Transfer deadline day is looming and while football clubs across Europe tighten their purse strings in reaction to coronavirus, the Premier League is spending as wildly as ever.
The 20 clubs in England’s top flight have splashed a combined £1billion plus on new players this summer, whereas clubs in France, Spain and elsewhere are breaking even with their transfers.
The latest big name to arrive in the Premier League was Benfica defender Ruben Dias, who joined Manchester City in a club-record £65m deal this week.
Chelsea, City and Liverpool have all weighed in with deals for new players, while Tottenham and Everton have also been busy rebuilding their squads.
Yet what has truly caught the eye so far is the amount clubs towards the bottom end of the table are willing to spend, in the hope they will avoid a relegation scrap come May.
Aston Villa have coughed up over £74m on fresh faces since the end of last season and have barely received a transfer fee from sales. Leeds, back in the top flight for the first time in 16 years, aren’t messing around either, with £79m spent so far.
And the market is expected to hot up even more over the coming days as the 2020 summer transfer deadline approaches.
When is deadline day?
Clubs in England and Scotland have until 11pm on Monday 5 October to get their deals in place. The date coincides with Germany and Italy, and is somewhat of a return to normality after the Premier League opted to close their window early in the summer of 2019.
Crucially, there is an extended deadline for domestic deals in England that runs until 5pm on Friday 16 October. The EFL were able to secure this extension because Fifa allows summer transfer windows to run for up to 12 weeks.
A nervy wait
Deadline day itself is always fraught with anxiety and concern.
Some of the world’s biggest transfers have gone through with just hours or minutes to spare, while others have sensationally collapsed.
David De Gea occasionally still looks haunted by the last-minute fax machine malfunction that prevented his move from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2015.
And Liverpool fans still haven’t quite worked out how they lost Fernando Torres to Chelsea in January 2011 and replaced him with £35m acquisition Andy Carroll as the clock ticked down on deadline day.
Deadline day transfers to look out for in 2020
Fans of clubs up and down the UK will be tuning in to their TVs and radios on deadline day to discover what new offerings their chairmen have managed to provide.
And there are still five big deals that could be done between now and Monday’s 11pm deadline.
Here, i looks at he five transfers to watch out for over the weekend…
Jadon Sancho to Manchester United
England star Sancho has endured a rumour-fraught summer as United seek a deal with Borussia Dortmund for the forward. The problem is, Dortmund seem totally unwilling to sell.
United were said to be quoted over £100m for the 20-year-old Manchester City youth product but refused to meet Dortmund’s asking price.
Dortmund set a deadline for United to come to the table and, after that passed, insisted that was the end of the matter.
But with United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer currently struggling to get further additions to his squad, a fresh bid before the deadline could be launched. Interestingly, Sancho is expected to report for duty at England’s training camp next week ahead of the Three Lions’ Nations League fixtures.
Houssem Aouar to Arsenal
Gunners manager Mikel Arteta is in search of a playmaker to further boost his already hefty attacking options. And Lyon gem Houssem Aouar is in the manager’s sights.
Arsenal want a deal done for the Frenchman this weekend and have made an offer. Lyon had previously insisted they wouldn’t sell, but president Jean-Michel Aulas now says Friday is the deadline set for any departures to be agreed.
“From Friday evening, when (manager) Rudi (Garcia) will choose his squad v Marseille, there will be no departures,” said Aulas. “We could see ourselves lose two players.”
Carlos Vinicius to Tottenham
Spurs have been careful with their spending this summer and managed to snap up Gareth Bale on a loan deal from Real Madrid. But boss Jose Mourinho – so often used to having plenty of cash to spend at Chelsea, Real and United – is pushing for another loan move before deadline day.
Spurs are in for Benfica striker Carlos Vinicius, who could be Mourinho’s solution to finding an alternative to Harry Kane up front.
The Brazilian, 25, only moved to Benfica from Napoli last summer and a switch to London would likely include a £36m option to buy.
On the deal, Mourinho said: “I am optimistic, but more than that the feeling that I like is that we are trying everything to do it.
“You succeed or you don’t succeed. It’s like a football match: you win or you don’t win but you give everything and try everything. The transfer market is the same.”
Michael Cuisance to Leeds
Marcelo Bielsa was interested in signing Rodrigo de Paul from Italian side Udinese this summer – but the club never actually put a bid in for the Argentine.
Instead, Leeds United have quietly moved for Michael Cuisance and look set to complete a deal for the Bayern Munich midfielder by the end of the weekend.
Cuisance, 21, joined Bayern from Borussia Monchengladbach only last year and has made a handful of appearances for the German giants.
The France U20 international could be sold for around £18m, taking Leeds’ summer spending to close to £100m.
Kepa to leave Chelsea
Chelsea’s £200m transfer splurge this summer looks to have revolutionised Frank Lampard’s squad, yet the boss is still looking to balance the books by offloading the most expensive goalkeeper in the world, Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Frank Lampard on the advice he has given struggling Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga #CFC
"The main thing that gets a player through a lack of confidence is hard work. Head down, no blame game, look at yourself, see how you can get better"https://t.co/a10d35qUGk
— i sport (@iPaperSport) September 23, 2020
Kepa has lost his place in the Blues XI after a string of miserable performances over the past few months cultivated in his costly mistake against Liverpool two weeks ago.
Edouard Mendy and Willy Caballero now look likely to contest the No 1 spot at Stamford Bridge, but Chelsea are labouring to find a suitor for Kepa.
It is claimed they may have to pay the Spaniard £5m just to sit on the bench over the coming months, unless a club comes along with a suitable loan offer.
Whether or not a side does come in before the transfer deadline and agrees to cover his £150,000-a-week wages remains to be seen. But Chelsea won’t want to deal with a direct rival, meaning they are likely hoping to send Kepa back to the continent.
Meanwhile, up in Scotland Rangers are set to keep hold of controversial striker Alfredo Morelos. The Ibrox club rejected a £16.25m offer from Lille for the Colombian and Steven Gerrard expects his front man to now stay put.
“I won’t be relieved on Monday, because I’m pretty fine sitting here right now,” he said.
“I’m content with where we are, where the squad is at, where the team is at.”
And Celtic are supposedly keen to stave off late interest in their star striker Odsonne Edouard, with Aston Villa rumoured to be among the Premier League clubs eyeing the goalscorer.
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