Arsenal transfer record to be smashed by Liverpool with Tonali certain to break two
Arsenal should break a couple of transfer records in a lavish summer window, as will Spurs. Manchester United and Liverpool.
A great many transfer records are at risk over the next few months, with money flying around in all directions.
And we’re not just talking Manchester United shattering their ludicrously old club transfer record…
It is a valuation that has caused some consternation – it’s very #gamesgone – but even a relegated West Ham are under no obligation to make it easy for anyone to sign their best players.
Fernandes is 21, has four years left on his contract and has attracted various well-off suitors. He has vast Premier League experience, albeit exclusively in seasons ending with relegation. His is a midfield skillset high in demand but limited in supply.
And West Ham do need to generate significant money through player sales this summer. But if they can do so without selling Fernandes he would be a Championship cheat code.
Then again, similar was said about the current Championship record sale, and Romeo Lavia was last seen mocking Jamie Carragher a year ago.
In the words of David Ornstein, Nottingham Forest would quite like their British record fee to be ‘guaranteed, not after bonuses’. Newcastle were bullied into selling Alexander Isak but Evangelos Marinakis will drive the hardest of hopeful bargains for Anderson.
The time and effort required to procure him should prove absolutely justified, in the same way international team-mate Declan Rice quickly normalised his nine-figure fee at Arsenal. Anderson might not be a £130m-plus player but that is his worth to a Forest side which would need to replace him, and a potential future club wanting to land a 23-year-old England international with an absurd amount of upside.
Manchester City do not often engage in negotiations at this sort of price for too long, but they will not be so naive as to think that Marinakis will budge. Their continued hoovering up of the absolute best players outside the Premier League elite, even after Pep Guardiola’s departure, will cost them – and everyone else.
The current record holder is Ederson, who cost Manchester City around £35m. But when Manchester United do finally complete their most important midfield signing of the summer, it will cost them £35m plus add-ons to bring in Ederson.
Until the male offspring of the former Swansea-representing scorer of the winning goal in the Euro 2016 final proves he is a semi-competent No. 6, the new bar will remain undisturbed for a while yet.
When Spurs announced the signing of Vuskovic in September 2023, they were top of the Premier League and unbeaten under Ange Postecoglou.
One productive loan at Hamburg later, Vuskovic has handed in a transfer request after sensing the Spurs centre-half queue might be too long. But the north London side will insist on adequate recompense from Brighton for a player who has never represented them competitively.
It is preposterous that Arsenal’s record sale is still the 2017 exit of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Dafter still is that when converted to Euros, Nicolas Anelka’s pre-millennium departure is second.
The final frontier for Mikel Arteta was never a major trophy. Sod getting them over the line in the Champions League; he and Andrea Berta deserve medals if they shift Martinelli for more than £35m this summer.
The suggestion for months from within Arsenal is that at least one noteworthy sale will have to be made to offset another year of substantial investment. But offloading Benjamin White to afford Bradley Barcola will only partially scratch the itch.
Arsenal ultimately have a deep-seated obsession which will only abate when they possess the youngest players in Premier League history. The next piece in that curious puzzle has been identified and might soon be secured.
If Monga does make the switch to Arsenal as expected, he could become the most expensive 16-year-old footballer ever in the process. Pietro Pellegri is in the mud.
If there is to be a grand root-and-branch review into Italian football once their mercy ban from the 2030 World Cup is confirmed, space ought to be saved for a section on their relative transfer market irrelevance.
A total of 29 nations have sold at least one player for a bigger fee than the most expensive sale of an Italian player, a deal which is damning in itself: 20-cap international Mateo Retegui’s move to Al-Qadsiah for £56m.
It displaced previous incumbent Tonali, for whom Newcastle want around double this summer.
Tonali moving to Spurs would crystallise the Big Six forever: the weakest club of that sextet finishing 17th in consecutive seasons before spending around £100m on one of the best players from a team desperate to smash that glass ceiling should not be possible.
Yet there Spurs are, clinging onto their status and maximising it in the same breath, acquiescing to the demands of Roberto De Zerbi – who they were only able to appoint because of their ranking among the financial elite.
It is not all that often they actually act the part. Their record signing, for example, is Dominic Solanke at £55m with £10m in add-ons. He is among an eclectic group of Spurs signings in that bracket, and none of Your Xavi Simons’, Your Mohammed Kudus’, Your Richarlisons and the Tanguy Ndombeles of this world can really be called an outright, roaring success.
There would be no guarantee of Tonali doing any better. But even just by pushing the deal through at a price approaching if not exceeding £100m, it would be a statement at a volume Spurs have otherwise always been too scared of reaching.
If Middlesbrough wish to boost their anti-spying budget this summer, they might just need to be patient this summer. A windfall is headed their way sooner rather than later.
They will be watching the developing situation surrounding Rogers with bated breath, knowing that 20 per cent of whatever fee Aston Villa extract for the England international will be sent in the direction of the Riverside.
If Villa hold out for at least £100m as expected, the trickle-down should land Boro around £20m. The current sell-on fee record is believed to stand at around £15m, but perhaps not for much longer.
When Arsenal spent £72m on Nicolas Pepe in August 2019, a 12-year-old Yan Diomande was still honing his generational skills in Abidjan and might have plotted a similar trajectory to his compatriot.
Seven years later, Diomande is playing alongside Pepe at a World Cup for Ivory Coast, and seems destined to usurp him as the most expensive African footballer in history.
