Every summer needs its sagas but these five are getting a little tiresome as the end of the transfer window approaches…
This summer saw a flurry of deals done early before the World Cup, while other transfers came out of the blue, which is always the best kind of transfer.
Other potential deals, though, are starting to drag. Like these five…
Bradley Barcola
Yan Diomande had ‘saga’ written all over him through the early part of the summer before Real Madrid stepped up where Liverpool and PSG were unwilling to. But once Diomande was out of Liverpool’s reach, it quickly became all about Barcola.
Yet here we are, maybe seven weeks or so after the PSG winger became Liverpool’s primary focus and, from the outside, it appears that we’re no further on than we were at the end of June.
That’s purely down to the difference between Liverpool and PSG in their valuations of Barcola, and we don’t blame either for not capitulating to the other. PSG, though, are the ones most culpable for this one dragging on because their asking price is, frankly, a bit ridiculous.
Reports suggest they want £145million for the winger and they are perfectly entitled to push their luck, especially in the current market. But, c’mon lads…
Liverpool must have taken encouragement from somewhere to persist with their interest; perhaps from Barcola himself, with personal terms already agreed, which ought not to have been difficult given his current salary wouldn’t put him in Liverpool’s top 10 earners.
But one side will have to cave or both will have to make hefty compromises for this to get done before the deadline. Which we’re not sure it will.
Savinho
Sometimes with transfer deals, we have to accept that there must be something we’re missing. Because when it comes to Savinho, we’re not quite sure why Manchester City are resisting a big-money sale or why Tottenham Hotspur are content to be strung along despite offering more than double the money City paid for the Brazilian two years ago.
We understand that Enzo Maresca wants time to assess all of the players he has inherited, and despite plenty of specialist wingers on the books – Savinho, Jeremy Doku, Antoine Semenyo, Jack Grealish, Jeremy Monga – City are only sure of being able to rely on two. But doesn’t that increase the haste necessary, especially as the deadline nears?
Savinho struggled badly last season – that can happen to a young player in his second season – but only 14 starts across all competitions and seven goal involvements suggests Tottenham are being more than fair by offering £60million.
Actually, reports suggest they are tabling considerably more than that, yet still haven’t got the deal done.
City might be wary of Savinho making them regret selling him by excelling at Spurs but he’ll only do that because he’ll get the prominence he won’t at the Etihad. If City cannot offer him such status and platform, they might as well sell – especially while Spurs are such motivated buyers – and quickly find a replacement.
Marcus Rashford
Barcelona are so often tiresome in these situations and we really expected them to drag out a deal for Rashford through much of the summer. But, for once, they set their stall out early by ignoring the option they had to sign the Manchester United winger and, instead, spend almost three times that amount on Anthony Gordon.
No, the tedious aspect to this particular saga is the pretence that United and Rashford might make up and live happily ever after.
At this stage, it is possible that they might. But it would be something of a forced marriage, necessitated by a lack of interest from elsewhere.
Make no mistake: United’s preference is to get their highest-earner off the books; and Rashford would prefer to start afresh elsewhere having last played for his boyhood team 20 months ago.
We still expect that to be the final outcome, especially since United’s demands for the winger are not unreasonable, particularly in the current market.
United may have to bite the bullet and take a risk on Rashford thriving at a rival club but that’s the price they must pay to draw a line under a sorry saga.
Julian Alvarez
Perhaps Barcelona parked their interest in Rashford early to focus all their energy on Alvarez since it was clear even before the end of last season that this would be particularly draining.
Atletico Madrid were already tired of the bulls*** at the end of May, when they posted on social media images of Lamine Yamal, Raphinha and Pedri wearing Atletico shirts, highlighting what they called a smear campaign to unsettle Alvarez and lower his price.
We enjoyed that, and also Real Madrid sticking the boot in. One of the pledges Florentino Perez made in his re-election campaign was to immediately submit a €150 million offer for a major star.
Before the ballot, we had no idea that it was Alvarez and that the bid was never designed to be successful, only to screw with Barca. Well played, old man.
But then it all got a bit tiresome, with Alvarez left in a tricky situation. He went to the World Cup hoping to return to Spain as a Barca player but the Catalans could never get near to the £130million valuation Atletico – quite reasonably – still hold.
Things really came to a head last week when Alvarez had to return to training with Atletico, which made some in the Spanish media lose their freaking minds.
With no sign of Barca coming up with the goods, Alvarez is at the repentance stage, having reportedly apologised to his team-mates for going public with his wishes to move to the Nou Camp. Which wasn’t the foolish part. Alvarez’s biggest mistake was trusting Barca to do what was obviously necessary.
Another tedious aspect to the nonsense has been Arsenal lurking in the shadows. The Gunners, like Barcelona, fancy Alvarez but neither are they serious enough to make Atletico an offer worth considering.
MORE: Julian Alvarez to Barcelona has seen us reach new horizons in Spanish journalist transfer insanity
Enzo Fernandez
The World Cup and a change of manager at both Fernandez’s current club and the one he fancies joining – if Real Madrid aren’t interested, which they are not – has seen this one only come to the boil in the last fortnight or so.
But anyone who watched Fernandez stare down the irate Chelsea fans at Brighton knew to expect the Argentina midfielder to at least attempt to jump ship, even if things are looking rather rosier at Stamford Bridge following Xabi Alonso’s appointment.
Fernandez’s former boss, Enzo Maresca, has been appointed at Manchester City and, as is tradition, the new manager has been linked with a number of his old players. Fernandez chief among them.
There is clearly some legitimacy to the links, though we’ve always doubted City’s desire to give Chelsea even a small profit on the £107million they paid for Fernandez.
Chelsea too have sought some clarity on City’s level of intent by placing a deadline for the Mancunians to meet their demands. Which, as expected, came and went with nothing happening.
At least, though, things could get spicy if Fernandez attempts to force a move with the two clubs not too far away from an agreeable number.
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