With just 25 days to go to the start of the Premier League season, Euro 2016 done and friendlies in full swing, it’s a good time to have a quick look at transfers that have happened and those that might go through before D-Day.
Away from the big-money captures that dominate the headlines, West Ham and Leicester City have been the busiest so far, with five signings a piece.
Looks like more could be on the cards with the Hammers even offering Carlos Tevez a £150 000-a-week deal to join them in East London.
The Foxes are recruiting relative unknowns, but who’s to doubt their scouting system! Jamie Vardy might be feeling a bit k@k now that his title-winning team is being sold off, with Riyad Mahrez being lined up by Chelsea.
North London rivals Arsenal and Spurs have picked up a couple each, as have Chelsea whose fans have perhaps the biggest smiles after the capture of midfielder N’Golo Kante from Leicester on Saturday and Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly looking likely to sign.
Up north there’s no shortage of cash being splurged, Manchester United have brought in Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, while Liverpool have spent £34m on Sadio Mane as well as Loris Karius for £4.7m and defender Joel Matip on a free transfer.
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I’m sure United fans are feeling recharged, with Jose Mourinho at the helm and rumours persisting that Paul Pogba is on his way.
The latest reports say a fee of around £105m will be tabled with wages of £200k a week!
Not quite sure if the same optimism is running rampant at Anfield following Klopp’s insistence that marquee s ignings aren’t a necessity.
He says: “Everyone expects big names and a big improvement because of big names and if you don’t know the players it’s like ‘what are we doing? What are they doing?’”
Man City have been a bit quiet given their recent sprees, but expect some movement in the next week or two.
Elsewhere, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Southampton and Boro are busy building, while the rest of the league has remained pretty much stagnant.
But it’s far from over and as always around this time of year, agents and representatives are scurrying around Europe from hotel to airport, phones buzzing and brokering moves as silly season reaches its peak.
Interestingly, out of the 50 or so confirmed deals, only a quarter have been for defenders, there’s been a strong move for attacking players.
It’s a new era for the Prem, even James Rodriguez fancies a switch if a club matches his £67m release clause.
Forget Brexit, forget England’s pathetic showing in Europe.
The Prem is as big as, if not a whole lot bigger, than it’s ever been.
Oh, and please stop with the messages about Chelsea losing their first pre-season friendly, it’s a friendly, the first one, means nothing, don’t care, bye bye.