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I firmly believe that the English football pyramid is this country’s greatest cultural asset. It is fragile, threatened and taken too easily for granted. As such, we should rail against things that increase the risk of it crumbling and shout from the rooftops about everything worth cherishing.

Two years ago I embarked upon Doing the 92, a project during which I visited, watched a game at and wrote a detailed feature on every club in the Football League. It was genuinely one of the things of which I am most proud in my life. When you’re hopefully old and grey and reminiscing about your 80-odd years on this earth, certain memories stand tallest. Doing The 92 will be one of mine.

The greatest element of that project was the sense that football supporters were following the journey (and I was lucky enough to speak to lots of them along the way) and, in the case of many League One and League Two clubs, thankful for the in-depth coverage that did more than scratch the surface.

The Journeyman

So this season, we’re combining the fan involvement and the odyssey nature with The Journeyman. At least once a week across the season (I may have a holiday in October – sue me), I will ask you, the readers, to vote in a poll that decides where I head next.

There will be a WhatsApp group that you can join, both to vote and to get updates on my progress. You know the sort of thing: pictures of grounds, little videos, me broken after a five-hour drive home.

Normally I like to have a firm idea of my season schedule mapped out in a cripplingly detailed spreadsheet. This season, you will choose my path and I will respect democracy.

How it works

There are no boundaries. I will offer up Premier League, EFL, non-league, Scottish and wider European matches during the course of the season. There will be some “experience” features, some crisis reporting (this is English football after all), some road trips and some championing of good clubs getting things right. The only rule is that the club that receives the most votes gets picked.

So for the start of the EFL season this weekend, we might offer you:

• Leicester City in the cold, hard reality
• Sheffield Wednesday, finally normal
• The new age of Bristol City
• Hearts and the difficult second season

What you need to do

Obviously I want you to subscribe to my work. You get everything I do, everything that our sports team does and everything else the entire paper does and I think it’s great value for money.

I know that paying for journalism is a hard sell for some, but doing stuff on the ground, properly, costs money. I’m never going to phone it in or do half a job because a) it’s not really my style and b) going to football clubs is a joy. I’d like to think that it is football writing you can trust.

Other than that, please engage and vote! Think about what you would like to read, which story you think merits coverage (the losing choices may well come back around, but also might not) and the one that makes for the best story. I’m only giving you options that I think I can nail.

What I’ll produce

In return, I’ll visit the club and write a feature over the course of the next week. I hope you know this by now, but that piece will be researched and involve interviews where appropriate, either with club employees themselves or leading fan voices.

In addition, this season I’m producing short match vlog videos on Instagram. These will be silly, fun and should not be taken too seriously. But I hope that you like those too. The aim is to detail the general experience of covering 80-100 matches in a season.

I’m hugely excited. As I’ve told multiple people at work over the last fortnight, for some reason I got home from the World Cup and was immediately more pumped for a domestic season than I can ever remember.

There’s something about knowing where you’re going next that is comforting. There’s something about having no clue where you’ll be next week that is liberating. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

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The re-emergence of Amanda Staveley as a potential revolutionary at West Ham United was a reminder of a fan banner spotted at St James’ Park during the post-Mike Ashley euphoria which swept Newcastle United almost five years ago: “Until Amanda I was never happy.”

But West Ham fans may need to wait a while before the joy returns – as Staveley, the friendly face of the global corporatism which is now embedded within the day-to-day life of Britain’s leading football clubs, is front and centre of a new twist in the Hammers’ tale.

Adapting to the Championship this season, the club’s attempts for a fuss-free, brief stay in the second tier is overshadowed by boardroom chicanery. It should spell and end to the perceived managed decline largely overseen by David Sullivan and the now departed Karren Brady.

But shareholder Daniel Kretinsky’s own interests – and a recent move he has made – mean a battle is brewing. And the impasse is hampering the Hammers’ plans for a swift return to the Premier League.

The obstacles in Staveley’s way

As it stands, PCP, Staveley’s company, needs to draft in wealthier partners, with Staveley’s personal holding estimated at around £150m, and that is dwarfed by key West Ham shareholder Kretinsky – who is opposed to this fresh power play.

Kretinsky’s input appears crucial. Vanessa Gold may have agreed to sell her 25.1 per cent stake to PCP, but after Sullivan resigned as chairman in the wake of ongoing sexual misconduct allegations, and vice-chair Brady departed in April, Kretinsky is increasingly central to the developments.

He will therefore have a say on whether or not Staveley is firstly, successful with the bid, and secondly, the material impact she and her investors can make.

That Sullivan remains the Hammers’ largest shareholder is another significant roadblock.

However, Staveley’s scent of an opportunity, essentially to re-establish a labouring “brand” – for West Ham in 2026, see Newcastle previously – is widely admired.

The move that could thwart Staveley’s bid

Club co-chair Kretinsky is a multi-billionaire. Under West Ham’s option of pre-emption rights, he has utilised the right of first refusal for existing shareholders.

The Czech has just sold 2 per cent of his stake in the club to compatriot Jakub Havrlant in a move which could already thwart Staveley’s bid. By keeping his shareholding to below the 50 per cent threshold, Kretinsky retains power without being obliged to make an offer for the remainder of the club.

Therefore, even with the successful acquisition of Gold’s 25 per cent shareholding, Staveley’s ambitions are limited. Of course, a key further step here is persuading Sullivan – who holds 38.8 per cent of club shares – to sell up, a pursuit which is proving extremely taxing.

At present, Staveley can suggest how PCP and Ashfield can help “flip” the club for long-term sustainability. Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor, is open to talks over the future of the London Stadium, which can be a substantial driver for financial growth if West Ham pave the way for outright ownership.

Opportunities to develop the swathes of land around the arena exist in Stratford – virtually a city-within-a-city – but Staveley may also have to account for opposition to any major changes from environmental groups, keen to preserve the 2012 Olympic legacy of planting diverse wildlife habitats and the creation of a vast urban park.

Any such obstacles, if overcome, can help reimagine the stadium itself, long criticised for its lack of intense atmosphere.

That alone would be a massive initial hit for West Ham’s supporters and an excellent public sweetener for Staveley. Her proven communication skills and easy grace from her spell at Newcastle would please fans, so often frustrated at the lack of pizazz by Sullivan and Kretinsky.

No Saudi link boosts Staveley

Furthermore, the absence of a Saudi link to Staveley’s proposed involvement also minimises any negative publicity over human rights issues which stalked her early months at Newcastle.

Amid the uncertainty, the Hammers’ player trading has been affected. Players such as Crysencio Summerville, Mateus Fernandes and Freddie Potts have left for a combined £150m, and just one player, Venezuelan winger Keiber Lamadrid, has arrived.

While Celtic midfielder Arne Engels is strongly linked for a £25m switch to east London, recruitment remains slow, with West Ham kicking off their Championship campaign on 16 August.

Read more

Transfers: West Ham eye Celtic and Rangers stars for Championship promotion bid

Interview: Harry Redknapp: The worst celebrity I’ve seen play football? He was shocking

If Staveley’s executive move is successful, she will have presumably learned from negative aspects of her experience on Tyneside.

A main one being the enforced sale of Elliot Anderson to Nottingham Forest for £35m to comply with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules. Two years later, the England international has been sold by Forest to Manchester City for £116m.

That aside, Newcastle fans, broadly speaking, lauded Staveley for her vision, something which they claim the club lacks since her departure in July 2024. Staveley’s ability to see a grander canvas around West Ham may excite supporters desperate for uplifting news, but there is still much for her to overcome.

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LA MANGA — On the sun-kissed Spanish coast this week, there has been optimism as Newcastle’s key power brokers meet to talk turkey.

PIF’s Jacobo Solis and Newcastle minority owner Jamie Reuben were notable presences in La Manga for an “off-site” on Wednesday that has set the direction of travel for the last three weeks of the summer transfer window. How is it going to be? “Busy” said one senior source.

It needs to be. For all the upbeat words and “energy”, there is a lot riding on it. CEO David Hopkinson told reporters here the club is in a “moment of change” and should not shy away from admitting it. Matthias Jaissle has injected fresh energy and intensity but he needs more in the market.

A fresh push in their recruitment drive is now imminent and the budget they can work with is considerable. The i Paper reported that they could spend £150m after the Bruno Guimaraes sale and that number has been backed up out here in Spain.

Transfer fees will “not be a problem” in the markets they’re shopping in but wages are the key. Under tough squad cost ratio rules have to keep that (relatively) low to continue investing while hitting their agreed Uefa financial restrictions. It will also give them room to negotiate further contract extensions – with Lewis Hall eyeing new terms and a longer stay.

Newcastle’s transfer plans

Instead of one blockbuster deal, the budget will be divided up on “at least” three signings. They are actively working on a midfielder – the current policy is to have several “plates” spinning at the same time but with “experienced” options lined up – and a full-back.

The name is yet to emerge. Those linked but discounted include Felix Nmecha and Ruben Neves, who played for the new Newcastle boss at Al-Hilal. They like Porto’s Victor Froholdt but it’s not a deal they believe can happen this summer. Ditto Germany international Angelo Stiller.

Croatia midfielder Luka Sucic, who worked with Jaissle previously and plays for Real Sociedad, is an intriguing option. Newcastle wanted to end their overreliance on one player, so having a few capable of “ball progression” and allowing Lewis Miley a more attacking role is the plan.

Other positions will depend on Jaissle’s assessment of his squad. He has pored over the physical statistics from last season and is understood to be enthused that the players are fit enough to play in his favoured “high-intensity” style. It could be another full-back or a forward – the squad looks shy of goals, even if Yoane Wissa and Will Osula look sharp.

What happens next

There is no secret that they will run things right until deadline day on 1 September.

“We’re active in the market,” Wilson confirmed here in Spain.

“We’ve already strengthened the squad, we wanted to have a clear stamp on the window as to what our identity looked like, we wanted to re-energise and refresh it and we can feel it now in a big way.

“The new coach can feel it in a different way because he didn’t work with the players we had before. Of course we want to add more. The support of the guys is there as well.

“Matthias wants to assess what we have as well, which is obvious, he’s been doing that for some time now so he’s got a view on that already and we’re aligned on what we want to do. What we also don’t want to do is make any mistakes by jumping to do something that we don’t really want to do to tick a box.”

No more big sales

Newcastle insiders have rowed back the idea that they are not willing sellers in the transfer market. “Tell that to the clubs that try to deal with us,” was the verdict of one source.

While Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali were always leaving, Guimaraes was told – after Newcastle reluctantly granted his wish to leave – that he could do so on two conditions. The first is that there would be no repeat of the Alexander Isak wildcat strike – he had to report for training while the deal was being thrashed out.

The second is that the numbers had to work. If they didn’t, Guimaraes would stay. Both parties shook on that.

That should inform the idea that Hall, Joelinton or Tino Livramento might leave. Hall is “untouchable” and will stay. Joelinton is also going nowhere despite links with the Saudi Pro League – “Perfectly happy” said one source – and Livramento is working his way back towards fitness.

Bruno deal explained

The sale of Guimaraes – which will be confirmed shortly – means most of the pain is over. And it has been a blow for the club that he actively petitioned for a move to Arsenal all summer.

“We didn’t want to sell Bruno. It wasn’t in the plan to sell Bruno,” Wilson admitted.

“None of us wanted to sell Bruno. He’s our captain, he was very, very important to us and the debate over his price – it’s a world record fee for a player of his age. What we had to weigh up was, very respectfully from Bruno with his behaviour towards us, very emotionally as well, effectively told us he wanted to leave and move on.

“That doesn’t mean he can go but it certainly plays a part in what our thinking is when we hit a certain range of number. But there’s no part in saying it was part of our strategy and was in our thinking this summer – it wasn’t.

“But we have got to be flexible and react to things that happen. It might have been in our plan to sign one player but we didn’t get him so we move on to another. We can only be honest about that.

“We’d love Bruno Guimares to be in our squad this summer but I’m sure there are other clubs that have lost players that wish they were in their squads this season. It’s the world we live in, we had to adapt, we had to react.”

Was £75ma good fee? Newcastle fans were upset that the club shook hands on that and there was an admission here that they had wanted more.

“It was not the fee that I think Arsenal had hoped to pay and of course we would have liked an even higher number,” CEO Hopkinson admitted.

Read more

• Newcastle: Inside Newcastle’s £75m plans for life after Bruno Guimaraes
• Mark Douglas: I feared for Newcastle – then I met Matthias Jaissle

“But I think you’re dealing with sophisticated actors on both sides and that’s what negotiation looks like. It’s a fee that satisfies us. If you want a put a merchandising spin on it, it’s the highest fee for a player in that position at that age.

“Is that a good deal for Newcastle United? I believe it is. But Arsenal are getting a very special player and special person so this works from a financial perspective for both sides.”

Newcastle insist they have learned lessons from the Alexander Isak saga last summer. Giving themselves three weeks rather than three days to source their captain’s replacement at least gives them a chance.

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This was supposed to be the summer transfer window Manchester United supporters had been demanding for a long time.

Money has been spent in recent years, over £200m splurged on a new forward line last summer – but one area of the team has always been neglected in each window.

Something has been missing in central midfield for a long time, perhaps ever since now-manager Michael Carrick hung up his boots. Supporters were assured that numbers and quality would finally be added to the engine room.

The numbers have come in – two central midfielders already – but the big-name, top targets have moved elsewhere. Even Tottenham are leaving United trailing in their wake. No other areas of the squad have been strengthened, other than a reserve goalkeeper.

So far, the net spend measures around £25m. Manchester City spent four times that on United’s top pick, Elliot Anderson.

Do United have the money?

United, even with all the debt hanging over their heads, remain one of the most profitable clubs in world football.

With financial rules switching from Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) to Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) this season, United are in an even stronger fiscal position, as the new statutes focus on revenue generated, rather than overall losses made.

“The cash reserves are fine,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire tells The i Paper. “Being back in the Champions League, that’s worth another £50m minimum, probably closer to £100m by the time you factor in four home games as a bare minimum, realistically six.

“They make a lot of money from ticket sales, they pick up a lot of prize money from Uefa, they’ll have bonuses which will kick in from sponsors, because it’s Champions League or nothing as far as your sponsors are concerned.

“So I do think their lack of activity is odd. They’ve got the capacity to spend.”

Self-imposed spending limits

A cautious approach so far to the transfer market isn’t down to a lack of funds. It is how much is made available.

Insiders have been keen to reiterate that “funds are limited”, which is why United executives feel that a deal for Newcastle full-back Lewis Hall will be difficult to agree. The true meaning of that stance is that the club have imposed their own limits on what they are willing to spend on individual targets. Ineos feel United have been overpaying for too long.

United would have been interested in Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali had they been available for £70m; instead they joined Spurs. Ineos wanted Anderson, but as soon as the fee went above £100m, United dropped out of the running.

Now is not the time to take such huge gambles – four of their five record captures are Paul Pogba, Antony, Jadon Sancho and Romelu Lukaku, who all struggled to live up to their price tags.

Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans are both sensible picks, with Premier League experience – something United’s new transfer hierarchy saw as crucial for any new recruit this term.

Next summer may be the opportunity to take more risks. For now, if the right targets are not available at the right price, then United will wait.

Cost-cutting

Whether it is what supporters want from their owner is another matter, but Sir Jim Ratcliffe has made his name by turning around failing businesses. A big part of his manifesto when taking over any ailing enterprise is cost-cutting.

The playing staff have not been spared from his culling of United employees. Big earners Casemiro and Jadon Sancho have been let go this summer, while Andre Onana’s wages remain someone else’s concern this season.

Read more

• Transfers: Man Utd suffer setback over ‘untouchable’ Newcastle target
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Yet, in Ineos’ eyes, the outlay on wages still needs some work. Getting over £1m a week off the payroll is impressive, but a return to the Champions League has given many players a 25 per cent wage increase as a bonus. Even Mason Mount, who barely kicked a ball last season, and Marcus Rashford and Onana, who were both out on loan last season.

These deals were negotiated before Ineos’ arrival, but they still have to foot the bill. In any good business, you cannot increase expenditure too much until costs are kept under better control.

“United have been offering premium wages to all levels of player for too long,” one source close to the club says.

“It takes a long time to get out of that cycle. Other clubs have bigger top earners, but United constantly offer £80,000-£100,000-a-week more than they should.”

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The road back to the top will have to come via Damascus for Tottenham Hotspur.

After failing to maximise the Harry Kane era, they are now trying to atone for the sins that led them to two successive 17th-placed finishes in the Premier League.

The simplest reason as to why Spurs are in such a mess relates to recruitment. In the final years of Daniel Levy’s tenure, the club found themselves dropping further back down the table than an England team in a semi-final coached by Thomas Tuchel (too soon?).

And so here we are today, with Tottenham a tad fortunate to even still be a Premier League side. The manager who saved them, Roberto De Zerbi, has arguably earned the right to lead an expensive rebuild, but there are plenty of reasons to be cautious and pessimistic about the plan of action.

At the time of writing, Spurs have signed six new players during the summer window, all of whom played in the Premier League last season – Jan Paul van Hecke, Martin Dubravka, Marcos Senesi, Andy Robertson, Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali. The last two names on that list saw Tottenham obliterate their transfer record with extreme overpays, with Fernandes costing a flat £85m and Tonali’s final price projected to reach £100m.

Spurs’ Catch-22

Spurs’ net spend stands at £164.7m, helped out by Dubravka, Senesi and Robertson arriving on Bosman transfers in deals more akin to the club’s previous modus operandi. The major difference comes down to the other financials.

This new Tottenham, powered by the Lewis family (a soft rebrand of Enic), are not afraid to stump up for their targets, nor to pay them an extravagant wage to blow their rivals out of the water. These were the two main factors which held the club back in the market under Levy’s regime.

Tottenham appear to have two top targets to strengthen in the final third: Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo and Manchester City’s Savinho. Both fine players, both would immediately improve Spurs, and yet both would feel like underwhelming signings – even though they could cost a combined £140m.

There has been little creativity or imagination to Spurs’ window. They are both playing it safe and taking huge risks at the same time, trying to raise the floor of their team with the enlightenment that they simply cannot cut costs in the window anymore.

Adding Premier League-proven players should keep them out of another relegation battle, though that shouldn’t even have to be in their thinking. Tottenham have to make expensive mistakes just to break even in righting the wrongs of the past.

The hierarchy are still in place

That brings us to the elephant in the room. Well, the two elephants. The architects of last season’s mess, CEO Vinai Venkatesham and sporting director Johan Lange, are still in post.

Nobody upstairs has paid the price for nearly sending the ninth-richest club in world football down. Not in a physical sense, anyway. De Zerbi becoming the face of their transfer business is a clear shift in strategy, with the club backing a manager more than they ever have before.

The Italian himself has alluded to this. Speaking to gathered media on their pre-season tour of Oceania, he said of his involvement on transfers: “I don’t know why I love it, maybe because when you take the decision, you take the responsibility, but I think if the coach calls the player, you can build a special connection at the beginning with them.

Read more

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“The player knows you are the key for this transfer, and maybe this player feels they have to give you back something more than if, for example, Johan Lange calls the player.”

Spurs’ years of neglecting the playing squad and always playing catch-up in the market has led them to this purgatory between a rock and a hard place. Vinkatesham and Lange should absolutely not be leading the project, but is handing over the keys to the most fiery manager in the league the best strategy either?

At worst, Tottenham should be a competitive team this season. Then again, we all said that this time last year, didn’t we?

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The weight loss was awful – four stone in all. The operations were scary. The not knowing is one of cancer’s most evil weapons, uncertainty as you stare at your body desperate to have clarity on what is going on inside. The discomfort is relentless. The worries about your family never end.

But it’s the waiting that Tony Mowbray mentions most. The weeks waiting in hospital felt like years. The pattern of treatments and meetings and check-ups, waiting for good news and fearing bad. Walks with the dog on the beach, getting stronger but still waiting for the call. Waiting for the football results to come in, just to feel like you were still part of it. When the distraction is so wretched, you just miss football more.

Mowbray was Birmingham City manager in February 2024 when he was diagnosed with bowel cancer. He soon stepped down from his role, underwent major surgery and then an extensive, intensive period of chemotherapy. He has got the all-clear and is back at Blackburn Rovers, who he managed for five years between 2017 and 2022.

Being back in football, Mowbray says, is like walking into your home after a period away, basking in its familiarities and comforts. It is all he has ever known and, quite frankly, all he ever wishes to.

“I grew up on a council estate in Teesside, in Redcar in the North East on a set of little closes,” Mowbray tells The i Paper.

“There were eight in all and each had little grassed area. I used all of the grassed areas in every close to play football. I broke all the fences.

“We grew up in an environment where it felt as if football was all there was. My dad took me out of school when I was six to go and watch George Best. Thankfully for me, I developed well enough to become a professional at the team that I grew up supporting as a boy at Middlesbrough.

“I finished the last few years of my playing career at Ipswich Town and was a player coach with George Burley, then moved up to Scotland in Edinburgh to Hibernian. I was off and running.

“Football is all it has ever been. It’s life, football – it flies by and you don’t wish yourself out of it. I love being around the teams, trying to inspire them. I missed it so, so much, every day.”

When Mowbray was forced to step down and focus on his cancer journey and – mercifully – recovery, there was an outpouring of love from within the game unlike anything I’ve witnessed in similar circumstances.

Former players, managerial peers, football clubs – all rushed to wish “Mogga” all the love and strength they could muster.

It should not come as any surprise. Forget the usual epithets: Mowbray is respected and loved like few others in English football. He is a giant of the game, both reassuring old school and dependable but never for a second guilty of becoming stuck in the past.

It’s hard to understand your own place in that hierarchy, and the relentlessness of football only makes that more difficult. It wasn’t until the worst happened that Mowbray really understood how he was judged by those around him. In a sea of uncertainty, it became mood-defining.

“When I had my first operation and lost all the weight, I was in hospital for more than a month,” he says.

“My family kept telling me that every club I’d ever been at – and some clubs I hadn’t even managed – were putting things on their big screens. From where I am, I can’t look outwards and have an impression of what the football world thinks. So it was very humbling.

“And then it didn’t stop. I felt the hundreds and hundreds of texts I was getting, so many I couldn’t keep up. It was taking me weeks to try and reply to all of these people. They didn’t have to text me. They didn’t have to make contact. And yet the whole football world seemed to make contact. Just very, very humbling.”

Now 62 and back in the Championship, Mowbray intends to make up for the missed years and the time spent walking the dog. He says that the last two and a half years have made him doubly grateful for that pathway from Redcar to everywhere else.

But it’s time to get back to what he’s good at: inspiring young footballers to go further for longer and to become greater than the sum of their parts as a team. That is the one element of Mowbray’s management that has always stood out to his peers: even as he gets older and the players stay the same age, his ability to connect with them is extraordinary.

“It feels like an out of body thing for me,” he says.

“I don’t know where it comes from. I feel as if I’m quite a reserved individual and stand back from pushing myself forward, yet when I’m in an environment where I’m stood in front of 30 players in a dressing room, I think I’ll talk for a minute and 30 minutes later I’m still talking and it’s gone somewhere down a rabbit hole that I didn’t expect it to go. It’s only the love of the game, the passion, the emotion.

“I try to inspire them to find their inner child. Where’s that guy who used to score six goals in a game on a Sunday with his mates and never passed to anybody because he was so good? You have to find him, you have to bring him out, you have to bring him to training every day and show me how good you are.”

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For Mowbray, a sense of his own inner child has returned. Without the horrible experiences of 2024 and 2025, he would likely not be spending the days before the start of a new season thinking of football on the grassy spots of small Teesside towns.

But illness and recovery changes you and can often provide clarity. You see how your own life mapped out when you have so long to consider why it was so precious.

Just as football came out to support Mowbray through those worst times, it is delighted to have him back. This season might not be easy – the manager talks about running through walls to compete. But sometimes it’s as simple as feeling blessed to even get the chance and to dance that same old dance again.

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Mohamed Salah will arrive in Turkey as the most significant signing in the history of the Super Lig.

To all intents and purposes Salah looked almost certain to move to Saudi Arabia after leaving Liverpool at the end of his contract – not least because of the lack of European clubs able to afford the 34-year-old’s wages.

Instead the forward has joined Trabzonspor on a two-year contract – with more high-profile arrivals expected to follow as the club bids to compete with Galatasaray and Fenerbahce.

The i Paper understands ex-Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez, a former teammate of Salah’s is also a target as Trabzonspor aim to further add to an attack now boasting Salah and other new signings Aral Simsir and Ernest Muci.

Nunez has previously been monitored by Tottenham Hotspur with some uncertainty remaining over Richarlison’s future. Roberto De Zerbi has been impressed with Dominic Solanke and Mathys Tel can play as a No 9 but that still leaves Spurs relatively light on options after Randal Kolo Muani’s loan spell ended. De Zerbi’s main priority is a wide-forward, with Savinho a long-term target.

Tottenham have not made any formal bid for Nunez, the Uruguayan international currently with Saudi Pro League club Al-Hilal. He is valued at around £17m.

How Trabzonspor pulled off Salah deal

Nunez could be tempted by a highly ambitious project in Trabzon. The club finished third last season, ahead of Besiktas but playing catch-up behind Fenerbahce and champions Galatasaray.

Trabzonspor offered Salah a two-year contract on €17m (£15m), plus performance-related bonuses – The i Paper has been told he also has an image rights clause which will entitle him to 20 per cent of revenue from any club merchandise sold under his name.

Despite Saudi clubs being able to offer similar money, he was sold a project in Turkey – Trabzonspor qualified for the Europa League and can offer a more competitive environment. The Saudi Pro League is still struggling to attract fans to its stadiums, with footage emerging in pre-season of largely empty grounds.

Nunez would fit the model in Turkey, where Trabzonspor aiming to sign a number of big name, “world-class” players to go alongside younger players with “high potential”.

As one source put it, they are aiming to close the gap on the Istanbul duopoly not just by spending more money but by “better planning” and “smarter recruitment”.

Read more

• Tottenham: Hull City rival West Ham for £20m Tottenham forward
• Transfers: Why Man Utd don’t want to sell Marcus Rashford to Spurs

Spurs’ latest transfer plans

Spurs are not finished in the market just yet having spent upwards of £200m on Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes and Jan Paul van Hecke. Martin Dubravka, Andy Robertson, and Marcos Senesi have joined on free transfers.

Cristian Romero is expected to join Atletico Madrid in the coming days and Guglielmo Vicario is being monitored by Serie A clubs. Manor Solomon is set to leave despite a mini pre-season revival, with West Ham and Hull the clubs interested.

Djed Spence is a Liverpool target and could be allowed to leave due to De Zerbi being unable to guarantee him a place in the starting XI this season.

Savinho is not the only target being looked at and Spurs have not yet agreed a fee with Manchester City.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/UedZrsO