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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.

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There is Gianni Infantino, sat watching Malawi vs Zambia at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Rabat, coincidentally the place where he could be filmed smiling and acting as if nothing had happened. There is Mattias Grafstrom next to him, public denouncer of Infantino’s gross World Cup sale plan. And now comes the united front.

Later on Wednesday night, the business-as-usual mandate was presented. Fifa confirmed that Infantino would stay as president, that they had written “Lol, soz” letters to each of the 211 member associations and that Infantino had the full support of the leadership team.

“Fifa’s top management is fully confident that the outcomes of today’s meeting will strengthen Fifa’s governance, help restore confidence in the organisation and enable us to prepare for the major events and challenges ahead in a united and transparent manner,” read Fifa’s statement. It works better if you do outlandish winks after each of the claims to everyone listening.

Do these people think that we are stupid or do they simply not care what we think of them? It can only be one of those two options.

The Fifa president, seemingly without consulting many of the individuals who work around him and certainly without consulting any member association, just tried to do a deal to sell off the World Cup, making himself leader of this new organisation on a vast salary. Please, tell us more about the “united and transparent manner”. Spare us no detail on the strength of Fifa’s governance.

As for restoring confidence in the organisation, this can be nothing but a mind trick: tell yourself something loud enough and often enough, close all the doors and windows to any feedback and maybe you really can believe that you can ride through this storm. Hey, do you remember a few years ago, when the supposed guardians of the game backed the guy who tried to sell said game off on the sly? No, nor me. Must have never happened.

“It was agreed that it was not the intention for the Fifa council and Fifa member associations to feel excluded from the process and that the process should have been handled differently,” is my personal favourite line from the statement (and you may well have your own). In what way was it not Infantino’s intention, when he could literally have told them and didn’t. You see I slipped and fell off the ladder and landed right onto the tomato ketchup bottle, honest.

Until now, this has broadly been a Gianni Infantino problem. He masterminded the plan. He got caught out by the leaks. He was forced to climb down. He had to rally around his support base to cling to power. He had to watch on as member associations and political leaders damned his grim avarice.

But make no mistake: this is a deepening Fifa crisis too. Move swiftly to distance themselves from the actions of their leader and throw Infantino to the lions before promising better, more transparent, more serious leadership, and we could have got on board. There will always be a latent mistrust of large governing bodies, but we could have at least accepted that appropriate action was taken.

If that wasn’t bad enough, Infantino’s distraction techniques also threaten to topple football over. The reported promise of the World Cup final to Morocco over Spain, playing the two countries off against each other at a time of heightening Ceuta-related political tension this week; the expansion to 64 teams that will require another continent to joint-host. Why are we all still dancing to one man’s beat? 

Infantino’s continued presence, even in the short term, was a leak in the roof of Fifa’s house: what starts as a steady quickly leads to permanent staining and water damage before the ceiling eventually caves in. For anyone in that management board to be standing by his side is an act of wanton self-immolation. It is a chronically thick reading of the room.

Read more

• Daniel Storey: Gianni Infantino is about to learn the harsh reality of friendship with Trump
• Transfers: Inside Newcastle’s £75m plans for life after Bruno Guimaraes

Fifa needs a structural overhaul. This crisis is a two-headed beast: it occurred through the self-interest of one man, but it became possible because of how power is concentrated at the very top of the organisation – ending in the chair of the president. There is simply too much at stake to make one person oversee it all. Power doesn’t have to cook up corruption, but it certainly buys all the ingredients.

The task has now widened. Infantino must go – the campaigning and the backlash cannot be allowed to die down. Outrage fatigue must be beaten.

But also: get them all out. Get rid of everyone who believes that a quick “sorry, we’re not quite sure what happened there” is good enough. Cut out everyone who thinks forgive and forget is an option here. Nobody reasonable could ever trust Infantino. Nobody reasonable could ever trust anyone who trusts Infantino again. While some in Fifa fight for their president, they’re ignoring the fire that will burn down their house.

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This summer has been one of tremendous change at Crystal Palace, with manager Oliver Glasner moving on following the expiration of his contract, Pierre Sage arriving from Lens as his replacement in the dugout and the sale of Maxence Lacroix to Chelsea for a fee of £52m but as of yet, there has been very little in the way of incoming transfer business.

Following the Eagles’ triumph over Rayo Vallecano in the Conference League final, there had been real hope from supporters of a bumper summer in the market.

But thanks to our participation in this season’s Europa League, we have no choice but to fall in line with the financial regulations laid out by Uefa for all clubs participating in their competitions.

The main headline from this comes in the shape of the squad cost rules, which in layman’s terms, means that a club can spend no more than 70 per cent of its relevant football revenue on first-team and coaching staff wages, transfer fees and sums paid to agents.

With that in mind, let’s presuppose that Palace’s revenue sits at £200m – the most recent figures for 2024-25 came in at £196.4m. That equates to a total allowed spend of £140m across wages, transfers and agent fees in total. Once you delve into the detail of transfer amortisation, the water becomes even more muddied.

Given Palace’s significant outlay in excess of £70m on the signings of Jorgen Strand Larsen and Brennan Johnson, it should not come as a great surprise that they are yet to bring in anyone for an actual fee.

The plan remains to bring in two central defenders, one to replace the departing Lacroix and the other to supplement the squad generally, although the jury remains out over whether or not former Arsenal man Takehiro Tomiyasu’s impending arrival on a free transfer will be dressed up as the second defensive reinforcement that has been mooted.

On top of that, Palace are actively in the market for a central midfielder and a wide attacking option on the right, with an expectation that 19-year-old American Zavier Gozo will soon be joining from Real Salt Lake for £11m.

That spending, as and when it arrives, is likely to be covered by the fee generated from Lacroix’s sale, as well as the departure of Danny Imray for £5m to Wrexham and permanent moves away for both David Ozoh and Romain Esse to Derby County and Club Brugge respectively.

Read more

• Dan Cook: My message to Crystal Palace fans at our new dawn
• Daniel Storey: York City are veering out of control

It seems somewhat perverse to be talking about balancing the books with sales during what is unquestionably a golden era for Palace on the field.

But given the water-tight regulations imposed by Uefa, not to mention our previous demotion from the Europa League to the Conference for failing to satisfy their standards in relation to multi-club ownership models a year or so ago, it feels as though we have little choice but to ensure that our spending does not outstrip their expectations.

Were we not in Europe this season, we could ironically be a little bit more free and easy with our budgeting. But when you have had the taste of glory twice in the space of 12 months, you cannot help but crave another tilt at a trophy.

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The core of the team that swept Newcastle into the Champions League has been stripped out, the most successful manager of a generation is gone and there have been more brutal knockbacks in the transfer market this summer.

There’s no dressing it up – it was not supposed to be like this. It’s a club that has been forced into the harshest of resets.

And yet the situation can be salvaged. Fans might be enthused that finally some hard decisions have been taken. And with the right combination of messaging and action, Newcastle have an opportunity to salvage this season.

Matthias Jaissle’s arrival

How’s this for a neat summary of the blurred lines on Tyneside this summer? Losing Eddie Howe puts Newcastle in a place of danger but also in a position of maximum opportunity.

Howe had been a brilliant manager over five years – arguably the best at St James’ Park since Kevin Keegan. But, despite the conviction of the leadership team in May, it did not feel like the right fit for “Newcastle 2.0”.

It had grown stale and – whatever the ex-manager might have said – a pivot to inexperienced but promising overseas players under the tutelage of a boss whose ideal signings had extensive big five- league experience felt like it could have gone horribly wrong.

Matthias Jaissle is young and promising and arrives with a blank slate. It is a risk to appoint someone with so little Premier League experience but also a huge opportunity to remodel a squad that still has plenty of talent in it, plus new energy and potential.

Newcastle at the end of the 2025-6 season had become a paper tiger. The team had grown stale, players had minds and eyes elsewhere and the whole thing felt tired. Jaissle brings the shock of the new.

A less predictable Newcastle

It was damning to hear one Premier League rival label Newcastle as “predictable” last season. You will not be able to say the same about them this season.

The squad has been weakened but the new recruits have promise.

In addition to a manager who is more fluid in his outlook, they have a crop of players about whom little is known. Sean Steur looks a real find and in Aladji Bamba they have a technical midfielder who can run all day. Bazoumana Toure, in the words of one insider, “could be anything he wants to be”.

They’ve also upgraded in goal, a problem position last season, buying Lukas Hornicek and Ewen Jaouen. It may be difficult at times but it’s a squad that could surprise.

Time to show some teeth

While you can construct a sound business case for each sale this summer, Newcastle fans need to hear some fighting talk.

Other clubs have kept hold of players who want to leave. Granit Xhaka is staying at Sunderland, Bournemouth have told Alex Scott he can’t go. Yet Newcastle are selling Bruno Guimaraes having initially declared him untouchable.

That passivity has infected everything. The most damning thing you could say about Newcastle in the first half of 2026 is they rolled over on the pitch in a way that was unrecognisable from the early Howe days. Form at St James’ Park had collapsed.

The narrative needs to change. Newcastle need to present themselves as scrappy underdogs, an “us against the world” siege mentality might appeal to fans looking for a cause to rally around. While the club has made mistakes they have been suffocated by rules designed to lock them in – first by the Premier League but now by Uefa.

The club need to breathe new energy into the idea that they aren’t here to make friends, they’re here to compete. That message will find a willing audience on Tyneside.

An ‘all in’ army

Newcastle played like a team whose players were thinking about their next move for chunks of last season. It always felt puzzling that Sandro Tonali skipped a hugely important derby against Sunderland, only to complete two full games for Italy in crucial World Cup qualifiers (which they failed in). Anthony Gordon didn’t play a minute of the run-in which, looking back, is incredible given Newcastle were still in the hunt for European football.

The Magpies need players who don’t need to be convinced to perform or believe their own hype.

The 2030 reset

The Premier League title by 2030 is fanciful. Nothing about the aim of competing to be one of the world’s best clubs by then makes sense and that lofty ambition should be walked back.

Here’s a new goal for 2030: to be back competitive again as they were between 2023-5 but in a way that can be sustained. That means financial fair play has been conquered, innovation and data is at the centre of what they do, the squad is young, the playing style is forward-thinking and – finally – we have route map for what PIF is doing off the field.

Insiders insist a nimble, progressive Newcastle is being built in the background of this latest turmoil. A new 2030 focus should reflect that rather than the incredulous idea of toppling Real Madrid in four years.

Read more

• Transfers: Inside Newcastle’s £75m plans for life after Bruno Guimaraes
• Newcastle: ‘Aggressive, intense, attack-minded’ – Newcastle fans will love Matthias Jaissle

Time for PIF to step up

Where are the owners? Last summer they sent out the word they would be more visible, dispatching delegations to meet journalists. But communication has been thin on the ground since and progress on the big ticket stuff glacial.

The training ground is advanced, we’re told. Look for progress on that as early as September. But if the stadium question is still unanswered by the turn of the year it’s fair to ask questions.

The fact PIF haven’t picked up any of the sponsorship opportunities is a worry. We’re told they remain fully committed but they would say that. Newcastle fans need concrete proof.

The academy

Some good news from Little Benton. Brilliant work is being done in the academy and the crop of players Newcastle have at under-15 and under-16 levels is arguably the best they have ever had.

Allied to some neat recruitment work – and the biggest budget for signing player the academy has ever had – and there are reasons for optimism.

Do not underestimate how important that might be in the next few years.

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Newcastle United will replace Bruno Guimaraes with an experienced midfielder capable of “shouldering the burden” of losing their talisman to Arsenal in a deal that is expected to be worth around £75m.

The transfer is not yet agreed – and there is scope for the fee to go up, although not dramatically, in final negotiations – but all parties now expect Guimaraes to leave Newcastle’s La Manga training base and begin the formalities of his move in the next 24-48 hours.

What next is now the question for Newcastle. They are understood to have already lined up Guimaraes’ replacement – with extensive work done over the last few days as the move to Arsenal progressed – and are hopeful of a breakthrough soon to mitigate the loss of another one of their leading players.

Sources have played down links to some of the names that have emerged in recent days, raising the possibility that another mystery deal is close to completion. They have extensively scouted Borussia Dortmund and Germany midfielder Felix Nmecha but that possibility has been played down – even if the new arrival is likely to be based overseas.

So far, most of Newcastle’s business has been for players around the age of 20 with “high ceilings” and while a priority has been to lower the wage bill this summer, there is now scope to bring in a more high-profile player to aid Matthias Jaissle’s rebuild. He is still likely to be in the 18-25 age bracket, though.

What’s the fee for Bruno?

Jaissle’s new era will begin against the backdrop of significant uncertainty at Newcastle, with the size of the fee received for Guimaraes up for debate given the club’s tough talking at the start of the window.

The context for the £75m fee is that Arsenal initially valued him at £45m and had a bid rejected on Monday. There were no other bidders and it is in the top ten of fees for players in his age bracket.

But considering the initial valuation was £80m plus – and there was talk of Newcastle trying to match the fee received for Sandro Tonali from Tottenham – that will be a difficult sell for a significant proportion of the fanbase.

How much can Newcastle spend now?

This hard reset now underway at Newcastle was partly forced on the club by poor recruitment last summer and breaching Uefa rules last season. But it has been broader than expected.

Newcastle officials say that the amount raked in by sales this summer – Guimaraes’ departure follows Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali leaving the club earlier in the close season – means that the full “pure profit” banked for the Brazil international will be reinvested in the team.

It’s understood that it will also enable them to invest in future transfer windows, even as they continue to work against the backdrop of suffocating Uefa restrictions.

They can spend up to £150m, according to financial experts, and are looking for full-backs to add to their five new signings.

“This will significantly strengthen Newcastle’s spending capacity. Because most of his transfer fee has already been amortised, the sale would generate a substantial accounting profit, adding to the gains already made from the Gordon and Tonali sales,” football finance expert Professor Rob Wilson tells The i Paper.

Read more

• Transfers: Man Utd suffer setback over ‘untouchable’ Newcastle target
• Newcastle: ‘Aggressive, intense, attack-minded’ – Newcastle fans will love Matthias Jaissle

“Collectively, those deals would leave Newcastle in a very healthy position under both Premier League PSR and Uefa’s financial sustainability rules. In practical terms, a £75m Bruno sale could support well over £150m of recruitment if spread across typical player contracts, while also improving the club’s squad cost ratio.

“Overall, Newcastle would have created considerable financial flexibility for another major recruitment window. The high fee for Bruno (assuming it goes through) is possible because of their other sales – they don’t need to sell for PSR, they sell because of the profit. It should be the same with Hall and then they rebuild another squad. Fans hate it, but it’s the correct strategy.”

Newcastle believe the last of the major sales are now over. Lewis Hall is wanted by Manchester United but the club regard him as untouchable. He wants a new contract – and work may begin on that after the summer.

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It was a night to remember. Liverpool 5-5 Arsenal at Anfield in a League Cup tie, which, unlike so many games in that competition, was not played like something grudgingly squeezed into the fixture list.

That October night seven years ago was for young players and in retrospect Arsenal’s seem more impressive than Liverpool’s – Emiliano Martinez, Bukayo Saka, Dani Ceballos and Gabriel Martinelli. Nonetheless, Liverpool won the penalty shootout, and it was on their teenagers that the spotlight fell.

Harvey Elliott won a penalty, Neco Williams provided the assist for Divock Origi’s 94th-minute equaliser, which forced the tie to penalties. The winning kick, Liverpool’s fifth, was put away by an 18-year-old from Toxteth, Curtis Jones.

If that was the first time Jones had come to the public’s attention in a Liverpool shirt, the last may be the spat with his teammate Dominik Szoboszlai on a tour of the United States. It lasted a few seconds, no longer than the time it took Jones to walk to the spot and put his penalty past the goalkeeper who would appear in two World Cup finals for Argentina. It would, however, be subject to rather more debate.

Perhaps a reason why Jones showed his anger at Yankee Stadium was because he knew his time with his club, the one whose teams he began playing for as an eight-year-old, was coming to an end and it might have been nice to have been captain of Liverpool even for a few minutes in a friendly. In the final game, in Chicago, Szoboszlai did hand him the armband, although that was rather overshadowed by the 4-2 defeat by Leeds in which Jones did not play well.

The arguments to sell him to Inter Milan appear compelling and here is a reason to think Jones might prosper at San Siro in the same way that Scott McTominay flowered at Napoli after leaving Manchester United.

He is a confident boy. In that cup tie against Arsenal, Origi, the man who had scored the killer goal in the Champions League final against Tottenham four months earlier, was due to take the final penalty but Jones stepped in and took the ball. At 25, he has been part – if not at the forefront of – two Premier League title-winning squads. At 25, Robbie Fowler, that other kid from Toxteth, had won a single League Cup.

If Inter can be persuaded to up their offer to £40m, then Liverpool may well let him go and because he is a product of their own academy that £40m will count as pure profit when the Premier League come to assess their Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) compliance.

Compared to Aston Villa, Chelsea or Everton, Liverpool are not in great danger of a breach. However, there has been plenty of attention on the £225m the club spent last summer on Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak and rather less on how little they sold. Mo Salah, Andrew Robertson, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ibrahima Konate, all of whom ran down their contracts, raised £8.4m between them. Jones has a year left on his. Liverpool can barely afford another free transfer.

Yet there will be disquiet if he goes. The Premier League academy system has been one of the successes of the age, one of the reasons why England are now regular tournament semi-finalists, but they rarely produce players for the clubs that fund them.

Read more

• Transfers: Hull City rival West Ham for £20m Tottenham forward
• Daniel Storey:  Gianni Infantino is about to learn the harsh reality of friendship with Trump

Of Andoni Iraola’s first-team squad, Jones is one of only two who were born on Merseyside and are products of the Liverpool academy and the right-back, Conor Bradley, developed his football in Northern Ireland. The rest are imports, sometimes from other academies. The realisation that, despite the huge investment in the academy at Kirby, Bradley will be all the first team have to show for itself will be a sobering one.

It is a national problem. If you judge success by the number of footballers who grew up in a club’s academy and played at least ten league games for them last season, then Brentford, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Fulham did not produce anyone. Brighton and Tottenham managed one each.

There are some who have bucked the trend and chief among them is the club whose teenagers lost that astonishing cup tie. Arsenal have four, which may be another reason to celebrate their success.

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Tottenham Hotspur are still active in the final weeks of the transfer window, with at least three more outgoings planned.

Captain Cristian Romero continues to be monitored by Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid and it is expected he will have left the club when the new Premier League season kicks off on 21 August.

Despite acquiring minutes in pre-season under Roberto De Zerbi, Manor Solomon is also set to depart, with West Ham currently leading the race for the Israeli international.

The i Paper understands newly promoted Hull City are the other club interested in signing the 27-year-old, who Spurs value at around £20m but who could attract opening bids of between £10m-20m. A move is expected to gain momentum quickly and could be agreed over the coming days.

Since arriving from Fulham on a free transfer in 2023, Solomon has made five senior appearances for Spurs, going on loan to Leeds, Villarreal and most recently Fiorentina.

A year ago he was offered brief hope of a revival under then manager Thomas Frank as Spurs struggled to find a replacement in the market. Instead another temporary spell away from the club followed.

De Zerbi has not included Solomon in his plans for the 2026-27 campaign and hopes to sign another wide-forward before the window closes. Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo has emerged as the most likely candidate but a deal is likely to depend on his current club being able to find a successor under new head coach Andoni Iraola. Manchester City’s Savinho is also a long-term target.

During the pre-season tour of New Zealand De Zerbi hinted at another “bomba” – or major transfer – to top off a successful window in which Spurs have already signed Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes and Jan Paul van Hecke – Romero’s replacement – on big-money deals.

After finishing 17th last season and escaping relegation on the last day there has been a major shift in approach, with Spurs smashing their previous wage structure to allow them to compete for major signings.

Read more

• Tottenham: Why Man Utd don’t want to sell Marcus Rashford to Spurs
• Transfers: Newcastle reject Arsenal’s first official bid for Bruno Guimaraes

Marcos Senesi, Andy Robertson and Martin Dubravka have also joined on free transfers.

Mikey Moore is set for another move away after impressing at Rangers last season, with Bundesliga side FC Koln vying with Championship clubs for a loan.

Guglielmo Vicario is the subject of interest from Italy, with Antonin Kinsky likely to start the season as No 1.

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