Erik ten Hag is a little fed up. The Manchester United sale is taking for ever, Kim Min-jae has chosen Bayern Munich over a move to Old Trafford, Chelsea are demanding £70m for Mason Mount and now even David de Gea is wavering on a new contract he scarcely deserves after a season diving over bobbling shots and booting the ball out of play as his teammates try to build from the back.
What better way for Ten Hag to cheer himself up than by signing the lovable rascal Jordan Pickford from Everton. Reports suggest United are preparing to capitalise on Everton’s money troubles by slapping a £45m bid on the Goodison Park table and sweetening the deal by offering England’s No 1 a double-your-money £200,000 contract to jump ship. Axel Disasi is also being lined up to provide competition for Lisandro Martínez and Raphaël Varane at centre-back, with Monaco looking for £44m to let the France international go.
When Mikel Arteta spoke of a reset after Arsenal missed out on the title most people though he meant mentally, but it seems he wants a whole new midfield – one without Thomas Partey as well as Granit Xhaka. Sources have made it known the Ghana midfielder is up for sale at the right price; £50m and you can come on down. There is interest from clubs in Italy and Spain, but they are all broke, so the Gunners will hope the Saudis join the race after Al-Hilal trumped everyone for Rúben Neves. Roméo Lavia has already been earmarked as Partey’s replacement, and Arsenal have jumped ahead of Chelsea, United and Liverpool for the teenage Belgian who Manchester City can buy back from Southampton for £40m next summer if he fancies a year in the Championship.
Chelsea’s reset is more of a yard sale, with Kai Havertz’s £60m move to Arsenal set to be concluded this week after N’Golo Kanté successfully coughed for the Al-Ittihad doctors and Mateo Kovacic agreed terms with Manchester City. If Mount also gets his way, the Blues will lose the entire starting midfield from the Champions League final only two years ago.
Ripping up the rulebook is Todd Boehly’s style though, and the Saudi buck might just save him from Financial Fair Play trouble. Édouard Mendy is close to joining Al-Ahli, Kalidou Koulibaly is on the verge of joining Al-Hilal and Hakim Ziyech is in talks with Al-Nassr. Brighton are demanding a cool £100m from Chelsea for Moisés Caicedo, and have made it clear they want to pursue their own midfield targets rather than taking Conor Gallagher in a swap deal. They’d bite Boehly’s hand off for Levi Colwill, though. Tottenham also want Gallagher to kickstart Ange Postecoglou’s swashbuckling new era, but a move for David Raya is stalling over Brentford’s demand for £40m and the Spanish keeper’s desire to play European football.
West Ham are in the Europa League next season, and will use that as the carrot to stick it to Fulham by luring João Palhinha across London on the Elizabeth Line. It will take at least £50m to complete that deal, but that should not be a problem once they snaffle £100m out of Arsenal for Declan Rice, even if he is frustrating their attempts to drum up a bidding war by insisting he only wants a move to the Gunners.
And finally Kyle Walker is in the advanced stages of agreeing a move to Bayern Munich after the Germans declined their €70m option to buy João Cancelo and recognised their need for speed in any full-back signing from Manchester City.
