and then, with the ink still drying on the last couple of contracts, decided to fire its manager only a half-dozen games into the season.If they carry on like this, Chelsea’s new owners will fit into the Premier League’s hyperbolic soap opera just fine.Todd Boehly and his partners have been remaking Chelsea all summer. Change has not been cheap.David Cliff/Associated PressFrom the outside, Chelsea’s decision to part company with Thomas Tuchel in the early hours of Wednesday felt distinctly, comfortingly familiar. The team had lost the previous evening in its opening Champions League engagement against Dinamo Zagreb. That defeat came on the back of a stuttering start to the Premier League campaign that has left Chelsea in sixth, just 5 points behind first-place Arsenal but already smarting from losses to Leeds United and Southampton.This was, then, the new Chelsea behaving precisely as the old Chelsea always had, with a short-termism so ruthless it almost qualified as proud. Spending an unimaginable sum of money to furnish a manager with the team he desired only to dismiss the manager at the first hint of trouble? Roman would be proud.Internally, the picture was a little more nuanced. Tuchel’s brief reign — he was in place for only 19 months — had hit its peak early, in the uncanny valley of lockdown soccer, when he took a team that had been struggling to qualify for the Champions League under his predecessor, Frank Lampard, and turned it into the champion of Europe in four months. Rarely, if ever, has a coach had such an immediate, spectacular effect.The 49-year-old Tuchel, though, failed to build on that starburst. He was presented, a year ago, with the $111 million signing of Romelu Lukaku, theoretically the player who could catapult Chelsea to a first Premier League title since 2017. It did not quite work out like that. Lukaku was allowed to leave the club this summer on loan.Though Tuchel steered the team to two domestic cup finals in his first full campaign — losing both on penalties against Liverpool — and handled with poise and dignity the geopolitical storm that engulfed the club in the wake of the British government’s decision to sanction Abramovich, Chelsea’s season petered out, with the German’s side eventually finishing 19 points behind Manchester City.Tuchel in better days. Last year.Susana Vera/Pool Via ReutersThat malaise had not gone unnoticed by the club’s newly installed hierarchy. Nor had Tuchel’s demeanor over the summer, which grew more detached, more disaffected with every passing week.In July, he bemoaned that his players’ “level of commitment, physically and mentally,” was insufficient. By August, he described them as “not tough enough.” On Tuesday, after losing in Zagreb, that had metastasized into admitting that “everything was missing” from his team’s performance.Those public complaints betrayed a growing unease in private. Tuchel had come to be known at Chelsea as a gregarious, warm, affable sort — at a club with plenty of managers to compare him to, he fared well — but a number of players felt he had become more truculent, more distant in recent months, particularly with those he did not consider his most reliable lieutenants.Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, the co-founder of Clearlake, noticed the same thing. As they attempted to retool the squad this summer, they had sought Tuchel’s counsel frequently, asking the manager — in the absence of a technical director — to direct them to his preferred targets.That was not a role that Tuchel relished particularly; he was far happier to be left alone to coach. As the transfer window gathered pace, Boehly and Eghbali found that Tuchel had a tendency to prove difficult to contact at critical junctures. Whatever relationship they had been able to establish in their few weeks working together began to fracture and fray.Kalidou Koulibaly and the rest of Chelsea’s players, new and old, opened the Champions League with a loss on Tuesday.Antonio Bronic/ReutersAs the relatively curt statement released by the club to announce his departure suggested, Boehly and Eghbali did not feel they had acted rashly. They had, instead, reached the decision to part company with Tuchel even before defeat in Zagreb. The travails of the early part of the season were supporting evidence for their conclusion, rather than the thrust of their case.For all the mitigating circumstances, though — and while the owners have been swift to identify Graham Potter, the intelligent, affable and talented Brighton manager, as Tuchel’s likely replacement — it does feel as if his dismissal fits a pattern.Boehly has taken on the role of interim sporting director with vigor and determination. Those at the club have been stunned by his work ethic, and he has made an effort to establish a rapport with many of the game’s most influential agents, inviting some of them to watch games from his box at the club’s stadium.In some cases, that has borne fruit. Chelsea spent a lot of money this summer, but it spent much of it well. Wesley Fofana may have been expensive, but he is also one of the most promising defenders in world soccer. Raheem Sterling has for years been one of the Premier League’s most devastating attacking players.The deals that did not come off tell a story too, though. There was the offer for Romeo Lavia, a player who had made just a handful of appearances for Southampton since moving from Manchester City in July; Chelsea offered to pay at least double what he had cost in August.Then there was an attempt to sign Edson Álvarez, a Mexican midfielder at the Dutch club Ajax, which bubbled to the surface as the transfer window was closing. The approach came so late, in fact, that Ajax was able to use it as proof that Chelsea was not spending to any plan, but rather for the sake of it — an argument that worked sufficiently well for Álvarez to decide to remain in Amsterdam.As they reached the (entirely artificial) watershed of their 100th day in charge of the club, Boehly and Eghbali reportedly spent considerable time contemplating the sort of culture they wanted to establish at Chelsea.They wanted to shift away from the urgency and the uncertainty of the Abramovich years and build something more sustainable, they decided, and they felt that Tuchel was not the right sort of figure to oversee that change. He was better suited, they determined, to the old ways, when nothing lasted forever, and Chelsea’s manager lived each day as if it could be the last.And yet here we are: Six games into the season, six days after the end of the transfer window, Chelsea has fired its manager on the back of a few poor performances and because of rumblings of discontent among the playing squad. Perhaps this will be the last hurrah of the old Chelsea, the final break with the past. Or perhaps a culture, once embedded, is not an easy thing to change, no matter how much money and ambition you have. More

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      Money to Burn: Lessons From the Premier League’s Transfer Window

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      English teams awash in cash broke records for players and prices this summer, proving again that they operate on a plane apart from their rivals.To take just one snapshot from just one day in a whole summer of indulgence and excess, there was a point, last week, during which all of these things were happening at the same time:There were representatives of West Ham United pressing $58 million into the grateful palms of Lyon in exchange for Lucas Paqueta, a mercurial Brazilian playmaker. Their counterparts from Newcastle were offering Real Sociedad $72 million for the Swedish striker Alexander Isak.Chelsea’s self-appointed sporting director, Todd Boehly, meanwhile, had given up on his brief pursuit of the Manchester United captain, Harry Maguire, and was instead buffeting Leicester City with bids for Wesley Fofana. United, in turn, was peppering Ajax with offers for Antony, yet another Brazilian wing, working their way toward an unmoving asking price in what appeared to be increments of $10 million.This is what the Premier League does every year, of course: Every summer, and most winters, its clubs descend on Europe, the cash from infinitely spiraling television deals burning a hole in their pockets, and proceed to hose an entire continent with money. They swamp it, they flood it, they drown it with their wealth.And then, at the end of August, they go home, armed with a few more Brazilian playmakers and Swedish strikers, ready to play the games that will earn the money for them to do it all over again in a few months.The Swedish striker Alexander Isak scored in his Newcastle debut after joining from Spain’s Real Sociedad.Phil Noble/ReutersThe ritual, the great ceremonial spending of broadcasters’ money, is not just familiar — an annual tradition that has long since lost its power to shock, the figures involved now so inflated and improbable that they seem to mean almost nothing at all — but, in England at least, actively celebrated.The amount the Premier League’s clubs have spent is, without fail, heralded as a triumph by a variety of not entirely neutral onlookers: accountancy firms for whom the rude health of English soccer is a central plank of their business; the broadcasters who have, at heart, paid for it all; the league itself. The total sum is used as a proxy measure for power, a gauge for how big and strong English soccer has grown and, by extension, how weak and small everyone else must be.This summer has brought even more flexing than normal. The figures have been even more eye-watering than usual. By the time the transfer window closed on Thursday evening, the Premier League’s teams had burned their way through $2.3 billion, gross, in the space of just a couple of months.That is a record, of course, and not by a little: The previous high-water mark was almost $600 million lower. To suggest, too, that it is more than all the money spent by the rest of Europe’s so-called Big Five leagues — Italy, Spain, Germany, France — combined does not quite capture the full picture. Chelsea spent more money this summer than any English club has spent previously. Nottingham Forest signed more players than any English club has ever signed in a single window. Nine teams spent more than £100 million. English teams spent three times as much as their nearest challengers. It has been a wild and unrestrained festival of consumption.And yet, while that speaks volumes for the financial power the Premier League now wields over all of its competitors on the continent, the image it has created is not of a competition bristling with strength, but rather of one addled with desperation, filled by clubs consumed by fear, and so suffused by riches that it has, in some quarters at least, apparently divested itself of thought.There are clubs, of course, that have acquitted themselves well in the transfer market: Manchester City, say, surgically picking off Erling Haaland and Kalvin Phillips and then, at last moment, spying an opportunity to sign Manuel Akanji from Borussia Dortmund for a reduced fee and taking it. Or Crystal Palace, judiciously adding only a couple of new faces who might help its young, intriguing squad develop. Or Brighton, selling high and buying cheap and getting better in the process.But for the most part, there has been a wantonness to the spending: Chelsea, spraying money at almost anyone it could think of to sign any player who might be available, the club’s new owners apparently so confident of the rising tide of broadcast rights and merchandise deals that they are willing to write off a couple of hundred million here or there.Or Manchester United, who tried to cut a deal with Ajax for Antony but, when that didn’t work, simply paid what it had long regarded as an inflated asking price anyway, without so much as blinking. Or Fulham, signing the 34-year-old Willian on the final day of the window for, well, for some reason.Some of those signings will, of course, prove to be wise, worthwhile investments. Perhaps Antony will provide Manchester United with the balance its attack has lacked. Maybe the 20 players Forest has acquired — no, that is not a stray zero — will help it remain in the top flight. Chelsea may be improved by the presence of Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly and the rest.The now former Ajax wing Antony, definitely not displaying his asking price to Manchester United.Maurice Van Steen/EPA, via ShutterstockThe broader impression, though, has not been of clubs smartly addressing their shortcomings, gradually tending to their needs. It has, instead, been of a reckless mercantile zeal, of acquisition for its own sake, of a gross hedonism at a time when the country which the Premier League takes as its host is in the grip of soaring energy prices and rampant inflation and wondering whether it will be able to afford to get through the winter. The Premier League’s clubs are not just inured to that, they stand as a direct contrast to it. It is almost as if they have internalized the idea that spending is, indeed, a measure of strength, a virtue in and of itself.Many of the deals, certainly, possess a transience, a fleetingness, an inherent futility. They offer an immediate reassurance, a jolt of excitement, a dose of adrenaline, but the suspicion is that, as the season plays out, the urgency to sign them — the clauses met and the demands accepted — will seem a little rash. Did Chelsea really need Marc Cucurella? Is Lucas Paqueta notably better than what was already available at West Ham? Had Manchester United not spent quite a lot of money on a winger last summer, too?On one level, it does not matter, of course. The Premier League’s coffers will be refilled over the course of the next few months. There is always enough money pouring in to cover any missteps. The league’s clubs always have the option of buying themselves out of trouble.But that is not to say there are no consequences. Each one of those signings represents a chance denied to a young player, one hoping to make the breakthrough, to find their way in the game.Kalidou Koulibaly, part of Chelsea’s most recent summer of splurges. Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesChelsea might have given time, this season, to Levi Colwill, a defender the club regards as one of its brightest prospects in years. Instead, he has been farmed out to Brighton, just so the club could bring in a senior left back to compete with Ben Chilwell. Liverpool could have used its mounting injury problems to blood the promising Stefan Bajcetic; instead, it moved to sign Arthur on loan from Juventus.That is the thing with soccer, the thing that the majority of clubs on the continent have to accept and that England’s teams do not seem to have noticed. There are always more footballers. They are, for all intents and purposes, an unlimited natural resource. Often, they are right there, under your nose, just waiting for an opportunity.England’s clubs rarely offer that. Others, though, do. Ajax will find another Antony soon enough. Lyon will unearth another Paqueta. The urgency, the desperation, to sign any of these players is misplaced; there will be another one next year, just as good. And when they emerge, the English clubs will be ready again, drenching the teams who have discovered them and nurtured them and helped them shine with a great fire hose of cash, thinking only about today, and never about tomorrow.Great Business. For Now.Carlos Soler, on his way from Valencia to P.S.G.Jose Jordan/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesCarlos Soler was the last of them. With a few hours left of the transfer window, Paris St.-Germain confirmed it had reached a deal with Valencia to sign Soler, a 25-year-old midfielder who has quietly been one of the most impressive performers in La Liga in the last few years, for somewhere in the region of $20 million.It was typical of the business the French champion has done this summer, under the guidance of Luis Campos, the recruitment guru hired to overhaul a bloated, incoherent squad: uncharacteristically quiet, undeniably competent, surprisingly good value. P.S.G. should be careful. People might start thinking it is a serious club.As well as Soler, after all, Campos has used his contacts in Portugal, in particular, to sign Vitinha, from Porto, Lille’s Renato Sanches and, perhaps most adroitly, Napoli’s Fabian Ruiz. In doing so, he has revamped the P.S.G. midfield, and all for less than $100 million — excluding agent fees — no mean feat given the club’s reputation and the looming specter of counteroffers from the rather less parsimonious Premier League.Only one doubt remains. To accommodate Campos’s cavalry, P.S.G. has had to unmoor Leandro Paredes, Ander Herrera, Georginio Wijnaldum, Idrissa Gueye, Julian Draxler, Ángel Di Maria and Xavi Simons this summer, too. Some, like Wijnaldum, will not be missed. Others, like Draxler, required a change of air.The nature of P.S.G.’s business might have changed, then, but it remains to be seen if the nature of the club has. It is not hard to imagine at least one of the players acquired this summer being on the market again next year, a deal that looks like a bargain now cast by hindsight as an error. P.S.G. has never had a problem recruiting good players. Its issue, for the last decade, has always been working out what to do with them.CorrespondenceSpeaking of Haaland — as we will be doing frequently this season, I suspect — Shawn Donnelly has a question. “I still can’t get over how Manchester City picked him up for just 60 million euros,” he wrote. “Did Borussia Dortmund get robbed? Couldn’t they have got two or three times as much?”They could, Shawn, if only Haaland had not been in possession of a contract with a release clause written into it. All City had to do was match it, and Dortmund was powerless to hold out for a higher figure. The frustration should be tempered, though, by the fact that the release clause was the only reason Dortmund was able to get him at all. Haaland signed for the club in the first place only on the understanding that, sooner rather than later, it would let him go.Erling Haaland, already looking like a bargain.Andrew Yates/EPA, via ShutterstockThere is one other point to be made on that transfer, though: It is more than a little misleading for it to be presented as a deal worth only 60 million euros. It was, in reality, substantially higher: All of the money City saved thanks to his release clause was incorporated, instead, to the fees paid to Haaland’s representatives. That gets you close to $100 million, which is far closer to his real value.Hopefully, we can provide Matt Bilello with similar clarification. “Can you please explain the difference between a ‘cynical’ foul and a professional one?” he asked. “Commentators use them interchangeably, but it seems to me that a cynical foul is a dirty one, whereas a professional one is ‘necessary’ to prevent an advantage to an opponent.”In my understanding, this is basically right. Any common-or-garden foul can be a cynical one, but a professional foul is something very specific: bringing down an opponent to deprive them of an immediate chance to score. (In my head, a professional foul is tackling someone from behind as they charge through on goal.) More

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      What the Champions League Is Lacking

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      Europe’s richest competition offers the best of what soccer can deliver. But the World Cup still has something it can’t match.PARIS — There will be stories, of course. There are always stories. The Champions League delivers them so frequently and so reliably that it is impossible to dismiss the nagging suspicion that all of this might just be scripted, the product of some complex simulation being run from a secret lair in Nyon.Robert Lewandowski, clad in the blue and red of Barcelona, will return to Bayern Munich, only a few weeks after forcing his exit. Manchester City’s visit to Borussia Dortmund will see Erling Haaland standing once more before its Yellow Wall, that great force of nature no longer at his back but marshaled in his face.And there will be scenes, too. Real Madrid, the reigning and apparently perennial European champion, will walk out at Celtic Park and wince at the roar of a place that impressed Lionel Messi so much that he keeps a Celtic jersey at home as a memento, an atmosphere described by Xavi Hernández as “incomparable,” an arena where the host’s winning so much as a corner generated a noise that made Antonio Conte think “the stadium was falling down.”That is what the Champions League does best, after all. Like its great contemporary, the Premier League, the competition is as much an iconographical phenomenon as a sporting one. Even in those years — not so long ago, even now — when its product was more noted for its caution, its risk aversion, its brutalist cynicism, its appeal endured because of the way it was packaged.The searing lights, the swelling music and the packed stands across Europe all serve as immediately comprehensible prompts to observers and participants alike. They denote that what is unfolding is the pinnacle of the sport, the only thing that matters, the indisputable main event.Real Madrid, last year’s champion, and Manchester City are back where both feel they belong.Juanjo Martin/EPA, via ShutterstockAnd yet, for the first time in three decades, that may not be true this year. This season’s Champions League will be a staccato one. The first two months of the tournament will bring a great rush of fixtures, six rounds of games played in nine breathless weeks, the only breather coming in the form of an unwelcome and, on some level, somewhat greedy international break.Then the competition that has spent 30 years establishing itself as the unquestioned and unrivaled summit of the game — the place where the sport’s cutting edge is sharpened, where new ideas bubble and sizzle, where players put their talent to the ultimate test — will be suspended in uneasy hibernation, put begrudgingly on hold from November until February.Reluctantly, the Champions League — and the constellation of Europe’s great clubs who have come to regard it as their objective and birthright — will cede the limelight to the World Cup: five prime weeks in the middle of the season handed over to international soccer, that anachronism of a bygone age, glossy club soccer’s unwelcome, ugly cousin.There is no shortage of reasons for club soccer to resent this intrusion: the financial ramifications of losing those weeks of television real estate; the potential risk of injury to players paid not by their national associations but by the clubs; the sense that the engine of the sport is being forced to stall so that the hood can be polished.Read More on the 2022 World CupA New Start Date: A last-minute request for the tournament to begin a day earlier was only the latest bit of uncertainty to surround soccer’s showcase event.Chile’s Failed Bid: The country’s soccer federation had argued Ecuador should be ejected from the tournament to the benefit of the Chilean team. FIFA disagreed.Golden Sunset: This year’s World Cup will most likely be the last for stars like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo — a profound watershed for soccer.Senegalese Pride: Aliou Cissé, one of the best soccer coaches in Africa, has given Senegal a new sense of patriotism. Next up: the World Cup.But greater than all those, perhaps, is the unhappy reminder that, while the Champions League is the most glamorous and most exclusive club competition on the planet, it is only the most glamorous and most exclusive club competition on the planet. The qualifier — “club” — tells a story of its own. For all the money, for all the power, for all the stories and the scenes, the World Cup is still the biggest show in town.It is worth pausing to reflect on why that might be; after all, it does not fit neatly with what we assume modern consumers — sorry, fans — want from sports. As discussed in this space a couple of weeks ago, audiences are drawn to soccer games by two factors in particular: the familiarity of the brands — sorry, teams — involved, and the stakes for which they are playing.The World Cup, like the Champions League, delivers both in spades. There is no brand recognition quite like being a nation state, with your own seat at the United Nations and history of governmental corruption and fully equipped army, obviously. And there is no tournament quite so doused in risk as the World Cup, in which one misstep can waste four years’ work.In every other aspect, though, the World Cup comes up short. It cannot match the Champions League for prize money, or for star power — Haaland, like Mohamed Salah and the noted nation state of Italy, will be absent from Qatar — or, most crucial, for quality. The Champions League, now, is where the finest soccer in the world is played. The World Cup, by contrast, is pockmarked by flaws.That is unavoidable, of course. If Manchester City lacks a striker, it can go out and buy the best one it can find. Spain, as it has helpfully proved over the last several years, does not have that luxury. Like everyone else, it has to make do and mend. Its coach does not have the opportunity of endless training sessions to hone a system that might accentuate the team’s strengths and disguise its weaknesses; a few days is all that is available.And yet, still, the World Cup possesses the quality of a Black Hole; it draws in the light from even the brightest stars around it. The first phase of the Champions League, like the early rounds of domestic soccer, will have the feel of an appetizer, for fans and players. Games will be played with an awareness that nobody wants to miss the main course.Qatar, where World Cup grass and World Cup anticipation are growing.Mustafa Abumunes/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThat, perhaps, suggests the World Cup has something that the Champions League does not. That could be rarity: the fact that even the finest players might get only three shots at going to a World Cup when they can reasonably expect a dozen or so tilts at the Champions League trophy. It could be the jeopardy that is, for now, threaded into its structure. It could be good, old-fashioned patriotic fervor.Or it might be mystery. It may be the flaws themselves that make the World Cup so appealing. It could be that the tournament’s appeal is linked to the fact that Spain could turn up and win it or be eliminated in the group stage; that France, despite the quantity of its quality, could be eliminated on penalties by Switzerland; that South Korea can beat Germany and still not qualify for the knockout rounds.The Champions League has, over the years, lost all of that uncertainty. Every year, it feels more like a parade of the inevitable. There will be stories and there will be scenes this season, as there are every season, but they will be rooted in the same inequality that means it is already possible to be pretty certain of the identity of at least a dozen or so of the teams that will make the round of 16.The same cannot be said of the World Cup. None of the teams are perfect — none of them can be — and so the playing field is more level. The teams that do benefit from a disparity of resources do not have the safety net of five more group games, or a second leg, or the prospect of the transfer market.It is the flaws of the teams in the World Cup that make its appeal unrivaled. It is the uncertainty that they bring that make it the main event. It is the unpredictability that generates what the Champions League lacks, and what it might like to consider trying to capture once more.The Death of the Group of DeathThe Champions League groups for 2022-23.Emrah Gurel/Associated PressThere are, now, two types of Champions League groups. One features two heavy favorites, two teams whose seasons will be defined by how deep they can advance into the competition — Paris St.-Germain and Juventus, for example — and two comparative makeweights, in the form of Benfica, say, and Maccabi Haifa.These groups are something of a tease. The way UEFA draws the groups means that the eye is drawn to those first two names. P.S.G. and Juventus, you think: a clash of the titans. There will be genuine jeopardy here. This sensation lasts as long as it takes the observer to remember that two teams qualify from each pool, and so the games between the two resident superpowers may, in fact, mean nothing at all.The second sort of group is more interesting. Thanks to the quirks of the seeding system, these feature just one putative contender — Liverpool, despite its early-season form, or Chelsea, say — and three relatively evenly matched opponents: Ajax, Napoli and Rangers, or A.C. Milan, Red Bull Salzburg and (at a push) Dinamo Zagreb.Welcome to the big stage (for now), Viktoria Plzen.Martin Divisek/EPA, via ShutterstockIn this scenario, too, the superpower invariably makes it through — that is the nature of the modern Champions League, in which we all spend an awful lot of time making sure that the thing that always happens will, in fact, happen again — but it is generally with a lower points total and a degree of gratitude that their rivals all managed to beat each other.The sole exception to this rule of two groups comes on those occasions when there is a third kind: when one team in a group is notably weaker than all three of its opponents. That dubious honor, this year, falls to Viktoria Plzen, the Czech champion, drawn to face Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan.There are eight groups in this year’s Champions League. This is the only one that does not fit the pattern. This is the only one that is not wholly predictable, that might just about be described as a Group of Death, and even that is only because it is impossible to be entirely sure how secure in itself this new vision of Barcelona might be. In ordinary years, even a club as famous as Inter would find itself succumbing to the inevitable, and European soccer would be facing up to the prospect of a fall without any jeopardy at all.CorrespondenceThanks to Jon Gilbert, first of all, for performing that most valuable of services: holding me to account for my attempt last week to hold Gary Neville to account.“Neville was railing against Glazer parsimony,” Jon wrote. “But that was nothing to do with buying players. Neville was apoplectic at the complete lack of investment in club infrastructure. He was hugely upset about the state of Old Trafford, now a leaky rust bucket. The club lacks a leading training facility, the lack of a sporting director has stifled progress and a soccer-competent leadership team is desperately needed.”The last couple of points were, I think, raised by last week’s newsletter, but I’ll concede the former: Neville was speaking more broadly than simply complaining that United should lavish more money in the transfer market. The decline of Old Trafford, in fact, is a pretty handy metaphor for the club as a whole: It still draws the crowds and rakes in the cash, but it is trading on memory.Manchester United beat Liverpool on Monday, righting its ship for a day.Paul Ellis/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesA question, too, from Phil Friedman, soliciting an expansion to the suggestion that some revised version of the European Super League makes more sense for other teams from the continent than it does for the denizens of the Premier League. “Not sure I understand this thought,” Phil noted, which indicates a failure on my part to communicate with sufficient clarity.My logic — which may, caveat emptor, be faulty — is that the Premier League’s supremacy is now ensconced; its broadcasting income will continue to spiral, and so its teams essentially have no need to seek a more glamorous competition elsewhere. Indeed, you could argue that the Premier League will become a sort of de facto Super League anyway, with every other domestic competition in Europe feeding into it.For the elites of Germany, Spain, Italy and France (and potentially others) the only conceivable challenge to that hegemony is to join forces. A league not just boasting Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Paris St.-Germain and Juventus but also drawing on the combined populations of the countries they call home would, I suspect, be able to generate revenues that can match those on offer in England, allowing those clubs to gain access to the fortunes they so evidently believe they deserve.That is certainly not to say its advent would be welcome, of course. Regional leagues are an idea I can get behind; losing the variety offered by each domestic tournament would be a shame. It is just that, from my vantage point, it has a certain inevitability about it, even allowing for the fatal flaw in any proposed Super League: the fact that someone would have to finish bottom. More

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      Man Utd ‘have Benjamin Pavard transfer bid rejected by Bayern Munich as Erik ten Hag searches for new defender’

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      MANCHESTER UNITED had their surprise bid for Benjamin Pavard rejected by Bayern Munich, according to reports.The Red Devils were in a race for the French full-back with Chelsea.
      Benjamin Pavard convinced Bayern Munich of keepingn rather than make a move to the Premier LeagueCredit: Getty
      Despite attracting other European clubs such as Juventus and Atletico Madrid, Pavard decided to remain with the German giants, L’Equipe reports.
      Bayern had been willing to accept £30million for the 26-year-old.
      But later, it was revealed that Pavard convinced the club to let him stay at the Allianz Arena.
      Pavard usually plays as a right-back but has proved himself as a centre half too, making him a useful asset to have around.
      READ MORE ON MAN UTD
      Pavard impressed as he won the 2018 World Cup with France.
      This urged Bayern Munich to sign him for £31.5million a year later from Stuttgart.
      He has made 123 appearances in all competitions, scoring seven goals and assisting 11.
      Meanwhile, United will be left looking for another full-back to complete their squad.
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      The Red Devils could keep their Rafael Varane-Lisandro Martinez pair-up but could want reinforcements on the flanks after a poor start to the Premier League season.
      Tyrell Malacia shone against Liverpool on Monday, although it remains to be seen if Luke Shaw, Diego Dalot and Aaron Wan-Bissaka are trusted by Erik ten Hag. More

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      Fulham ‘in negotiations with PSG over Layvin Kurzawa transfer’ as Marco Silva eyes left-back for Prem survival bid

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      FULHAM and Paris-Saint Germain are in talks over a Premier League move for Layvin Kurzawa, according to reports.Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano confirmed that Fulham boss Marco Silva wants the French left-back at Craven Cottage.
      Layvin Kurzawa played nine minutes of football for PSG in the last 12 monthsCredit: Getty – Contributor
      The clubs are in negotiations about a permanent deal which would see Kurzawa have his first-ever Premier League run.
      Earlier in July, the left-back was also offered to Leeds and Everton, but they have decided to make look elsewhere.
      The 29-year-old’s contract runs till 2024 but he is looking for a challenge having only played nine minutes of football in 12 months.
      His last appearance for PSG came in a 1-0 win over Lille in the Trophee des Champions in August 2021 and it is understood he is no longer part of PSG’s plans.
      READ MORE ON FULHAM
      Kurzawa made a move to the Parc des Princes in 2015 for a transfer fee of £22.5million.
      He has made 153 appearance for PSG, netting 14 goals and assisting 23 while becoming a four-time Ligue 1 winner.
      In England, the Cottagers have their hands full with several potential transfers in the making as the end of the summer transfer window.
      They are trying to win the race for Neal Maupay from Brighton, with Nottingham Forest and Everton also chasing the forward.
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      Meanwhile, they seem to have agreed personal terms for Justin Kluivert but are yet to agree a transfer fee with Roma.
      Silva’s side are enjoying their return to the Premier League.
      They’ve so far managed draws to Liverpool and Wolves and celebrated a 3-2 victory over Brentford.
      However they suffered a shock early exit from the Carabao Cup after they were beaten 2-0 by Crawley Town. More

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      Premier League done deals: Every completed transfer this summer as the deadline approaches

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      THE Premier League is back and clubs have been doing business all summer long.We have seen Manchester United land Casemiro, Manchester City add the sensational Erling Haaland and Arsenal bring in Gabriel Jesus but here’s a comprehensive list of the summer transfer in and out in the Premier League.
      Darwin Nunez and Erling Haaland have made mega-money moves to the Premier League this summer
      Arsenal
      Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has raided his former club Manchester City twice this summer in bringing Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko to the Emirates for nearly £80m.
      There has also been quite a clearout with Alexandre Lacazette, Lucas Torreira and Bernd Leno all leaving the club.
      In
      Gabriel Jesus – Man City – £47m
      Oleksandr Zinchenko Man City – £31.5m
      Fábio Vieira – FC Porto – £31.5m
      Matt Turner – New England Revolution – £5.73m
      Marquinhos – São Paulo FC – £3.15m
      Out
      Mattéo Guendouzi – Olympique Marseille – £9.9m
      Lucas Torreira – Galatasaray – £5.4m
      Bernd Leno -Fulham – £3.24m
      Konstantinos Mavropanos – VfB Stuttgart – £2.88m
      Alexandre Lacazette – Lyon – Free transfer
      Nuno Tavares – Olympique Marseille – Loan
      Pablo Marí – AC Monza – Loan
      Auston Trusty – Birmingham – Loan
      Rúnar Alex Rúnarsson – Alanyaspor – Loan
      Salah-Edinne Oulad M’hand – Hull – Loan
      READ MORE ON FOOTBALL
      Aston Villa
      Philippe Coutinho has made his loan move permanent and sealed a move from Barcelona with the impressive Boubacar Kamara joining on a free transfer.
      Chelsea swooped for hot prospect Carney Chukwuemeka and Matt Targett made his loan move to Newcastle permanent in notable names to leave Villa Park.
      In
      Diego Carlos – Sevilla – £27.9m
      Philippe Coutinho – FC Barcelona – £18m
      Robin Olsen – AS Roma – £3.15m
      Ludwig Augustinsson – Sevilla – Loan – £450k
      Boubacar Kamara – Olympique Marseille – Free transfer
      Out
      Carney Chukwuemeka – Chelsea – £16.2m
      Matt Targett – Newcastle United – £15.75m
      Trezeguet – Trabzonspor – £3.6m
      Lovre Kalinic – Hajduk Split – Free transfer
      Conor Hourihane – Derby – Free transfer
      Bertrand Traoré – Istanbul Basaksehir – Loan
      Wesley Moraes – Levante – Loan
      Kortney Hause – Watford – Loan
      Jaden Philogene-Bidace – Cardiff – Loan
      Keinan Davis – Watford – Loan
      Ben Chrisene – Kilmarnock – Loan
      Premier League 2022/23Everything you need to know about the Premier League

      Bournemouth
      Newly-promoted Bournemouth have had a quiet transfer window so far with Marcos Senesi and Marcus Tavernier the two signings that have cost money.
      Gary Cahill has left the club with Robbie Brady also leaving on a free transfer to Preston.
      In
      Marcos Senesi – Feyenoord – £13.5m
      Marcus Tavernier – Middlesbrough – £10.71m
      Joe Rothwell – Blackburn – Free transfer
      Neto – Barcelona – Free transfer
      Ryan Fredericks – West Ham – Free transfer
      Out
      Robbie Brady – Preston – Free transfer
      Zeno Ibsen Rossi – Cambridge United – Free transfer
      Gavin Kilkenny – Stoke – Loan
      Gary Cahill – Released
      Gabriel Jesus joined Arsenal from Manchester CityCredit: AFP
      Brentford
      Brentford lost the influential Christian Eriksen as the Dane moved to Manchester United but they have brought in some impressive signings.
      Ben Mee comes in for free while Keane Lewis-Potter, Aaron Hickey and Mikkel Damsgaard have all joined the Bees for their second season in the Premier League.
      In
      Keane Lewis-Potter – Hull – £17.1m
      Aaron Hickey – Bologna – £14.85m
      Mikkel Damsgaard – Sampdoria – £13.50m
      Thomas Strakosha – Lazio – Free transfer
      Ben Mee – Burnley – Free transfer
      Out
      Marcus Forss – Middlesbrough – £3.24m
      Christian Eriksen – Man Utd – Free transfer
      Julian Jeanvier – Auxerrer – Free transfer
      Dominic Thompson – Blackpool – Free transfer
      Tariqe Fosu – Stoke – Loan
      MORE TRANSFER NEWS
      Brighton
      Brighton have brought four players in so far during the transfer window but the big news is who they have let go as Graham Potter tweaks his squad.
      Chelsea swooped for Marc Cucurella and paid a massive £59m for him, while Yves Bissouma has exited for Tottenham for more than £26m.
      In
      Pervis Estupiñán – Villarreal – £16m
      Julio Enciso – Club Libertad Asunción – £10.44m
      Simon Adingra – FC Nordsjaelland – £7.2m
      Levi Colwill – Chelsea U21 – Loan
      Out
      Marc Cucurella – Chelsea – £58.77m
      Yves Bissouma – Tottenham – £26.28m
      Leo Östigard – Napoli – £4.5m
      Tudor Baluta – FCV Farul Constanta – Free transfer
      Abdallah Sima – Angers – Loan
      Aaron Connolly – Venezia – Loan
      Shane Duffy – Fulham – Loan
      Michal Karbownik – Fortuna Düsseldorf – Loan
      Andi Zeqiri – FC Basel – Loan
      Kjell Scherpen – Vitesse Arnhem – Loan
      Simon Adingra – Union SG – Loan
      Haydon Roberts – Derby – Loan
      Taylor Richards – QPR – Loan
      Lorent Tolaj – Salford – Loan
      Matt Clarke – Middlesbrough – Undisclosed
      New Chelsea signing Raheem Sterling of Chelsea with Todd BoehlyCredit: Getty
      Chelsea
      Chelsea’s new owner Todd Boehly has moved and fast in the transfer window with Marc Cucurella, Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly all coming in for big money.
      It didn’t work out for Romelu Lukaku as he has left on loan for Inter Milan and Chelsea have lost Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger to Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively.
      In
      Marc Cucurella – Brighton – £58.77m
      Raheem Sterling – Man City – £50.58m
      Kalidou Koulibaly – Napoli – £34.2m
      Carney Chukwuemeka- Aston Villa – £16.2m
      Cesare Casadei – Inter Milan – £13.5m
      Gabriel Slonina – Chicago Fire – £8.18m
      Out
      Timo Werner – RB Leipzig – £18m
      Emerson – West Ham – £11.7m
      Romelu Lukaku – Inter Milan – Loan
      Malang Sarr – AS Monaco – £900k
      Antonio Rüdiger – Real Madrid – Free transfer
      Andreas Christensen – Barcelona – Free transfer
      Matt Miazga – FC Cincinnati – Free transfer
      Jake Clarke-Salter – QPR – Free transfer
      Charly Musonda Jr. – Levante – Free transfer
      Gabriel Slonina – Chicago Fire – Loan
      MORE CHELSEA TRANSFER NEWS
      Crystal Palace
      Crystal Palace have done shrewd business this year with Cheick Doucoure coming in after losing Cheikhou Kayate on a free transfer to Nottingham Forest.
      Chris Richards has arrived from Bayern Munich for £10.8m with Christian Benteke leaving for the MLS, drawing a curtain on his time in the Premier League.
      In
      Cheick Doucouré – RC Lens – £20.34m
      Chris Richards – Bayern Munich – £10.8m
      Sam Johnstone – West Brom – Free transfer
      Malcolm Ebiowei – Derby – Free transfer
      Out
      Christian Benteke – D.C. United – £4.91m
      Cheikhou Kouyaté – Nottingham Forest – Free transfer
      Jaroslaw Jach – Zaglebie Lubin – Free transfer
      Jacob Montes – Nicaragua – Free transfer
      Remi Matthews – St. Johnstone – Loan

      Everton
      Everton boss Frank Lampard has looked to strengthen with Amadou Onana, James Tarkowski, Dwight McNeil and Conor Coady arriving at Goodison Park.
      They have lost arguably their biggest goal threat though with Richarlison leaving for Tottenham for a whopping £52m.
      In
      Amadou Onana – Lille – £32.4m
      James Tarkowski – Burnley – Free transfer
      Dwight McNeil – Burnley – Undisclosed
      Conor Coady – Wolves – Loan
      Rúben Vinagre – Sporting Lisbon – Loan
      Out
      Richarlison – Tottenham – £52.2m
      Jonjoe Kenny – Hertha Berlin – Free transfer
      Cenk Tosun – Besiktas – Free transfer
      Jarrad Branthwaite – PSV – Loan
      João Virgínia – SC Cambuur-Leeuwarden – Loan
      Fabian Delph – Released
      Gylfi Sigurdsson – Released
      Casemiro has joined Manchester United from Real Madrid
      Fulham
      New boys Fulham have signed Andreas Pereira from Manchester United who will replace Fabio Carvalho after he left for Liverpool.
      Bernd Leno has come in from Arsenal, Issa Diop from West Ham and Joao Palinha from Sporting Lisbon as Marco Silva looks to keep the Cottagers in the top flight.
      In
      João Palhinha – Sporting Lisbon – £18m
      Issa Diop – West Ham – £16m
      Andreas Pereira – Man Utd – £8.55m
      Kevin Mbabu – VfL Wolfsburg – £4.95m
      Bernd Leno – Arsenal – £3.24m
      Manor Solomon – Shakhtar Donetsk – Loan
      Shane Duffy – Brighton – Loan
      Out
      André Zambo Anguissa – Napoli – £13.5m
      Fábio Carvalho – Liverpool – £5.31m
      Jean Michaël Seri – Hull – Free transfer
      Alfie Mawson – Wycombe Wanderers – Free transfer
      Rodrigo Muniz – Middlesbrough – Loan
      Steven Sessegnon – Charlton – Loan
      Michael Hector – Released
      Cyrus Christie – Released
      Fabri – Released
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      Leeds
      After losing Raphina and Kalvin Phillips for massive money to Barcelona and Manchester City, many feared for Leeds but they have brought in promising replacements.
      Brenden Aaronson, Luis Sinisterra, Tyler Adams and Rasmus Kristensen have all arrived as they look to avoid a relegation battle this season.
      In
      Brenden Aaronson – RB Salzburg – £29.56m
      Luis Sinisterra – Feyenoord – £22.5m
      Tyler Adams – RB Leipzig – £15.3m
      Rasmus Kristensen – RB Salzburg – £11.7m
      Marc Roca – Bayern Munich – £10.8m
      Darko Gyabi – Man City U21 – £5.22m
      Joel Robles – Real Betis – Free transfer
      Out
      Raphinha – Barcelona – £52.2m
      Kalvin Phillips – Man City – £43.87m
      Leif Davis – Ipswich – £1.08m
      Kiko Casilla – Getafe – Free transfer
      Laurens De Bock – SV Zulte Waregem – Free transfer
      Liam McCarron – Stoke – Undisclosed
      Tyler Roberts – QPR – Loan
      Hélder Costa – Al-Ittihad Club (Jeddah) – Loan
      Charlie Cresswell – Millwall – Loan
      Jamie Shackleton – Millwall – Loan
      Richarlison left Everton for TottenhamCredit: PA
      Leicester
      Leicester are the only team in the Premier League not to have signed an outfield player this summer in the transfer window.
      They have had some good news with Jamie Vardy signing a new contract but Kasper Schmeichel has left for a new challenge in France with Nice.
      In
      Alex Smithies – Cardiff – Free transfer
      Out
      Kasper Schmeichel – Nice – £900k
      Hamza Choudhury – Watford – Loan
      Eldin Jakupovic – Released
      MORE LIVERPOOL TRANSFER NEWS
      Liverpool
      Liverpool splashed the cash early in getting the impressive Darwin Nunez through the doors at Anfield and he was joined by the hot prospect Fabio Carvalho.
      The big loss of the summer was Sadio Mane who opted for a new challenge and left for Bayern Munich with Neco Williams and Takumi Minamino also waving goodbye to the Reds.
      In
      Darwin Núñez – Benfica – £67.5m
      Fábio Carvalho – Fulham – £5.31m
      Calvin Ramsay – Aberdeen – £4.41m
      Out
      Sadio Mané – Bayern Munich – £28.8m
      Neco Williams – Nottingham Forest – £18m
      Takumi Minamino – Monaco – £13.5m
      Marko Grujic – Porto – £8.1m
      Ben Davies – Rangers – £4.23m
      Divock Origi – AC Milan – Free transfer
      Sheyi Ojo – Cardiff – Free transfer
      Ben Woodburn – Preston – Free transfer
      Rhys Williams – Blackpool – Loan
      Loris Karius – Released
      Erling Haaland has started in fine form for Manchester CityCredit: Reuters
      Man City
      After winning the Premier League so impressively last season, Pep Guardiola hasn’t stood still and has brought Erling Haaland to the Etihad.
      If that didn’t strike fear into the rest of the teams in the top flight, Kalvin Phillips has also arrived from Leeds for over £40m.
      In
      Erling Haaland – Borussia Dortmund – £54m
      Kalvin Phillips – Leeds – £43.87m
      Sergio Gómez – RSC Anderlecht – £11.7m
      Stefan Ortega – Arminia Bielefeld – Free transfer
      Out
      Raheem Sterling – Chelsea – £50.58m
      Gabriel Jesus – Arsenal – £46.98m
      Oleksandr Zinchenko – Arsenal – £31.5m
      Pedro Porro – Sporting Lisbon – £7.65m
      Ko Itakura – Borussia Mönchengladbach – £4.5m
      Arijanet Muric – Burnley – £2.7m
      Fernandinho – Club Athletico Paranaense – Free transfer
      Daniel Arzani – Macarthur FC – Free transfer
      Ryotaro Meshino – Gamba Osaka – Free transfer
      Yangel Herrera – Girona – Loan
      Zack Steffen – Middlesbrough – Loan
      Yan Couto – Girona – Loan
      Issa Kaboré – Olympique Marseille – Loan
      Nahuel Bustos – São Paulo Futebol Clube – Loan
      Diego Rosa – FC Vizela – Loan
      Thomas Agyepong – Released
      MORE MAN UTD TRANSFER NEWS
      Man Utd
      As always Manchester United have been linked with hundreds of names this summer and Casemiro has been the glamour signing for Erik Ten Hag from Real Madrid so far.
      Lisandro Martinez, Tyrell Malacia and Christian Eriksen have also joined with Paul Pogba, Nemanja Matic, Andreas Pereira, Juan Mata, Edinson Cavani and Jesse Lingard leaving for good.
      In
      Casemiro – Real Madrid – £63.59m
      Lisandro Martínez – Ajax – £51.63m
      Tyrell Malacia – Feyenoord – £13.5m
      Christian Eriksen – Brentford – Free transfer
      Out
      Andreas Pereira – Fulham – £8.55m
      Paul Pogba – Juventus – Free transfer
      Jesse Lingard – Nottingham Forest – Free transfer
      Nemanja Matić – AS Roma – Free transfer
      Alex Telles – Sevilla – Loan
      Dean Henderson – Nottingham Forest – Loan
      Álvaro Fernandez – Preston – Loan
      Edinson Cavani – Released
      Juan Mata – Released
      Lee Grant – Retired
      Darwin Nunez made a big-money move to Liverpool this summerCredit: Alamy
      Newcastle
      Many might have expected Eddie Howe to be throwing cash around after the takeover of the club last season but that has not been the case.
      The Magpies have bought smartly so far with Sven Botman and Nick Pope coming in as well as Matt Targett making his loan move permanent from Aston Villa.
      In
      Sven Botman – Lille – £33.3m
      Matt Targett – Aston Villa – £15.75m
      Nick Pope – Burnley – £10.35m
      Out
      Dwight Gayle – Stoke – Free transfer
      Freddie Woodman – Preston – Undisclosed
      Isaac Hayden – Norwich – Loan
      Jeff Hendrick- Reading – Loan
      Ciaran Clark – Sheffield United – Loan
      READ MORE ON NEWCASTLE UNITED
      Nottingham Forest
      The busiest club in the Premier League this summer has been Nottingham Forest who are determined to stay in the top flight for good.
      They have splashed the cash on no less than 16 players with Morgan Gibbs-White the most expensive signing from Wolves as well as Jesse Lingard and Dean Henderson arriving from Manchester United.
      In
      Morgan Gibbs-White – Wolves – £26.55m
      Taiwo Awoniyi – Union Berlin – £18.45m
      Neco Williams – Liverpool – £18m
      Emmanuel Dennis – Watford – £13.32m
      Orel Mangala – VfB Stuttgart – £11.7m
      Moussa Niakhaté – Mainz – £9m
      Giulian Biancone – Troyes – £9m
      Lewis O’Brien – Huddersfield – £8.46m
      Remo Freuler – Atalanta – £8.1m
      Omar Richards – Bayern Munich – £7.65m
      Harry Toffolo – Huddersfield – £2.16m
      Brandon Aguilera – LD Alajuelense – £855k
      Jesse Lingard – Man Utd – Free transfer
      Cheikhou Kouyaté – Crystal Palace – Free transfer
      Wayne Hennessey – Burnley – Free transfer
      Dean Henderson – Man Utd – Loan
      Out
      Brice Samba – Lens – £4.5m
      Nuno Da Costa – Auxerre – £1.8m
      Tobias Figueiredo – Hull – Free transfer
      Carl Jenkinson – Newcastle United Jets – Free transfer
      Nikolas Ioannou – Como – Free transfer
      Joe Lolley – Sydney FC – Undisclosed
      Xande Silva – Dijon – Undisclosed
      Richie Laryea – Toronto FC – Loan
      Jonathan Panzo – Coventry – Loan
      Braian Ojeda – Real Salt Lake City – Loan
      Ethan Horvath – Luton – Loan
      Brandon Aguilera – AD Guanacasteca – Loan
      Lewis Grabban – Released
      Gaëtan Bong – Released
      Jesse Lingard has moved from Manchester United to Nottingham ForestCredit: Getty
      Southampton
      Southampton had a solid if unspectacular season last time out and have turned over their squad somewhat this summer.
      The likes of Gavin Bazunu, Joe Aribo, Sekou Mara and Armel Bella-Kotchap will all look to make an impact for the Saints.
      In
      Gavin Bazunu – Man City U21 – £12.6m
      Sékou Mara – Bordeaux – £11.7m
      Roméo Lavia – Man City U21 – £11.07m
      Armel Bella-Kotchap – Bochum – £9m
      Joe Aribo – Rangers – £6.39m
      Mateusz Lis – Altay SK – Free transfer
      Out
      Fraser Forster – Tottenham – Free transfer
      Shane Long – Reading – Free transfer
      Harry Lewis – Bradford – Free transfer
      Will Smallbone – Stoke – Loan
      Nathan Tella – Burnley – Loan
      Dan N’Lundulu – Cheltenham Town – Loan
      Most read on Premier League
      Tottenham
      Tottenham boss Antonio Conte wants to challenge for the title this season and has made seven signings to help him do so.
      The most exciting of those is Richarlison from Everton with Yves Bissouma joining from Brighton and Ivan Perisic coming in on a free transfer from Inter Milan.
      In
      Richarlison – Everton – £52.2m
      Yves Bissouma – Brighton – £26.28m
      Destiny Udogie – Udinese – £16.2m
      Djed Spence – Middlesbrough – £13.23m
      Ivan Perisic – Inter Milan – Free transfer
      Fraser Forster – Southampton – Free transfer
      Clément Lenglet – Barcelona – Loan
      Out
      Steven Bergwijn – Ajax – £28.13m
      Cameron Carter-Vickers – Celtic – £6.3m
      Tanguy Ndombélé – Napoli – Loan fee: £450k
      Jack Clarke – Sunderland – Undisclosed
      Giovani Lo Celso – Villarreal – Loan
      Destiny Udogie – Udinese – Loan
      Joe Rodon -Stade Rennais – Loan
      MORE TOTTENHAM TRANSFER NEWS
      West Ham
      West Ham have spent plenty of money in trying to challenge for European places again this season.
      Gianluca Scamacca, Nayef Aguerd, Maxwel Cornet and Emerson have all arrived at the London Stadium with over £100m being spent.
      In
      Gianluca Scamacca – Sassuolo – £32.4m
      Nayef Aguerd – Stade Rennais FC – £31.5m
      Maxwel Cornet – Burnley – £18.63m
      Emerson – Chelsea – £11.7m
      Thilo Kehrer – PSG – £10.8m
      Flynn Downes – Swansea – £9.59m
      Alphonse Areola – PSG – £8.37m
      Out
      Issa Diop – Fulham – £16.02m
      Andriy Yarmolenko – Al-Ain FC – Free transfer
      Ryan Fredericks – Bournemouth – Free transfer
      Nikola Vlasic – Torino – Loan
      Arthur Masuaku – Besiktas – Loan
      Nathan Trott – Vejle Boldklub – Loan
      Mark Noble – Retired
      David Martin – Released
      Gianluca Scamacca joined West Ham in the transfer windowCredit: West Ham United FC
      Wolves
      Wolves have once again used their Portuguese connections in signing Matheus Nunes from Sporting Lisbon and Goncalo Guedes from Valencia.
      They have lost promising youngster Morgan Gibbs-White to Nottingham Forest though while Conor Coady left on loan for Everton.
      In
      Matheus Nunes – Sporting Lisbon – £40.5m
      Gonçalo Guedes – Valencia – £29.34m
      Nathan Collins – Burnley – £21.87m
      Hee-chan Hwang – RB Leipzig – £15.03m
      Out
      Morgan Gibbs-White – Nottingham Forest – £26.55m
      Rúben Vinagre – Sporting Lisbon – £9m
      Romain Saïss – Besiktas – Free transfer
      Marçal Marçal – Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas – Free transfer
      John Ruddy – Birmingham – Free transfer
      Renat Dadashov – Grasshoppers Club Zurich – Undisclosed
      Conor Coady – Everton – Loan
      Fábio Silva – RSC Anderlecht – Loan
      Ki-Jana Hoever – PSV – Loan
      Louie Moulden – Solihull Moors – Loan More

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      ‘Barcelona like him a lot’ – Pep Guardiola opens door to Bernardo Silva transfer exit after Man City’s Nou Camp friendly

      by

      PEP GUARDIOLA confirmed that he will not stop Bernardo Silva from leaving Manchester City to join Barcelona, if he wants to.The Portuguese midfielder has been linked with Barcelona throughout the summer.
      Bernardo Silva might seek a move to Barcelona during the last few days of the transfer windowCredit: Getty
      The 28-year-old still has three years left on his contract that keeps him at Man City.
      The midfielder would cost Barcelona £80million, which they are struggling to whip up due to their financial turmoil.
      Silva featured in the friendly against Barcelona last night, which took place at Nou Camp.
      The match ended in a 3-3 draw, thanks to a controversial penalty earned by Erling Haaland, who was accused by Barca fans of diving.
      READ MORE ON MAN CITY
      After the match, Pep was asked about Bernardo’s future and revealed that the Portuguese is interested in a move to Catalunya.
      Guardiola said: “He is our player.
      “We want him to be with us because he is very important.
      “Having said that, I don’t want anyone to be unhappy.
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      “But I don’t want him to leave because he is a superlative player.
      “As a player and as a person, he is one of the best I have ever had.
      “In any competition he is the best player.
      “If an offer arrives there are seven days left and if Bernardo leaves we would have to go to the market and it’s not easy.
      “Having said that, Bernardo likes Barcelona a lot.”
      Pep’s words contradicts with what City’s CEO Ferran Soriano said about Silva not leaving the club.
      When speaking with Spanish outlet Que T’hi Jugues, Sorian said: “It’s a little late [in the transfer window] to talk about ins and outs.
      “This story has taken many turns and in the end it has never moved from its starting point.”
      Barca boss Xavi was questioned about the matter, and he was realistic in his answers and left little space for rumours.
      The Barca legend said: “Who doesn’t like Bernardo Silva? Or Haaland or De Bruyne?
      “Silva has great decision-making ability, he protects the ball very well, he’s very good.
      “It depends on City.
      “But now there’s no news.”
      Read More on The Sun
      So far this season, Silva scored the equalising goal and assisted one, in the 3-3 draw against Newcastle.
      He’s started every Premier League outing so far, adding to the 253 games he played across all competitions, scoring 48 goals and registering 50 assists. More

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      Chelsea ready to extend outcast Michy Batshuayi’s contract before sending striker out on ANOTHER loan to Salernitana

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      CHELSEA are expected to extend Michy Batshuayi’s contract by a year before sending him out on ANOTHER loan, it’s claimed.The Belgian forward has had loan spells at Crystal Palace, Borussia Dortmund and most recently Besiktas.
      The next loan move for Michy Batshuayi seems to be SalernitanaCredit: Getty
      The Belgian’s forward contract with Chelsea expires at the end of season, and the Londoners are reportedly looking to extend it by another year.
      This will allow the Blues to send the 28-year-old on loan to Serie A side Salernitana.
      The loan deal will include an option to buy for Salernitana report the Daily Mail.
      By getting the striker to extend by a year, the Blues can demand a fee rather than him being available for nothing when his contract expires next summer.
      READ MORE ON CHELSEA
      Throughout the summer, Batshuayi also sparked interest from Premier League side Wolves, but no deal was concluded.
      He was also linked with a loan move to Everton with talk he could be included as part of the deal to bring Anthony Gordon to Stamford Bridge.
      Batshuayi spent pre-season playing for Chelsea, once he returned from his loan in Turkey.
      During the 2021/22 season, he won the love of the Turkish fans thanks to 14 goals in 33 league appearances, along with the five assists.
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      He played 45 minutes in each match against Charlotte FC and Club America during pre-season.
      However he’s not been included in any Premier League outing so far this season.
      In Italy, Salernitana recently failed to sign Neal Maupay in a £12million deal from Brighton so continue to look to strengthen as they start off their second season in Serie A.
      They’ve already secured a loan deal with Senegalese forward Boulaye Dia from LaLiga club Villareal, but want another striker.
      The Italian side are yet to win in Serie A this term after a loss to Roma in the season opener and then a goalless draw against Udinese. More