Blog

The beautiful game known as football never seems to stop. However, the summer transfer window is a time in the year where some players will end up in new kits by the end of the summer. Some of these moves have major impacts on how future results will end up. Now, we are not going to have a transfer window as wild as last year’s with both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo going to new clubs, but it will sure be an eventful one. While the transfer window just “officially” opened on the first of July, and will be open until September 1^st, there have already been some massive moves made. I’ll be discussing some of those moves and analyzing how they can help their new teams in this article. Let’s get into it.

1. Erling Haaland joins the Premier League Champions

The Norwegian superstar finally picked his new home after months of speculation. Haaland leaves Dortmund with 83 goals and 19 assists in only 87 appearances. An absolutely insane stat to think about. He joins the Premier League giants with a very reasonable fee of $65 million due to a release clause in his contract with Dortmund. Haaland will be turning 22 years old this month and his best years are yet to come. City are also looking to bring in English midfielder Kalvin Phillips from Leeds United and Spanish wing-back Marc Cucurella from Brighton & Hove Albion this summer as they look to chase even more silverware.

2. Romelu Lukaku returns to Inter Milan

Inter’s 2020/21 player of the season has returned. After leaving Inter to join Chelsea last summer for just about $120 million the Belgian striker has returned on a one-year loan deal. After a Chelsea move that was deemed unsuccessful by the football community (even though he was the Chelsea’s leading scorer) Lukaku has returned to Inter to reunite with his former strike partner Lautaro Martinez. In 95 appearances Lukaku tallied 64 goals and 16 assists for the Nerazzurri. This time around it will be a little different. Lukaku will be wearing the #90, since #9 is taken by Edin Džeko, and Simone Inzaghi will be his manager instead of Antonio Conte. I’m very excited to see him try to take Inter to another title with him and Lauti up top. And I pray to God that he never wears that horrendous Chelsea blue ever again.

3. Juventus are once again finding gold in the free transfers

After their first trophy-less season in 10 years, Juventus needed some new pieces to their puzzle in order to climb back to the top of Serie A. After losing two club legends in Giorgio Chiellini and Paulo Dybala, Massimiliano Allegri and the board needed to win the fans faith back. They have found that in Paul Pogba and Ángel Di María. Pogba will be returning to Juventus for his second stint after the Old Lady sold him to Manchester United for over $108 million in 2016. The French midfielder is a creative genius with the ball and will be looking to assist his new teammate Ángel Di María in the attack. Di María is coming from French giants Paris Saint-Germain tallying 93 goals and 119 assists in 295 appearances for the club. These are definitely two good signings for the Bianconeri, but they have a new problem now with their defender Matthijs de Ligt reportedly wanting to leave the club.

4. Cristiano Ronaldo wants to leave Manchester United

United fans are fighting demons right now. First they lose Pogba on a free transfer and now they have to deal with the possibility of their goat leaving for a second time. After tallying 24 goals and 3 assists in 37 appearances for the Red Devils, Ronaldo has told club officials that he wants to go play Champions League football. To be fair, I can’t blame the man. He is literally Mr. Champions League, why would anyone want to see him play in Europa? And it’s not like he has much time left anyway, he’s 37 years old and wants to end his career playing top European football. United have insisted that he is not for sale, but the player and his agent are pushing for a move. Besides CR7, United have been making some other moves in the transfer window. They hijacked Olympique Lyon’s deal for Feyenoord full-back Tyrell Malacia, signing him for a fee of $15.6 million. They are also working on buying both Lisandro Martínez and Frenkie de Jong. While Barcelona president Joan Laporta is keen on keeping the Dutch midfielder he admitted that there is a “salary issue and that would have to be adjusted.” We’ll have to wait and see what is going to happen for both the Red Devils and the Portuguese legend known as Cristiano Ronaldo.

5. Arsenal are not playing any games this window

Fabio Vieira, Gabriel Jesus and Marquinhos are all confirmed transfers for the Gunners this summer. A whole lot of Portuguese is going to be spoken at the Emirates this season. After an impressive 5th place finish in the league, Arteta and the board have decided to go all in on transfers this summer. Starting with former Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus, who is a finisher in front of goal at only 25 years of age with a lot of potential as a starting no. 9. Fabio Vieira is an impressive midfield talent from Porto who was a key component in the Portuguese side winning the league this past season. Vieira tallied an impressive 7 goals and 16 assists in 39 appearances from his center midfield position. With him and Odegaard, Arsenal will be boasting an extremely creative midfield in the league this year. Marquinhos is a project player for the Gunners, as the 19 year-old from São Paulo is an exciting talent. He will learn behind both Jesus and Martinelli in the coming years of how to handle English football. Arsenal are also in battles with different clubs to sign both Lisandro Martínez from Ajax and Raphinha from Leeds United. After just narrowly missing out on Champions League football to their North London Rivals Tottenham, expect the Gunners to come out the gate hot this season.

6. Olympique Lyon bring back two former stars… for free

Alexandre Lacazette and Corentin Toliso have re-joined their former club on free transfers. After they both left in the 2017 summer window, they have also both returned in this years window. Toliso is still relatively young at 27 and he’ll be joining a talented midfield of Houssem Aouar and Lucas Paquetá. Lacazette is getting up in age but can still deliver in front of goal as he’ll be teaming up with Karl Toko-Ekambi and Moussa Dembele up front. Lacazette recorded 71 goals and 36 assists in 206 appearances for the Gunners while Toliso scored 21 goals and recorded 15 assists in 117 appearances for German champions Bayern Munich. After a disappointing 8th place finish in the league last year, Lyon will look to try and chase the title this year with their new weapons.

7. Bayern Munich is making moves… Are they preparing for life without Robert Lewandowski?

The picture above is absolute pain for all Liverpool fans. Club legend Sadio Mane has left after six years with Jurgen Klopp and the Reds. However, the Senegalese striker is not the only player the German club have signed this transfer window. Bayern have also grabbed the signatures of right-back Noussair Mazraoui and midfielder Ryan Gravenberch, both from Ajax. Julian Nagelsmann has his side ready to go, but the question remains. What is going to happen with Robert Lewandowski? The Polish striker claims that he doesn’t want to play another match for Bayern and wants to leave immediately as his preferred destination is Barcelona. However Oliver Kahn and Bayern Munich brass claim that Lewandowski is going to fulfill his contract no matter the circumstance. It is an odd situation that will hopefully end this summer. I would love to see Lewandowski go toe-to-toe with Karim Benzema in LaLiga.

8. Barcelona is in massive amounts of debt, yet they are still active in the mercato

Joan Laporta is trying to pull off a miracle here with over $1.44 billion in debt, but still signing players. Barcelona have been linked with Raphinha, Marcos Alonso, César Azpilicueta, Bernardo Silva and Jules Koundé just this window. They just recently inked a $900 million deal with Goldman Sachs and All Sports Finance to help their debt and also did a sponsorship deal with Spotify. The music streaming company also bought the rights to rename the famous Camp Nou to the “Spotify Camp Nou” following their deal.

9. Real Madrid’s midfield is getting ridiculous

After winning LaLiga and Champions League last year, Real Madrid are getting even better. The Spanish giants have signed AS Monaco midfielder Aurélien Tchouameni for just over $88 million on a six-year contract. The addition of the 22 year-old Frenchman will see him joining fellow countryman Eduardo Camavinga, Federico Valverde, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Casemiro to anchor an incredible midfield. Florentino Perez didn’t stop there, as he also signed Chelsea center-half Antonio Rüdiger on a free transfer on a four-year contract. Madrid have only lost Gareth Bale, Isco and Marcelo this window. All three of these players were great players at one point for the club, but they are all past their prime. Madrid is in an incredible position to continue their dominance in world football.

10. Liverpool signs another Uruguayan striker and then some…

Last year’s Liverpool team was something out of a movie. They always seemed to have the upper hand in every game they played in and they just moved as a collective unit at all times. However, this upcoming season will be a little different for Jurgen Klopp and the Reds. After the departure of club legend Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich, the Reds wanted to look for a replacement up top. The answer… Benfica’s Darwin Nuñez. The Uruguayan is coming off an incredible season with Benfica seeing him scored 34 times in 41 appearances. A front three of Luis Diaz, Mo Salah and Nuñez is something that Liverpool fans can just smile thinking about. In addition to Nuñez, Liverpool have also brought in 18 year-old full-back Calvin Ramsay from Aberdeen and 19 year-old Fábio Carvalho from Fulham for a combined fee of under $12 million. Club legend Divock Origi has left to join AC Milan and Takumi Minamino has left to go join AS Monaco as well. It is going to be an exciting season for the Reds as they look to get revenge for losing the Champions League final and missing out on the Premier League title by one point once again. I can’t wait for the season and always remember, “football without Origi is nothing.”

I love this game, word to Patrice Evra. Even though all this has already happened in a short time span, there is definitely more to come. I can’t wait for my World Cup article. This is YSN, until next time, signing out.