The football world may have been crippled financially by the Coronavirus pandemic, but that has not stopped some of the biggest clubs splashing the cash this summer.
Already we have seen Manchester United break the bank to sign Jadon Sancho for €85 million, while they are closing in on the purchase of Raphael Varane for over €50m.
The Borussia Dortmund wonderkid is arguably the hottest property on the whole transfer market, with virtually every big team in Europe in awe of the Norwegian.
Chelsea and Manchester City are the two teams most interested in signing the 21-year-old as both Premier League clubs are desperate to sign a number 9 this summer.
However, Dortmund have made it abundantly clear that they will not entertain any offers for Haaland in 2021. And this stance has only strengthened after they sold their other star player Sancho to Man Utd.
It has also been estimated that between a transfer fee of around €150m, a five-year contract worth €60m gross and agent commission of €40m, it would cost up to €500m in total for a club to sign Haaland this summer.
This amount would plummet significantly next year when a minimum fee release clause believed to be €75m will be activated in the attacker’s contract.
Thus, expect Haaland to move in 2022 and not 2021.
— R.Lukaku Bolingoli9 (@RomeluLukaku9) July 27, 2021
The Inter attacker has developed into one of the world’s best strikers since moving to Inter from Chelsea in the summer of 2019.
He has scored 64 goals in just 95 games for the Nerazzurri, playing a pivotal role in the club winning a first Scudetto in 11 years and reaching the Europa League final.
This has led to Chelsea aiming to bring Lukaku back to Stamford Bridge after he spent three years on their books earlier in his career.
Lukaku is on Chelsea’s striker shortlist this summer and they are expected to make a bid for him.
However, Inter consider Lukaku untouchable. They have already sacrificed Achraf Hakimi to PSG for €70m this summer to balance the books and have no need to make any more major financial sales.
Lukaku himself is happy to stay, having got his career back on track in Italy, and Inter’s CEO Beppe Marotta also confirmed this weekend that the Belgian is going nowhere.
“From our side, we can say yes absolutely, Lukaku is not for sale. Lukaku is an important piece on the chessboard available to Simone Inzaghi,” Marotta told Sportmediaset.
Chiesa has emerged as one of the most explosive young talents in Europe over the past year or so after an outstanding 2020-21 season for Juventus and Italy.
He truly turned heads at Euro 2020, scoring crucial knockout goals against Austria and Spain before producing a fantastic final performance, as Italy went all the way to glory.
Naturally, his performances have led to serious interest from the Premier League. Both Chelsea and Liverpool have been eyeing up the winger, and there was a €100m bid from the Reds tabled last week.
However, this was immediately rejected by Juventus and there is no chance of the Italian side selling any time soon.
Juventus have made Chiesa and Netherlands centre back Matthijs De Ligt the pillars of Max Allegri’s side for the next few seasons.
The Bianconeri are attempting to rebuild their next great team after a dismal 2020-21 season in which they only just qualified for the Champions League, finishing fourth in Serie A.
If Jan Oblak isn’t the best goalkeeper in the world, he certainly has been the most consistent number one over the course of the past few seasons.
The 28-year-old has been a colossus between the sticks ever since joining Atletico Madrid back in 2014 and he is now reaching his peak years.
His brilliance has led to interest from Chelsea and Manchester United, in particular, with both Premier League clubs knowing that Oblak would significantly upgrade their goalkeeping department.
However, Oblak is simply going nowhere for as long as Atletico Madrid demand that any buyer pays his €120m release clause in his contract.
Chelsea and Man Utd may be stacked with cash but a goalkeeper for that amount of money is not a priority.
Emile Smith Rowe was one of the few bright spots during a miserable 2020-21 season for an Arsenal side that didn’t even qualify for Europe.
But Arsenal fans feared for a while this summer that they may lose their young starlet as Aston Villa made a big push for the attacking midfielder’s signature.
Villa had two big-money bids rejected by Arsenal and Smith Rowe eventually signed a new long-term contract at the club.
The 20-year-old has been given Mesut Ozil’s No.10 shirt and it is safe to say that Arsenal see him as a key part of their immediate future.
