Arsenal and Manchester United have offloaded players whose 2018 swap deal conspicuously failed to live up to expectationsThe Liverpool teenager Bobby Duncan appears to have bucked a growing trend by leaving to join Fiorentina in Italy. Whatever the rights and wrongs of a dispute with the European champions that led to the player’s exit, Fiorentina are at least getting a promising young talent at the right age.Most of the recent Italian imports from the Premier League have been just the opposite, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan joining Alexis Sánchez in Serie A after failing to convince he was worth a regular place at Arsenal. Related: Arsenal’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan joins Roma in loan with option to buy Related: Alexis Sánchez says he ‘didn’t...
Players such as Christian Eriksen and Paul Pogba could still move clubs after closing of Premier League window, complicating season planning at many clubsMauricio Pochettino is right about the transfer window deadline; it makes no sense to be three weeks out of step with the rest of Europe.Given the way Romelu Lukaku has just left Manchester United in the lurch, basically forcing through his own departure with only time left for his club to make a half-baked and easily resisted attempt to sign the 33-year-old Mario Mandzukic as a new attacking figurehead, any manager in charge of a squad containing a player coveted abroad will not be able to rest easy until the beginning of September. Such players include Paul...
Brazilian’s blunders have met with much mockery but he has been one of the Premier League’s most influential defendersEver since he first arrived at Chelsea, bursting on to the scene like a labrador puppy at a family gathering unsure of whose face to lick, whose leg to gnaw, which plate of sausage rolls to attack first, David Luiz has had a reputation in England for going walkabout.David Luiz makes the wrong move. David Luiz is in the wrong place. David Luiz appears to be fundamentally confused, head out, chest puffed, galloping off towards the wrong part of the world entirely. In this context it seems inevitable, a matter of destiny, that David Luiz should have found his way to the...
The situation at Real Madrid is baffling and does no credit to Bale or Zinedine Zidane, while Neymar and Laurent Koscielny have not enhanced their reputations this summer eitherIt has been a transfer window full of the usual long-running sagas and occasional surprises, but it does seem to have been a bad-tempered few months, with more than the usual number of players – as well as the occasional manager – trying to force moves in the most public and spiteful style. Related: Transfer deadline day live! Sessegnon, Sarr, Zaha, Lukaku, Carroll latest news Related: Transfer window 2019 – every summer deal from Europe's top five leagues Nouveau joueur, nouveau maillot, retrouvez-le dès maintenant ici https://t.co/6Jb2BRKbIo pic.twitter.com/eCfsGaSUYS Continue reading...
Statement spending can work in the Premier League but for every Virgil van Dijk there is a Paul Pogba or Romelu LukakuMike Ashley is the Premier League equivalent of Captain Rum – the seafarer from Blackadder who runs his ship in a contrary manner to “all the other captains” – though much as it must depress supporters to lose their leading scorer so soon after a popular manager, the bottom line in Ayoze Pérez’s move to Leicester stands up to scrutiny.Newcastle’s owner knows more about trading than most – he has certainly made plenty of money through his grasp of markets and mark-ups – and, though critics might accuse him of caring for little else, it cannot be denied that...