[SmethDan]

I believe Haaland's agent is Raiola, long term contracts may not have the greatest significance beyond player value. Depends on the highest bidder and whomever's willing to deal with a bloated egotistical boa constrictor of a 'representative' I'd imagine.

[Baggies]

Juve and Ronaldo may also part ways with many observers feeling Juve need rid. Where he ends is going to be fascinating. Back with Sporting maybe? Or will a big club go for him?

Kane to Real Madrid maybe? If he has another great international tournament this summer then maybe.

[johnny Cash]

I think Kane could end up staying with Spurs.

United will spend big on Sancho.  Chelsea / Tuchel I think will back Werner to score much more next season and I think City could be eyeing Haaland or Mbappe, who can’t both go to Real Madrid.

[seteefeet]

Chelsea linked with Lewandowski. Shame as I quite like him.

Wouldn't it be great if the likes of him, Ronaldo, Messi all snubbed the Super League charlatans and signed for real clubs.
Imagine if they all turned up at Norwich or Saints, just for one season? 

[Standaman]

Everyone is skint unless they are owned by an oil state or Oligarch so there is a new game in town player swaps these are fun and there are way of clubs to pretend that their players are retaining their pre covid values and help plug the gaps in their finances.

The role model was last year's swap of Arthur and Pjanić between Barcalona and Juventus which allowed both clubs book a profit on the transfer.

Turning to Kane. It seems imperative that Spurs realise a fee in excess of £100m and at least 3 of the potential suitors are cash strapped but have the typically bloated squads and a lot of potential trades that can be used to bulk out a bit of cash to something that can persuade Spurs they are getting the fee.

[BaggieBoy04]

Chelsea linked with Lewandowski. Shame as I quite like him.

Wouldn't it be great if the likes of him, Ronaldo, Messi all snubbed the Super League charlatans and signed for real clubs.
Imagine if they all turned up at Norwich or Saints, just for one season? 

Byern weren't part of it so RL can stay there but yeah Ronaldo to say Sporting  messi to say Leicester or Ajax

[Baggies]

The Athletic reporting that Man Utd are now increasingly confident of landing Jadon Sancho. While I feel sorry for Dortmund and hope that they rinse United of every last penny, it will be good to get Sancho back in England, mainly so that Southgate might take him more seriously. I get a slight impression that Southgate has a bit of the Luke Dowling's about him and is a bit domestic biased, but over the last 12 months Sancho has outperformed Sterling so a move to United should put him firmly in the frame.

[Standaman]

Quick round up of the early action in the market much of which was in the pipeline before the window opened a lot of the current deals are the buys in last summer's loan to buy deals.

England

Only one big money deal and that is Ibrahima Konaté joining Liverpool from RB Leipzig for £36m big fee but if he continues at his current rate of development then Liverpool can have a starting Centre Back for the next decade.

Other deals that have caught my eye. The annual "are they still at Chelsea?" moment has arrived

Marco van Ginkel has left Chelsea, after a career that spans 8 years and 4 games as has Victor Moses who joins Spartak Moscow for £4m

Walcott on a free to Southampton not sure about that one.

Watford have signed 19 year old Jamie Pollock from Grimsby (sure there is a joke in there somewhere) he is touted as top prospect at Centre Back and could be a bit of a catch at just under £300k

France

Nantes have triggered the option to buy Goalkeeper Alban Lafont for £6m from Fiorentina. He is a sensational shot stopper.

Memphis Depay has left Lyon and is heavily tipped to join Barcalona

Steady stream of talent exiting Ligue 1 will pick that up as I go through the other leagues.

Spain

They can't help themselves can they? While Barca and Real Madrid are struggling to raise money to go play in the transfer market they have both committed themselves to big contracts for high profile free agents Aguerro and Alaba the latter being reported as costing a eye watering £20m a year.

Germany

The RB Leipzig machine ticks over. Sold both Centre Backs (Konate and Upamecano) replaced them with Josko Gvardiol and Mohammed Simakan. Picked up a couple of other reinforcements Angelino from Man City and Benjamin Henricks from Monaco and have £20m in the bank.

Bayern have bought Upamecano but have said that is it as far as big money transfers go this window.

Dortmund have picked up a Goalkeeper Gregor Kobel from Bundesliga rivals Struttgart for£13m

Italy

Aside from the usual flurry of loan to buy deals nothing much happening aside from Milan picking up Goalkeeper Mike  Miagnan from Lille for just £11m although they have let Donnarumma go on a free. I think we call that ballsy.

Everyone wants to sell nobody wants to buy and the Euro's kick off in under a fortnight so it's going to be slow. Rumours will abound but actual action not much.

[SmethDan]

.....Watford have signed 19 year old Jamie Pollock from Grimsby (sure there is a joke in there somewhere).....

As someone with a Halibut of picking up on such things I feel you Cod be right.

[Standaman]

Haven't updated this for a month because there hasn't been much happening. With players starting to return to their clubs and the 30th June contract date ticking over things have started to move a bit but without one of the super rich clubs splashing the cash I think things will remain slow.

England

Since I last updated this Villa have bought Emiliano Buendía for £34m and let Samatta go for about half of what they paid for him 18 months ago.

Norwich have been busy with the Buendia cash picking up Angus Gunn from Southampton and Left Winger Milot Rashica from Werder Bremen and secured Billy Gilmour on loan.


Burnley have bought in Nathan Collins for £12m from Stoke which has fuelled speculation that they might sell James Tarkowski

Leicester City have spent in excess of £40m in picking up Boubakary Soumaré and promising young striker Patson Daka. The former might be a precursor for Tielemans moving somewhere this summer.

Leeds Have made Jack Harrison's loan deal permeent after 3 years for £11m

Championship Corner

Lots of movement most of it in the out of contract and loan market.

Stoke have picked up the highly rated Ben Wilmott for £1.5m. The outbounds are remarkable in addition to selling Nathan Collins they have let 8 players go including Kevin Wimmer, Ryan Woods, and Benek Afobe. Who they signed for a combined fee in excess of £35m and who they have sold for nothing (Afobe is technically on loan at Millwall but his contract expires in June 22 so that's in effect a free but with added wage costs) They are still not clear of the very bad Premier League signings Martins-Indi has returned from a loan spell still has a year on his contract and Etebo is back from Turkey and has another 2 years of not playing for Stoke before his contract expires.

Luton have been busy picking up Henri Lansbury on a free and promising young Scot Allan Campbell from Motherwell

Bristol City Pearson has turned to a couple of players that have served him well in the past in Matty James and Andy King both are now at the tail end of their careers.

QPR have actually spent something on fees bringing in Sam Field, Andre Dozall, Jordy de Wijs in addition to the free transfer of Charlie Austin

Spain

The Spainish market is moribund the biggest fee is Jaun Foyth moving to Villarreal from Spurs for £13m.

Germany

RB Leipzig have sold 3 players for £80m and bought in 6 for £80m the most recent of which is Andres Silva from Eintracht Frankfurt for £20m. They might have picked up the free transfer of the window in 19 year old Brian Brobbey from Ajax if he trains on he will be scary good.

Wolfsberg Have swooped for 18 year old Belgium midfielder Aster Vranckx for £7m after his break out season with Mechelen

Italy

With both Juventus and Inter both cash strapped there isn't much driving the Italian market

Atalanta Continue to trade players making money but always unearthing new ones to replace those they sell on. They have bought in Goal Keeper Jaun Musso from Udenise while sellng on three players for a combined fee of £28m

Fiorentina Signed Nicolás González from Struttgart for £20m which a bit of a coup for what is nowadays a mid level Serie A club.

France

The well documented financial trauma in French football continues play out. Basically there is a steady exodus of talent

Champions Lille are being broken up the latest exit being Boubakary Soumaré for £18m this is widely seen as a knocked down price for a very bright talent.

The one team that seems to be bucking the trend Olympique Marseille who have thus far spent £22m on Gerson from Flanengo and £7.2m on Leonardo Balredi from Dortmund.

Sancho United is widely reported as being agreed, that plus the Euro's drawing to a close might breath some life into the market.

[Baggies]

https://twitter.com/ZachLowy/status/1412143891302780930

If you want a great read on Barcelona’s financial woes, have a look at the Twitter link above. Zach Lowry has claimed the are currently unable to formally register Depay, Messi, Aguero etc due to them exceeding their cap. Quite a few journalists retweetung it so it seems to have legs.

[Barrington]

https://twitter.com/ZachLowy/status/1412143891302780930

If you want a great read on Barcelona’s financial woes, have a look at the Twitter link above. Zach Lowry has claimed the are currently unable to formally register Depay, Messi, Aguero etc due to them exceeding their cap. Quite a few journalists retweetung it so it seems to have legs.

Very interesting read, thanks. However, I think most of us still expect them somehow to start the season with all of those new signings even though they can't afford it or shouldn't be allowed to by the financial rules of their league etc. All this whilst still not paying us a relatively measly amount for the young lad they stole from us. They'll come out smelling of roses in the end, even if regulations have to be bent specifically to help them.

P.S - £11 million is a bargain for Jack Harrison in this day and age. That's good business for Leeds.

[Jeremy Roland Peace]

Very interesting read, thanks. However, I think most of us still expect them somehow to start the season with all of those new signings even though they can't afford it or shouldn't be allowed to by the financial rules of their league etc. All this whilst still not paying us a relatively measly amount for the young lad they stole from us. They'll come out smelling of roses in the end, even if regulations have to be bent specifically to help them.

P.S - £11 million is a bargain for Jack Harrison in this day and age. That's good business for Leeds.

it's the same Barcelona that were allowed to buy a striker outside of a transfer window and the team they bought from weren't allowed to replace.
they will be allowed to do what they want when the time comes.

[Standaman]

To be honest we have arrived at the crisis point for Barcalona a little in the latter in the day than one might have expected. In the Goal piece the quote that I cherish the most is new President Laporta saying that the club "is much worse off than I thought".

Yet he only got elected by making promises (e.g. keeping Messi) that were incompatible with the known facts (if I as a casual observer in a foreign country know then frankly his ignorance is just wilful). He has subsequently doubled down by bringing in a slew of expensive free agents on wages that added costs to a wage bill that needed to be cut.

I look forward to the episode of "Can't Pay We'll Take it Away" where a couple of large gentleman and a van rock up at the Camp Nou and repossess the goalposts as part of the Barry settlement

[Standaman]

Premier League clubs continue to tap into the RB talent pool with Enock Mwepu joining Brighton from RB Salzburg for a shade over £20m this might indicate that Yves Bissouma is set to leave.

Further evidence of Barca's distress is the sale of Junior Firpo to Leeds for £13m while Firpo is a fringe player at Barca the fee is somewhat less than the one Barca paid for the 24 year old just 2 seasons ago.

Arsenal's Mattéo Guendouzi joins Marseille on loan with an obligation to buy. He fell out with Arteta so maybe it was for the best but I can't help feeling Arsenal have sold a good player there. Marseille continue to be the busiest of the Ligue 1 clubs, although PSG's purchase of Achraf Hakimi from Inter for £54m kind of puts that into context.

[Baggies]

Agree with Barrington and JRP - the expectation is that Tebas at La Liga will bend the rules with a CoVID allowance so that they can make losses, allowing them to keep Messi. The reality is that La Liga needs Lionel Messi for its broadcast deals.

[Standaman]

Quick round up of some deals that have caught my eye this week

We can see you sneaking out

Bruno Martin Indi joins AZ Alkmaar from Stoke who seem to be finally getting to grips with their squad having also rather strangely loaned out  Peter Etebo to Watford.

Smart Clubs at Work

Eintracht Frankfurt having sold Andre Silva to RB Leipzig for £20m they bring in Santos Borre from River Plate on a free.
Getafe have picked up 21 year old José Macías from Chivas in Mexico a  loan with an option to buy. He has scored for fun at every level he has played at will be one to watch in La Liga this season.
Stade Rennais have purchased Loic Badé for £15m from Lens which is pretty massive investment in a 21 year old Centre Back given the state of French football.

There's Always Turkey

Career on the slide? Worn out your welcome at home? At a loose end? Looking for that one last pay day? There's always Turkey.
Mario Balotelli moves to Turkish side Adana Demirspor (no me neither) where he will be joined by Britt Assombalonga (No we should have not been all over that)

Green Eyed Monster Corner

The monster has largely been sleeping this window but he opened half an eye when Vangelis Pavlidis moved from Willem II Tilburg to AZ for a little over £2m. Might not have wanted to swap Europa League football for the Championship and a big bag of money but a high pressing forward with a decent eye for goal.

Cocaine isn't the only way God tells people they have too much money....

PSG have picked up Sergio Ramos on a free but are paying him £200k a week for the next two years.

Championship corner

Birmingham have picked up Tahith Chong from Man U on loan somewhat surprising to see him in the Championship given he was loaned out to Werder Bremen last year although that deal was terminated in January. 

Things starting to pick up generally

[SmethDan]

Talking of young Manchester United midfielders who may be up for a loan I'll be interested to see their plans for Hannibal Mejbri.

[Baggies]

Hadn't noticed Chong to Blues. Sensible to send him to Bowyer who does seem to have a good track record with young attackers, but surprised to see him drop so low given how highly rated he was 18 months ago.

[Standaman]

Man United's next big thing discuss. Chong and Gomes seemed to be it for the last few years Gomes has gone to Lille and Chong now seems to not be it and the baton has passed to Hannibal Mejbri. We wish Hannibal well with his new found role which I suspect will see him go to Belgium this coming season because being Man United's next big thing means largely playing for other clubs.

[gazberg]

Wolves and Man City want Antonee Robinson as LB cover according to Nixon. From Wigan to Citeh in 2 years if it came off 

[BalisPen]

Quick round up of some deals that have caught my eye this week

We can see you sneaking out

Bruno Martin Indi joins AZ Alkmaar from Stoke who seem to be finally getting to grips with their squad having also rather strangely loaned out  Peter Etebo to Watford.

Smart Clubs at Work

Eintracht Frankfurt having sold Andre Silva to RB Leipzig for £20m they bring in Santos Borre from River Plate on a free.
Getafe have picked up 21 year old José Macías from Chivas in Mexico a  loan with an option to buy. He has scored for fun at every level he has played at will be one to watch in La Liga this season.
Stade Rennais have purchased Loic Badé for £15m from Lens which is pretty massive investment in a 21 year old Centre Back given the state of French football.

There's Always Turkey

Career on the slide? Worn out your welcome at home? At a loose end? Looking for that one last pay day? There's always Turkey.
Mario Balotelli moves to Turkish side Adana Demirspor (no me neither) where he will be joined by Britt Assombalonga (No we should have not been all over that)

Green Eyed Monster Corner

The monster has largely been sleeping this window but he opened half an eye when Vangelis Pavlidis moved from Willem II Tilburg to AZ for a little over £2m. Might not have wanted to swap Europa League football for the Championship and a big bag of money but a high pressing forward with a decent eye for goal.

Cocaine isn't the only way God tells people they have too much money....

PSG have picked up Sergio Ramos on a free but are paying him £200k a week for the next two years.

Championship corner

Birmingham have picked up Tahith Chong from Man U on loan somewhat surprising to see him in the Championship given he was loaned out to Werder Bremen last year although that deal was terminated in January. 

Things starting to pick up generally

Thanks for writing these posts. I didn't know you did them and therefore I will look for them in the future as they are very informative as to what is happening in European club football.

Keep up the good work.

[Baggies]

Marc Guehi on his way to Palace on a permanent deal. Sounds like Chelsea have structured the deal in the same way Liverpool did with Brewster and Real Madrid and Barca do regularly. Sell on fee and buy back clause.

A very well respected youth football observer rates Guehi as the best young defender in his age group since Joe Gomez, so one to watch.

[Baggies]

Interesting to see all of the Japanese players coming to Britain this last year or so.

Minamino obviously signed for Liverpool last year,  Spurs have signed Tomiyasu and now Celtic have signed Furuhashi. I think both the J League and the K League should be seriously looked at by clubs like ours, especially now some of the European leagues have been taken off the table by the new work permit rules. There are tons of good players who wouldn't cost the earth available.

[Hull Baggie]

Interesting to see all of the Japanese players coming to Britain this last year or so.

Minamino obviously signed for Liverpool last year,  Spurs have signed Tomiyasu and now Celtic have signed Furuhashi. I think both the J League and the K League should be seriously looked at by clubs like ours, especially now some of the European leagues have been taken off the table by the new work permit rules. There are tons of good players who wouldn't cost the earth available.

They're definitely leagues we shouldn't rule out but traditionally Japanese players haven't faired that well in England, the real exceptions being Yoshida at Soton and Okazaki at Leicester...maybe Kagawa for Man Utd.
 Our very own Inamoto was hardly a success, although he was unlucky that Megson left soon after signing him.