The Transfer Window Will Close MONDAY

Monday is the close of the transfer window in England. That’s only FIVE WHOLE DAYS LEFT. We here at The Transfer Flow are not stressed, because we are two-way players who love both the transfers and the game. But for some teams, the window closing Monday matters A LOT (hello Newcastle, Spurs, Crystal Palace and others), and for many more any extra bodies are going to be more nice-to-haves and not pure, unadulterated, OMFGSIGNSOMEONEANYONE necessities.

It’s been interesting to see the best-run clubs in England transition to more of a German/Bundesliga style. When I started working in football over a decade ago, England was much more of the Italian/Spanish mode where signings happened late across the board, and deadline day felt like a real thing. Now deadline day is more like desperation day for poorly-run clubs, while the good ones do almost all of their real signings in the first half of the year.

In a related vein, how is it Thursday already?

Waiting isn’t always bad - Arsene Wenger used to keep a large stack of cash on hand to take advantage of desperate sellers near deadline day, while also saving two months of wages on the start of new player contracts - but it does tend to limit teams’ ability to sign real game-changers. Or to win those first few matches when large holes exist in the squad.

• The window closes on Monday and Manchester United have zero sales.
  
  None.
  Zilch.
  Nada.
  
  The only thing of note they have done this window to trim the squad is loan Marcus Rashford to Barcelona, a move his agent has been working on for more than a year.
  
  Let’s just check in on United’s leadership group so far this summer…

• One of the single biggest flaws left in English team management remains signing head coaches with a clearly preferred playing style that doesn’t really fit their current squad, and then being shocked when results don’t dramatically improve after not signing a ton of new players to fit the tactical needs.

• That said, sometimes they do sign a bunch of new players and the head coach still fails. Which is even worse!
  
  This football lark is harder than it looks.
  
  Not as hard as Manchester United have made it, mind you, but it’s still kinda tricky at the best of times.

• I admit I am sad at Como vowing to keep Nico Paz (and presumably Real Madrid vowing to bring him back home in future seasons). He’s a very exciting young player, but also one that I have a ton of questions about regarding how best to use him in more English tactical systems. Questions that will sadly go unanswered as he continues to play in the relative squalor of a stadium located directly on Lake Como, and not the glorious new build of North London’s Hotspurs, where the beer cups magically fill from the bottom up.

• However, I do feel vindicated in pointing out Como were the most likely team in Italy to go weirdly big/expensive in this transfer window way back in the early spring. They have spent €90M thus far (including Jesus Rodriguez, the absolute dribbliest of young Spanish lads), and managed to keep their best playmaker out of the hands of a Big 6 club with bids surpassing 50M. That’s srs bsns.

• Should Wolves sell Jorgen Strand Larsen for £55M? Almost certainly. But Newcastle might pay more (60+!), and that’s the fun sticking point in this little game. It reminds me of the Guehi dance last summer, but more striker-y.

• In Newcastle-adjacent news, if I was Nic Jackson, I’d prefer life in Munich vs Tyneside too. It’s hard to beat good wages, ez trophies, and Oktoberfest.

• “Newcastle officials, including co-owner Jamie Reuben, have spoken to Isak at the striker's home in an attempt to convince him to stay at the club and return to Eddie Howe's squad despite Liverpool's interest.” Alex? Alex, can you come out and play now? Please? You can even keep the ball, as long as you start showing up to team training again. Alex?!?

• Crystal Palace look to have locked up Yeremi Pino from Villarreal, in a deal The Ornacle reports as being worth over €25M. Looking at the recent numbers, this feels fairly high risk, but the fee isn’t super crazy for a young attacker.

• Palace are also sniffing around Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott, who is clearly surplus to requirements given how many top tier attackers LFC have already brought in so far this summer. Spurs are also rumoured to be involved in this one, as part of a fun post-Eze Gazzumption Triangle, a phrase which has heretofore never been seen in the English language, and one that may never be seen again.

• Brentford are allegedly in for Dortmund’s Max Beier, a player we flagged as high interest last summer. No fee has been reported yet, but I like the look of this one a lot…

• Which would potentially allow Yoane Wissa to move to either Spurs or Newcastle. All this late-window, will-they-won’t-they sexual transfer chemistry is pretty exciting, to be honest.

• West Ham are pushing hard for Hayden Hackney, who they need this season, but who will also be a very capable player should they get relegated to the Championship. Meanwhile, The Hammers also are denying David Moyes his Tomas Soucek fix, which is understandable but unfortunate at the same time.

• Garnacho Chelsea yadda yadda

• Donnarumma to [A Manchester Club] blah blah, gotta sell Ederson first bc omgwages.

• Nkunku anywhere but London [AC Milan the latest].

Finally, the lads covered the good and bad of a potential Kobbie Mainoo move (plus much more) on yesterday’s podcast, so check it out.

—TK

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