From Charles Robinson: “If you’re genuinely concerned about Ipswich’s search for a new centre-back – and let’s face it, who isn’t – the Derby Telegraph reported earlier today that they’re after the Mighty Rams defender Jason Shackell. There’s also a whisper that Ikechi Anya might be off on loan to Reading. As for incomings at Pride Park, Derby had a bid for Brum midfielder David Davis rejected. At this point, Nick, I was going to crowbar in a wretched Brexit joke, but have decided against it.”
Presumably Davis would have arrived with no idea what he wanted from the contract negotiations anyway.
As for Ipswich, could this face lie? Connor Goldson was meant to be coming in from Brighton but that’s on the rocks because of their own problems getting a defender in. I’d take Shackell but, as is a common theme, expect a deal may be too rich for Ipswich.
Our own Jamie Jackson explains the whole City/Palace/Evans merry-go-round: “As Sakho looks to be heading to Crystal Palace the view at City now is that Mangala will stay, which means no Evans to City.”
Not sure if this was covered earlier in the day but Jason Denayer has joined Galatasaray for a second loan spell from Manchester City. He was there in 2015-16 and has also had loans at Celtic and Sunderland. Something tells me he might as well leave permanently.
On Andre Gomes: would you like to know where he is at the moment? He’s in Porto, on the bench for Portugal’s World Cup qualifier against Faroe Islands (4-1 up). The match ends in 25 minutes. The window closes in 115 minutes. Tottenham are trying to sign him from Barcelona. This is all absolutely ridiculous.
“Gutted to see Jota leave Brentford,” weeps Jack Lee. “A player who seemed to have an extra second on the ball every time it came to him, and it often ended up in the back of the net.”
This picture of Llorente has, as is the way nowadays, been doing the rounds on the ol’ Twitter, I think courtesy of his brother – so I think we can assume that an announcement is a matter of time:
Now Llorente’s move to Spurs is imminent, the same appears to be true for Wilfried Bony’s return to Swansea. I’m not sure about the latter, I’m really not.
Also – Sky say Jonny Evans won’t be going to Man City, but I wouldn’t say that has looked particularly strong all day.
From Jerry Parks: “I have absolutely nothing of value to add to your discussion, but I would like to note that Everton’s new signing shares his name with an American pickle company that has a ridiculous ad campaign/mascot.”
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It’s been a good couple of hours since we dwelled obscurely upon foodstuffs, Jerry, so don’t you worry. Everybody: this might be the best thing you watch all day.
What Diego Costa? That’s the question a few of you are asking. No movement from Chelsea at the moment *but* the Spanish deadline isn’t until tomorrow – so if Atletico Madrid come up with the right fee by then, he could still be off this week. In theory, of course, the same would apply to Philippe Coutinho’s Barcelona transfer. I think we can hold tight on these for tonight but tomorrow’s another day …
News coming in that Leicester have their replacement for Danny Drinkwater – if Chelsea come up with the readies to sign him, that is. They would be ready to sign Adrien Silva of Sporting, who are really keeping things going for us tonight …
Couple more wingers on the move, this time in the Championship. Fulham have taken Jordan Graham on loan from Wolves, while Craig Noone has left Cardiff to sign a permanent deal at Bolton.
Liverpool winger Ryan Kent has become the latest young British player to move abroad – joining Bundesliga side Freiburg on a season-long loan. The 20-year-old enjoyed a fine pre-season with Jurgen Klopp’s first team but needs more regular experience and the thought at Liverpool is that a year in Germany can only benefit his development. Germany’s transfer window closed at 5pm GMT but all the paperwork was completed and registered in time.
If you like a thrashing, by the way, Belgium are 6-0 up against Gibraltar at half-time in the WCQs – and Axel Witsel has managed to get himself sent off!
I believe they are still at the very least, trying for a centre-back. It was bad luck for them earlier today when Stefano Denswil, who was in the building and about to sign from Club Brugge, was called back at the last minute due to injury problems at his club. And pretty bad luck last week when striker Raphael Dwamena’s move fell through after his own medical went wrong. Think it could be a busy couple of hours down there yet …
Tonci Kokan thinks Everton fans should be *very* excited: “As a Hajduk Split fan, I’m really sad to see Vlasic leave. If I were an Everton fan, I’d be really excited. He’s a great prospect, better then Modric and Rakitic at that age.”
Callum McManaman and Marc Wilson on the way to Sunderland
Louise Taylor
Callum McManaman, latterly West Brom’s invisible winger, is a forgotten man no longer – he’s having a medical at Sunderland, as is the Bournemouth defender Marc Wilson. Looks like Lamine Kone’s mooted move to Palace is off and he’s staying on Wearside.
Simon Grayson will be particularly happy that he has managed to keep hold of his midfielder Didier Ndong but will be desperately unhappy at the club’s failure to sign the extra striker they so badly need.
Nonetheless Grayson is probably a bit more cheerful than Rafa Benitez – Newcastle have concluded their transfer dealings leaving him short of the goalkeeper, left-back, winger and striker that loomed large on his shopping list.
The Hajduk Split forward, a really exciting prospect at just 19, has put pen to paper as expected. Now all they need is an experienced striker to go into the team now – is it too late to get another one through the door?
One or two of you have been asking for Manchester United news, so I should let you know that there is none. And well done to them for that. I was covering the game on Saturday and, while there is work to do, they have a clarity about them now that they’ve lacked for a few years. So why clutter it up at the last?
“If Chris Baugh steals Mahrez’s passport at Paris CDG, then how will Mahrez get back to the UK to play for Leicester. He really hasn’t though this one through,” worries Peter Byrne. Logic, today of all days?
Porto fan João Melo has an interesting take on Marco Silva and Watford:
“The thing that set apart Marco Silva from other managers here in Portugal was always the improved performances he got from some players, who were otherwise rather limited prospects.
“Particularly at Estoril, a team of very limited means, even by Watford’s standard, Silva momentarily turned a bunch of 2nd Portuguese tier players into outstanding Primeira Liga performers. Players like Licá, Evandro, Steven Vitória, Carlos Eduardo or Jefferson were hired by the big Portuguese clubs solely on the backs of their performances under Marco Silva. Later, for their new clubs, their limitations were almost immediately apparent.
“So my point is that Carrillo or Zeegelaar aren’t, on the face of it, up to the Premier League’s standard. Marco Silva, however is the sort of manager that can take flawed players and turn them into diamonds. Personally, I’m still pissed off Porto never managed to hire him.”
I’m just nipping downstairs for some food so hold tight for five minutes, a boy has to eat and none of the fish restaurants you’ve put my way are within a couple of minutes’ walk from King’s Cross.
Another done deal at Watford! They have signed Molla Wague, the Mali defender who had a brief spell at Leicester last season, on loan from … can you possibly guess? It’s an Italian club based in Udine; I believe they’ve met for the first time.
I should probably recap from earlier for the evening crowd – Alexis Sanchez will be staying at Arsenal, news brought to you from our very own Dave Hytner. And Thomas Lemar will be going nowhere either despite talk of a huge Arsenal bid. France kick off against Holland shortly! It really is ridiculous that today’s circus has to happen on the same night as some very big World Cup qualifiers.
A small note on that Bojan move is that Mark Hughes, of course, also moved out Giannelli Imbula – who I thought would do well there – on loan earlier today. Why haven’t those deals worked out? Poor planning? Poor research?
Done deal!A big-name departure from Stoke as Bojan has joined Alaves on loan. Didn’t quite happen there in the end, did it, despite some promising moments. Will Jese go the same way?
I said there wasn’t much Chelsea news; how wrong that was …
Dominic Fifield
Danny Drinkwater to Chelsea is edging towards agreement between the clubs. Chelsea are basically having to push their offers up and up nearer the original £35m asking price. But the likelihood is they will reach an agreement.
“I’m at CDG airport and haven’t seen Mahrez,” confirms Chris Baugh. “My plan was to steal his passport if I found him (I’m a Leicester fan). But I’ve had to give up searching because my flight is boarding in a minute. So all I can confirm is that (if he’s still here) he’s not flying to Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Berlin, Zurich or Munich with Eurowings.”
This is exactly the kind of groundwork we expect you, the reader, to be putting in.
“I wonder how some of PSG’s players will react to the signings of Neymar and Mbappe,” chin-strokes Konstantin Sauer. “Particularly for Julian Draxler, this must be an uncomfortable situation. With the World Cup coming up next year, he desperately needs playing time to secure a spot in Germany’s quality-filled midfield. Any chances for a late move? Arsenal might be the right team for him, their attacking style suits him well and he’d team up with fellow internationals Ozil, Mustafi and Mertesacker.”
Draxler is in danger of being a nearly-but-not-quite, isn’t he? Cue the jokes about him being a perfect fit for Arsenal … but doesn’t he need to be the main man somewhere, even if not there?
No fresh news from Chelsea, for those asking, although they have of course agreed a fee for Davide Zappacosta of Torino. You’d think that will go through later – but they need more, don’t they?
Done Deal: another Arsenal forward departs! But it’s the under-used Lucas Perez, whose return to Deportivo on loan has been rubber-stamped. So much not to understand about Arsenal’s dealings in the last year or two.
More fresh news from the north-east – doesn’t sound great
Louise Taylor
Rafa Benitez has been described as “frustrated” by the day’s events – with Lazaar departing and Paul Dummett injured he is without a fit specialist left back. One man who can play there – in an emergency – is left footed midfielder Jack Colback. But Colback will almost certainly be out of the 25 man squad and training with the Under-23s after declining to leave on loan this window. He will miss his Brighton bound pal Tim Krul, who has also been consigned to the academy this summer …
“Can you explain why Monaco would be willing to loan arguably their best player to arguably their biggest domestic rival, and to help that rival avoid FFP repercussions? I mean, aside from the boatload of money they’ll get this time next year,” asks (a different) David Sullivan.
Probably the money, largely, as it could reach a princely £166m next year. And I imagine the player’s camp were pushing hard for it. It could be a brilliant deal for them – we still don’t know how good Mbappe is going to be, really, and if you think the transfer market can only go so much further then guaranteeing themselves the cash now is actually pretty smart.
More not-especially promising thoughts on Zeegelaar for Watford fans, this time from João Fernandes:
“Selling Marvin for 3mil euros is a great deal for Sporting Portugal. Marvin never proved to be very reliable either defensively or on offensive terms. Marco Silva is getting him because he worked him for a year in Sporting, but I can’t really understand how Watford agreed to pay so much for him. I am more than glad to see him go, but hey… he might prove me wrong, but if I was a Watford supporter I would be very sceptical of playing with him at such level as the Premier League.
“Same thing applies for Andre Carrillo, also a familiar player for Sporting, which I don’t see how he can survive the high work ethic required for the Premier League. I would be aware of these strange signings from Marco Silva, just because he already worked with them, doesn’t mean that they have what it takes.”
Done deal – Fulham sign ex-Zenit St Petersburg winger Yohan Mollo on a free transfer.
As a bonus, we have some input from Alexey Khitrov about the player:
“Mancini never gave Mollo a chance at Zenit. As a Zenit supporter, I’m a bit sad to see him go. Mollo showed some promise last season, but was first relegated to the youth team and then released yesterday. I see him playing in the Premier League next year. He is a smart, speedy attacking midfielder. with a good pass and decent shot.”
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Max Bartram
