What did the first two weeks of the transfer window bring?
After a few days of silence, more transfers have taken place in the transfer market than The Walking Dead, Big Bang Theory and Arrow episodes combined. For the mental health of all readers, we will not discuss every transfer in detail, that could also be another transfer window around the corner, but we will go through the most interesting things that have happened in the past fortnight.
England
As every year, the biggest driver of the transfer window is the English Premier League. What is surprising, however, is that none of the big clubs have played a major role in the past few days. On the contrary, the newcomer from Sunderland is really letting his hair down and bringing in five players. The Black Cats reacted to the loss of young Jobe Bellingham in the best possible way and invested 111 million euros in a week and a half. Noah Sadiki (Saint-Gilloise) and Chemsdin Talbi (Brugge) came from Belgium, Simon Adingra arrived from rival Brighton, and record reinforcements Enzo Le Fée (AS Roma) and Habib Diarra (Strasbourg) arrived from other TOP leagues. Sunderland is thus putting together a competitive team for the top competition!
Arsenal, which feels it has a chance of winning the title after years, does not want to be left behind. And it must be said that they are taking the revival of the squad more seriously than ever before. The midfield has been strengthened by Martín Zubimendi from Real Sociedad, Chris Norgaard from Brentford will bring experience, and Noni Madueke has arrived from rivals Chelsea as a backup on the right wing. Arsenal are clearly keen and are also negotiating the arrival of Eberechi Eze from Crystal Palace. However, the eyes of Gunners fans are shifting to Viktor Gyökeres from Sporting. He already has one foot at the Emirates Stadium, but negotiations are still at a standstill. Will Arsenal land their dream striker or will they have to endure the sight of the Havertz-Jesus duo again?
Another attraction is the situation in Tottenham. After winning the Europa League, Spurs completed the permanent transfers of Mathys Tel and Kevin Dans, and the team was strengthened by Mohamed Kudus from West Ham, who transferred for almost 64 million euros. Tottenham continues the model of paying a larger amount for a player proven in English football. Brennan Johnson or Yves Bissouma are a shining example of this. And Spurs are definitely not stopping. Other items on the list are Morgan Gibbs-White from Nottingham and Yoane Wissa from Brentford.
As a final piece of candy, I kept the Manchester United team. Not that they were not active in the transfer market, after the early reinforcement in the form of Matheus Cunha, they still haven't solved the transfer of Bryan Mbeum from Brentford, nor Javi Guerra from Valencia, and there are a million names around United again, starting with Emiliano Martínez, Moise Kean, Ollie Watkins or Jamie Vardy. United earned over twenty million euros thanks to the percentage of the sale of their former players. The transfers of Álvaro Carreras to Real (50 million euros), Anthony Elanga to Newcastle (64 million euros) and Maxi Oyedele to Strasbourg (2.4 million euros) strengthened the Red Devils' financial capabilities. A big transfer of Mason Greenwood is also in the game. But will it be enough to improve?
The transfer scene in England, however, makes me think that a very unhealthy environment is emerging here. The rich TOP 6 + petrodollar-laden Newcastle are buying players from smaller clubs, which serves as a nice financial injection for the selling clubs, but players like Elanga, Mbeumo, Gibbs-White or Eze will be difficult to replace. And independent fans can hope that an unhealthy environment and a gap between big and small clubs are not emerging in England.
Spain
The Spanish league is experiencing a period of ebb and flow of stars, the second best league in the world lost the icon Luka Modric , who headed to the Italian AC Milan after finishing at Real, Valencia has been in a bad situation for a long time, and may lose the aforementioned Javi Guerra, the young promising defender Yarek Gasiorowski left for PSV. In addition, Villarreal lost striker Thiern Barry, who joined the English Everton. The Toffees paid 32 million euros for him.
The biggest drivers of the transfer window in terms of player arrivals are Madrid clubs Real and Atlético. Real is strengthening their defensive line in particular, as we saw at the Club World Cup, which has more than enough flaws, and that is why after the Trent-Huijsen duo comes the aforementioned Álvaro Carreras from Benfica. He should solve the crisis at left back, where Ferland Mendy and Fran García are not quite what Xabi Alonso would have imagined. Carreras is also becoming one of the most expensive defenders in football history.
Atlético, for a change, is strengthening with players from rival clubs. Aside from the transfer of Matteo Ruggeri from Italy, American midfielder Johnny Cardoso arrived from Betis and attacking star Álex Baena arrived from Villarreal. Atlético is also keen on other players, with Manchester United's Antony-Garnacho still in their sights. Could Atlético mount a title challenge? We'll see. But even then, the big transfer of Julián Álvarez indicated that Atlético had the potential.
In addition to Valencia, we can see that Villarreal is also losing stars. The transfers of Baena and Barry brought in 82 million euros, but it should be remembered that Ayoze Peréz and Gerard Moreno are no longer the youngest and the Yellow Submarine may miss the young predatory force. On the other hand, it is an opportunity for Arnaut Danjuma Groeneveld to show that he still has qualities in him. Exactly the ones why Villarreal bought him from Bournemouth for 23 million euros the other day.
Italy
AC Milan? Napoli? Inter? Juventus? But nowhere. The main attraction of the Italian league this summer is the team from Como led by the young Spaniard Cesc Fábregas. This has started a real hunt for the European Cup. In addition to Martin Baturina and Álex Valle , Jesús Rodríguez from Betis also arrived in the provincial town, and in his footsteps was German striker Nicolas Kühn from Celtic. Como is thus significantly strengthening, especially Rodríguez and Baturina will be the main ball distributors for the attacking force. And the experienced Álvaro Morata can also strengthen this. Could there be a reunion of Morata and Fábregas?
The Milan clubs or Juventus remain behind, as does the Scudetto winner from Napoli, but don't be fooled, these teams are also strengthening with interesting players. In addition to the legendary Modric, AC also managed to transfer Samuele Ricci from Turin, who should be a key player in the Rossoneri's reserve. Which would be very useful for AC, the lackluster performances of Yunus Musah and the departures of Ismaël Bennacer and Tijjani Reijnders must be adequately replaced with better players. Then all that AC needs is to adequately replace Theo Hernández, who left for Al-Hilal. Whatever we do, we will miss him in Europe.
Inter and Juve have strengthened their attack, with Ange-Yoann Bonny coming to Inter from Parma, the young Frenchman transferred for 24 million euros, where he will meet again with coach Cristian Chivu. Juve have strengthened their attack with Lille's top scorer Jonathan David, who was waiting for a new contract after his contract expired. David should be the absolute number one at the top of the attack after the planned departure of Dušan Vlahović, unless the transfer of Randal Kolo Muani from PSG also works out.
And finally, I will leave the Naples-Bologna relationship. Naples bought key defender Sam Beukema from the city of good food for 32 million euros. Beukema should be one of the key players in the Partenopei defense. However, Naples fans are also eager for another reinforcement from Bologna, namely Czech defender Martin Vitík. Although he came for eleven million euros after a bad season in Sparta and received his dream transfer, Napoli fans fell in love with his game and are looking forward to him joining Napoli within a year. However, this also caused a storm on social networks among fans of both clubs.
And the big return of a legend! Ciro Immobile is returning to Serie A. One of the best strikers in Serie A history is also coming to Bologna, where he should create the main offensive threat with Riccardo Orsolini. Does this spaghetti interplay sound scary? Well, let's not forget that Thijs Dallinga is here, who after a failed first season has the motivation to win the fans over to his side. So hopefully the coros azzurros will burn with real football passion!
Germany and the others
In one segment I will then include transfers from Germany and other leagues, which were not very interesting.
The new German striker Jonathan Burkardt, who came from Mainz to Frankfurt for 21 million euros. Burkardt should be the clear number one striker and also a replacement for young star Hugo Ekitiki, as Frankfurt prepares for his departure.
After the exodus of stars, Bayer Leverkusen took over, bringing in productive attacking midfielder Malik Tillman from PSV for €35 million, and the hole left by Jonathan Taha should be filled by young Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah, who came for a similar amount. Leverkusen also closed the door on the departure of other stars, and we'll see how the team around Patrik Schick fares next season.
The return home has been announced by the spirited midfielder Orkun Kökcü, who caused a stir with his behavior in Benfica. He is going on loan with an option to Besiktas Istanbul, where he will be a teammate of David Jurásek. Besiktas has also strengthened Tammy Abraham, so we can expect a gunners' war in Turkey. Let's just say, Galatasaray got Victor Osimhen, Fenerbahce got Jhon Durán in return. Turkish league on fire!
If you are also interested in transfers from the past few weeks, we recommend that you take a look at our BU1 magazine , where we have captured the most interesting things that happened in the transfer market. And if you are upgrading your football during the summer season, as clubs do in the transfer market, we recommend that you strengthen your clothing, gloves or equipment. It will take you to another dimension. Good luck with your sport!
