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It is as if everyone at Tottenham Hotspur has suffered a collective bout of amnesia of late.

Some of it has been justified. When you have just watched two full Premier League campaigns of non-stop suffering and nearly been relegated, why wouldn’t fans be excited about making signings for £100m?

And supporters should be hopeful. They live to enjoy because they never know when they will have to live to merely endure again. That shouldn’t be the moxy with which the operators of a football club do their business, however.

On Monday evening, Tottenham announced they had tied Micky van de Ven to a new contract which will run until 2031. It was reported in his native Netherlands that he will earn €75m (£64m) across the length of that deal, roughly translating to £240,000 a week. This brings him in line with the club’s newest set of top earners, alongside Sandro Tonali, Conor Gallagher and Xavi Simons, all of whom were signed within the last 12 months.

It’s a clear pivot in strategy from Spurs to up their wage bill in order to beat rivals to key targets – Arsenal and Manchester City were keen on Tonali, Aston Villa thought they had Gallagher and Chelsea were interested in Simons.

But it doesn’t make as much sense to greatly reward Van de Ven for the three years he has had at Spurs so far, let alone off the back of his most self-destructive one.

Tottenham’s troubling results last season were largely down to the coaching of their ill-fated managers Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor, though the players who didn’t fall victim to their injury crisis mustn’t escape blame either.

Van de Ven, once infamous for paper-thin hamstrings, started more games than any teammate with 45. He captained the team 18 times having been promoted into the first-team’s leadership group by Frank. Spurs finished 17th, again.

Even if you remove Tottenham’s final position from the equation, Van de Ven’s performances were inconsistent, particularly after his early-season scoring surge. Most notably, he got himself sent off in a 3-1 loss at home to Crystal Palace in March, which signalled to the world Spurs were serious relegation candidates.

With Cristian Romero – Tottenham’s most disgraceful captain since Sol Campbell – set to be sold, Van de Ven will become the best outright defender at the club. Still, that did not require Spurs to hand him a ludicrously lavish new contract, especially given his previous deal still had three years left to run.

If Van de Ven is your top centre-back on £240,000 a week, where are you going? Is this real ambition or simply trying to one-up the previous regime built on frugality? Who else was going to pay him anywhere near that salary?

Most of Tottenham’s summer business screams that they simply don’t want to be associated with the Daniel Levy era any longer.

Van de Ven is still a decent player with scope to improve quickly. Were he to have been shopped around, a fair few of Europe’s elite would have shown some level of interest. The hope with him is that, at 25, his best years are still ahead of him.

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But he is hugely reliant on pace and there is little evidence he can be an above-average box defender. Those are uncertainties that should have put the frighteners on those in Spurs’ risk management department.

This is all just another sign that Tottenham are trying to draw a line under the 2025-26 season without acknowledging or attempting to understand why it happened in the first place.

It is not only spending which has been a problem for Spurs, but spending wisely. They are continuing to show they deserve the same level of trust in the transfer market as you would give to a five-year-old with a £50 note in a sweet shop.

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The strength of this season’s Championship is arguably best illustrated by West Bromwich Albion’s promotion prospects.

The ultimate yo-yo team of the 2000s, the boing boing Baggies have recently lost that spring, last playing in the Premier League in 2021.

And last season, a two-point deduction contributed towards West Brom’s joint-lowest finish since 1993 – 21st in the second tier – and meant they only narrowly escaped relegation. They would have gone down had Leicester City not been deducted six points themselves.

It made for a bleak campaign featuring three permanent managers, with chairman Shilen Patel going on to apologise to supporters in June for a “historically poor” campaign.

But survival was crucial and though promotion appears to be a distant goal, at last there is some hope under head coach James Morrison’s watch.

The state of West Brom’s finances

West Brom are in a “significantly healthier financial position” heading into the new campaign, according to football finance expert Professor Rob Wilson.

The scale of Bilkul’s repair job has been substantial since its takeover in February 2024, and though it was unable to prevent last season’s breach, the outlook is brighter thanks to Patel’s cash injection.

“On another points deduction, I’d regard the risk as substantially lower,” Wilson says.

“The two-point deduction last season related to the three-year period ending June 2025, with Albion saying the breach was less than £2m. Crucially, the £37.6m 2023-24 loss now rolls out of the calculation.”

The Championship, like the Premier League, have switched to squad cost ratio for the upcoming campaign, meaning clubs must operate under a new financial framework.

The 2026-27 allowance means clubs can spend 85 per cent of their income on player and manager-related costs.

“We are comfortable that we can execute our plan within the new regulations,” Patel said.

What West Brom can spend

Fourteen Championship clubs have outspent West Brom this summer transfer window, with the arrivals of Felix Horn Myhre, Barney Stewart, Jimmy-Jay Morgan and Nolan Galves for a combined £6m proof of their search for a bargain (Morgan’s fee could rise from £1m to £4m with add-ons).

They then confirmed the arrival of France U20 midfielder Rabby Nzingoula from Strasbourg on Tuesday for an undisclosed fee.

West Brom’s prospects of suddenly spending big are slim. Wilson estimates there is scope for another £3-6m to be spent but that will depend heavily on wages, deal structures and any further sales.

“They remain a Championship club that needs to be disciplined, but the financial picture is considerably more stable,” Wilson adds.

“There should be room for further recruitment, albeit probably in the low single-digit millions rather than a major spending spree.”

Possible transfer targets

After a loan spell at Wrexham last season, Issa Kabore has been linked with West Brom. Manchester City have loaned the right-back out seven times since he joined in 2020 with the 25-year-old yet to play for the club.

The free agent market is also a treasure trove and with Morrison recently addressing their need for new wingers, there are experienced options available.

Sunderland released Bertrand Traore this summer and for West Brom the forward would be comfortably more attainable than Raheem Sterling and Wilfried Zaha, who are both currently looking for work.

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Adama Traore has become somewhat of a journeyman himself, but West Brom may be reluctant to add the former Wolverhampton Wanderers man to their ranks.

A return to the Hawthorns is also on the cards for goalkeeper Alex Palmer, who had left the club for Ipswich Town in 2025.

The 30-year-old lost the No 1 gloves to Christian Walton at Ipswich early last season, having started the first 10 Championship games before injury ruled him out for two months. Reports suggest Sunderland are also interested in the West Brom academy graduate.

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Hull City want to sign up to 10 new players before the summer transfer window closes, with head coach Sergej Jakirovic confirming the Premier League newcomers are still chasing a goalkeeper and centre-back with top-flight experience.

Jakirovic told The i Paper he expects five new arrivals by the end of the week, confirming that Australia international Lucas Herrington and Senegal international Nobel Mendy are undergoing medicals in Manchester.

The pair will join their new teammates in training on Thursday morning, with Jakirovic confident both can make an immediate impact given they have trained and played recently.

He also revealed that the club will “100 per cent” sign a goalkeeper after Jack Butland was ruled out for three months following an arm injury that requires surgery.

Newcastle United’s Nick Pope, who has been told he can leave St James’ Park, is understood to be one of the names under consideration.

However, any deal could depend on wage demands, with Hull having to cut their cloth accordingly after a brush with financial fair play rules earlier in the summer.

The Tigers have endured a slightly chaotic few days and there is little sign of activity slowing down.

Hull ended their interest in Nice forward Mohamed-Ali Cho earlier this week, but Jakirovic admitted they could revive that move before the start of September.

The club also remain interested in Leeds United forward Joe Gelhardt, who played a key role in their promotion campaign last season.

Intriguingly, Jakirovic revealed Hull are also waiting for Premier League clubs to decide the futures of some of their promising young players, who could be made available on loan in the final days of the window.

With so much going on, it is no surprise that the 49-year-old – who has a deliciously dry sense of humour – joked that he wanted to cut our interview slot down from 20 minutes to 15 so he could get back on the phone to Hull’s recruitment team.

“I’m expecting at least five [new] players this week,” he said.

“And we need more than seven new players because we have seven players from the under-21 squad training with us, helping us in our sessions because of our [injury] problems.

“We are working a lot on recruitment [but] it’s very slow. Sometimes I’m very annoyed about that but overall I’m positive, I’m optimistic.

“The new arrivals we have signed are good players but I’m aware they will need time to get the new chemistry of the team. They have quality.”

Hull begin their Premier League campaign against Manchester United in less than a fortnight, but Jakirovic insists the disruption is nothing new for the club.

The Tigers faced a similarly difficult situation 12 months ago while operating under a transfer embargo, yet went on to assemble a team that secured promotion at Wembley after a marathon Championship season.

“I knew it would be like this. We lost a lot of players. Because of our embargo we had a lot of loan players, they went back to their clubs and we had to sell players for financial reasons,” he said.

“It’ll be challenging, [a] difficult season, we all know that. I hope we will be good but it’s a lot of work ahead of us, especially in recruitment because we need players. In some positions we are very short.

“We are working on things but it’s not easy. Everyone thinks we have a lot of money but we have a responsibility because it’s not just about this season. We have to plan for other seasons. We have to spend our money wisely.”

Butland had been viewed as the answer to their goalkeeping issues, only for his injury to leave them needing another addition.

“Goalkeeper is a very big problem for us,” Jakirovic said.

“Jack found himself here and was very good, I was happy with him.”

“Right now we have three very good goalkeepers, but now after a medical check Jack needs surgery and the prediction is around 10-12 weeks so 100 per cent we need to take one more goalkeeper.”

Is Pope – who has been made available by Newcastle – an option?

“There are a few names,” he added.

“We need to decide who we will take. We will try to take a goalkeeper who has experience of the Premier League.

“We are discussing with the goalkeeper coach and will see what our decision is. It depends on money as well. It is always a problem.”

The prospect of re-signing Gelhardt is particularly appealing to Jakirovic, given the former’s familiarity with the club.

“He’s in the last year of his contract so maybe we should use this to buy him because ‘Joffy’ knows everything here,” he said.

“He knows us, we know him. He helped us a lot last season and was crucial in our season and was happy to be here. Maybe we will use this option.

“Others? We will see. All the big teams when they think about loaning out players they wait until the last week of the transfer window.”

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Further defensive reinforcements are also deemed essential.

“We are chasing one more centre-back who has Premier League experience,” Jakirovic said.

“We need that, it’s very, very important. I know how big the gap is between the Championship and the Premier League. There’s a lot of examples of teams who go up and immediately go down.

“It’s difficult, there’s no easy games in the Premier League. We will see. Right now I’m looking at my team, how we can improve things and how we can be competitive in this league.”

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It was Bill Shankly who said that Jesus was the first socialist. The spirit of Anfield is, above all, the swelling chorus of “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, whose words like much else associated with Liverpool came from the United States.

Jeff Bezos, who along with other billionaire chums Eduardo Saverin and Amit Bhatia are looking to buy into Anfield, is a very different kind of American to Oscar Hammerstein, a key player in the Hollywood anti-Nazi league, who wrote the words sang so passionately on the Kop. Bezos is a man who does walk alone, an alpha businessman who is now looking to buy his way into this great fortress of working-class socialism. The enemy, truly, are at the gates.

Except that the enemy own the fortress and have always owned it. Bezos will simply be the most obvious, glitzy and unapologetic of the stream of millionaires and billionaires who have wanted to be part of this extraordinary club.

During Shankly’s final two years at Anfield, the ones that produced the league title, the Uefa Cup and climaxed in the swaggering demolition of Newcastle United in the 1974 FA Cup final at Wembley, his chairman was Sir John Smith, who represented the quiet conservatism of the Merseyside business class.

There was considerable investment from the Moores family, who had made their millions with the Littlewoods football pools. Sir John Moores, who became chairman of Everton, was a Conservative councillor for Sefton, and Britain’s first billionaire. His nephew, David, became chairman of Liverpool.

Shankly worked in a city that was not especially socialist. Anfield stands in the Liverpool Walton constituency which in the February 1974 general election saw 31 per cent of the votes go to the Conservatives, who had held the seat when Shankly became manager in 1959.

The city was run by a Liberal-Conservative coalition council. Nobody votes Tory in Walton now – 3.5 per cent at the last election – but while the city swung to the left, the football club did not.

There was Graeme Souness appearing in Alan Bleasdale’s drama set in a city that had fallen apart, Boys from the Blackstuff. There is a film of Kevin Keegan on a private jet, turning down an invitation to join Margaret Thatcher to promote European sport because “my dad [who had been a miner] would kill me”. By then, Keegan was playing for Hamburg.

However, many of their teammates would have instinctively understood Bob Monkhouse when the comedian related his agent’s reaction after he appeared at a Conservative Party rally during the 1983 election. “Well done, Bob. You’ve just alienated half your audience.”

To become involved in party politics was poison. In any case, they mostly lived in Southport and Formby. Their horizons were the greens of Royal Birkdale golf club rather than the riots rolling down Upper Parliament Street in Toxteth, witnessed by the young Robbie Fowler, who would come out in support of the striking Liverpool dockers.

The Moores family continued to run Anfield until 2007 by which time the club’s fanbase was no longer representative of the city. Now just 21 per cent of season-ticket holders have a Liverpool postcode. For Everton it is 84.

Moores’s successors, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, were despised not because they were friends with George W Bush or because they were American or very rich, but because they were the wrong type of millionaire. The kind that loads the club with debt and uses its money to pay off their own loans. Their time was best summed up in a book by the journalist Brian Reade called An Epic Swindle.

The men who succeeded them, Fenway Sports Group, were the right kind of millionaires, who rebuilt Anfield, won titles and returned the European Cup to Merseyside. Whether Bezos and friends are the right kind of millionaire will depend on how much money they put in and how successfully it is spent.

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There is no financial return that Liverpool can offer that would possibly interest Bezos. Liverpool are valued at a maximum of £4.3bn. The rise in the Amazon share price over two days in August made Bezos roughly that sum.

If he invests – and he has pulled out of two NFL deals in Seattle and Washington – it will be for what not even firing himself into space aboard a private rocket can give him. It will be for glory.

However, this is a Liverpool whose captain, Virgil van Dijk, claims are “a club in transition,” which is a footballer’s way of saying “a club on the brink”. Glory might be harder to come by than money for Bezos and, however it is funded, glory has been the only yardstick by which Liverpool has judged its millionaires.

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This Sunday, Burnley play West Ham at Turf Moor on the opening weekend of the Championship season and every home supporter who enters the ground with a spring in their step deserves an official state honour.

It is now 10 months since Turf Moor hosted a league win. You would say a lot has happened since, but it has mainly been different types of sorry defeats.

We know the Burnley dance by now: down, up, down, up, down.

Five seasons of flux and churn, buying half a new squad to compete in the Premier League and then selling half the old squad when that mission fails.

Last season was the most desolate by a distance. The Clarets were rotten from August to May. The misery seeped into the walls of the place and has left water damage.

“It’s something I didn’t like and it left a sour taste in my mouth,” Kyle Walker says about Burnley’s relegation.

“It’s something that I want to put right, not just for myself but for the fans who had to deal with last season and for the players who have stuck around.

“I think we have an obligation to put it right. It’s not just a responsibility – it’s our job. Things aren’t always going to go as planned.

“This season might not go as planned. It might not be as plain sailing and we all want it to be.

“But I feel with the quality, that’s what we should be doing: getting promoted and going back to the Premier League.”

Walker’s bullishness is unsurprising, but this has been an odd summer in Burnley.

The spine of last season’s starting XI – Maxime Esteve, Loum Tchaouna, Martin Dubravka, Lesley Ugochukwu, Florentino Luis, Jaidon Anthony – has left, but Burnley have signed only one first-team player.

The biggest saga of their summer surrounded the pursuit of Craig Bellamy, whose appointment was lined up before issues with personal terms surrounding the recruitment of other members of his Wales coaching staff.

Instead Burnley turned to Nicky Hayen, whose only experience outside of Belgian football was as manager of Haverfordwest County in the Cymru Premier in 2021-22.

After Burnley beat Notts County on penalties in the Carabao Cup first round last weekend, Hayen explained that it may take a couple of months for things to click.

A throwaway line, most likely, but one that comes laced with danger.

West Ham and Wolverhampton Wanderers are strong relegated sides – Middlesbrough and Southampton should be expected to compete at the top, too.

The problem with bouncing is that the resting place is only ever at the bottom.

The problem with Burnley’s bounce specifically? They really need to get promoted.

Supporters may have grown thoroughly sick of repeated Premier League beatings, but the money sure is better in the thinner air. And Burnley could do with the money.

This club was changed irrevocably in December 2020, when ALK Capital – led by Alan Pace – took 84 per cent of the shares. It was a debt-leveraged takeover, which meant that it was financed with borrowing secured against Burnley and its assets.

Burnley owed a lot of money overnight, were responsible for servicing the debt and that debt had interest. Think the Glazers and Manchester United. Think the thing that Premier League clubs voted to ban in 2023.

Burnley’s initial debt – and they had been entirely free of external debt before that – was £65m.

According to the latest accounts (that only cover up to the end of the 2024-25 season), that debt figure has grown to £142m.

As the excellent Swiss Ramble wrote, Burnley now have the fourth highest external debt figure in English football, behind Everton (shiny new stadium), Tottenham Hotspur (shiny new stadium) and Manchester United (again: Glazers).

External debt is manageable while the club is generating healthy revenue and achieving on the pitch – clearly the two go hand in hand.

But those same accounts revealed an annual operating loss of £75m, which was the worst in Burnley’s history by a distance.

Admittedly it covered a Championship season, when revenues are reduced, but then Burnley are back here again. It was the highest operating loss in the division.

And what do Burnley have to show for this growing external debt, and for these operating losses?

They were a top-half Premier League team the season before the takeover. Everything since has been an expensive struggle to achieve diminishing returns.

There are reasons to be less pessimistic, of course. Burnley have parachute payments, which give Championship clubs a significant competitive advantage.

They were also awarded £35m by an independent Premier League commission as compensation for losses suffered as a result of Everton breaking financial rules, which was a lovely bonus.

Perhaps the Burnley bounce still lives on and can be funded by the misfortune of others, just another fuzzy football take.

But as a neutral observer, you have to squint to see the causes for optimism here.

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One of the most important seasons in Burnley’s history begins this weekend.

Fail to hit the ground running and the mood will turn toxic, not against players or the new manager (although they may be caught in the crossfire) but the architects of this era.

“I don’t think you have ever seen anyone like me,” Pace said when he took over at Turf Moor in 2020.

He was absolutely right – they hadn’t. Their football club has changed for ever. Fail to go up this season and they might really begin to see the results.

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Everton are pushing to finally sign a right-back in the next seven to 10 days as an intriguing summer recruitment drive builds to a crescendo.

On the one hand the Toffees have done smart work in the close season, striking an early and exciting deal for Hayden Hackney, who insiders believe has the potential to be part of the England conversation if he plots the trajectory they expect him to.

Christian Norgaard is a good replacement for Idrissa Gueye and at a decent price and wage level that allows the club to retain significant spending power under the Premier League’s squad cost ratio (SCR) rules.

It also feels like Everton have got the better end of the straight swap deal with Crystal Palace which will see Brennan Johnson and Dwight McNeil – who both underwent medicals at their new clubs on Monday – trade places.

But sources admit there remain gaps in the squad they hope will challenge for European football next season, and that means a busy end to a transfer window that could go “down to the wire”.

Right-back targets

The club hope that description will not apply to their move for a right-back, which is the most pressing of their priorities.

Everton have got a sizeable budget to address it but finding the right man at the right price that everyone agrees has – not for the first time – proved a frustrating problem.

Celtic’s Alistair Johnston emerged as a priority last week but hit a stumbling block over a difference in valuation of around £5m.

It is not totally dead but the club have had to keep other plates spinning in their bid to solve a long-standing problem.

West Ham’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka is another option. However, that move is considered a non-starter at the moment due to his wage demands being considered too high.

Genoa’s Brooke Norton-Cuffy has fans within the transfer committee though there is not universal support for a move, so Everton appear ready to press the button on other targets yet to emerge publicly.

The i Paper understands there is hope a defender can be added before the season opener against Palace on 22 August.

If they do manage to bring in a right-back, there is a feeling inside the club that they would be in decent shape heading into the new campaign.

There is certainly a better balance to the squad with Tyler Dibling starting to show signs of what he is capable of and Merlin Rohl emerging as one of the breakout stars of pre-season.

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Add into the mix the likely signing of Jack Grealish – that will be left until the last week of the transfer window as Everton look to extract maximum value from Manchester City over a probable second loan spell – and there is some reason for optimism at Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Other moves would likely be more a case of jumping on market opportunities.

Another forward and a winger are possible, but only if something presents itself or one of Iliman Ndiaye’s suitors coughs up the £70m asking price for the mercurial winger.

It is understood that mooted interest in Bournemouth’s Marcus Tavernier will not come to anything.

The Cherries renewed his contract last season and have opted to follow a policy of not selling any of their established players this summer, with the 27-year-old part of a group considered untouchable on the South Coast.

Moyes tensions

All of these efforts are playing out against the backdrop of an intriguing managerial picture, with David Moyes entering the final year of his contract and in the conversation for the Scotland national team job.

There have been tensions over targets but there was never any chance of him leaving at the end of last season.

A longer-term stay may require Moyes and the new arrivals to hit the ground running.

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And so it begins. Before a ball has been kicked on the training ground, Marcus Rashford is back on the front pages.

And for what? What salacious scandal has the footballing target of the tabloids’ ire become embroiled in now? Well, having the nerve to be on holiday days before he was due back to work at Manchester United.

Photographs of Rashford full of joie de vivre on the French Riviera being deemed that newsworthy provided his family with a reminder of what is to come if a move to another top European side does not materialise in the coming weeks.

A year of blissful Catalonian anonymity is no more. Behind closed doors, the overriding feeling at Old Trafford was that Rashford was finished, as a United player and perhaps an elite-level forward, as he headed out on various loans over the past few years. Football has a funny way of bringing people back together and providing the most unlikely of second chances.

United supporters are torn, but if Rashford builds on a career-saving season at Barcelona to fire the club back up the table again – which he is more than capable of doing – then we have the most heartwarming tale on our hands.

And before he has had an opportunity to alienate his former fervent following for a second time, Rashford deserves some space, without being unfairly vilified by those who should have learned lessons from the last time they hounded him out of the country.

The 28-year-old linked up with teammates in Dublin this week and will begin pre-season training alongside Kobbie Mainoo, also granted extended leave after England’s World Cup endeavours, away from the media’s glare.

He is almost certainly not going to feature against Leeds United in Wednesday’s friendly, but the scrutiny will quickly intensify, as next up at the weekend is a reunion with the coach who began the ostracisation process two years ago – now AC Milan manager Ruben Amorim.

Beyond that is anyone’s guess. The i Paper understands that the plan is for Rashford to return to the United setup like he never left, ahead of a challenging season that will see a stretched squad return to the Champions League.

Several sources have indicated that the saga may not be over yet. While those closest to Rashford insist he holds no aspirations to play for another Premier League club, there are understood to be at least four teams interested.

Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur have been the most active in their pursuit, but one source suggested Arsenal and Chelsea could make a late swoop to bolster their strikeforces.

The issue remains that all of his potential suitors are only likely to sanction a loan move, which is not what United want to entertain.

Co-owner Ineos is keen to get Rashford’s wages – £325,000-a-week, making him United’s top earner – off the books, but not temporarily, again.

Fenerbahce and Saudi Arabian clubs are prepared to make an offer, but the Rashfords have been clear that is a non-starter.

It is also understood that United are unlikely to sanction a move to a direct rival, given how it could come back to haunt them. Nobody is doubting Rashford retains the ability to score plenty of goals.

If Real Madrid or Bayern Munich return with a late loan offer where a fee is attached, it would give everyone something to think about. In this season where the Prime Video cameras are always watching, do United need the drama Rashford’s unfair media attention brings? Does the player want to risk being booed by his own again?

As it stands, nobody has a choice in the matter. United would need to replace Rashford if he goes, and do not appear close to even identifying a feasible alternative.

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That leaves only one scenario left to play out. While he has made mistakes – what young millionaire footballer hasn’t – Rashford has never done anything to be written off before he has had a chance to let his magic feet do the talking.

He has previous. And those more loyal United supporters, ready to rally round one of their own again, have not forgotten.

Give the happy ending a chance, for everyone’s sake.

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