The biggest so far is the transfer of World Cup villain Luis Suarez who Liverpool flogged to Barcelona for £75 million, seemingly fed up with his antics. His four-month FIFA ban from all football-related activity after biting Giorgio Chiellini means he can’t be officially unveiled.
With Suarez gone, the Anfield club has been busy reinvesting, bringing in Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert from Southampton, Lazar Markovic from Benfica and Emre Can from Bayern Leverkusen – the latter two of Europe’s hottest prospects. And Brendan Rodgers has said he has more targets lined up and isn’t afraid to splash more cash.
They’ll probably need to. Rivals Chelsea, Arsenal, and Man Utd have spent mouth-watering sums on several marquee players (Man City has spent £12 just because they could).
The window still has a lot of time left to run (it’ll close on September 1) and there are still many more deals to be done, including the likely transfer or Sami Khedira who has been linked with Arsenal and Chelsea.
Here are some of the big deals so far:
Cesc Fabregas. Barcelona to Chelsea.
Frank Lampard has gone and so Chelsea needed a world class midfielder to fill the gap. They’ve got that in Fabregas. Many are of the misguided opinion that the former Arsenal captain’s three years at his boyhood club Barcelona was a flop. It wasn’t. In his best season at Barcelona in 2012/13 Fabregas scored 11 goals and made 11 assists across 32 appearances in La Liga – he also had a pass completion rate of 88.6% that year. Jose Mourinho is sure he’s got a gem of a player and has predicted Fabregas’ winning mentality will benefit the Blues next season.
Toni Kroos. Bayern Munich to Real Madrid.
A World Cup winner with Germany and man of the match in their 7-1 semi final victory over hosts Brazil, Kroos was long linked with a move to Manchester United but the story goes that new coach Louis van Gaal didn’t want him. It opened the way for Kroos to move to Spain giants Real Madrid, arguably a much bigger club (especially given the damage David Moyes did to the British club last year). He joined for £24 million and signed six-year deal. He made 173 Bundesliga appearances and is a great signing for star-studded Real who’ll be looking to win the UCL again next season.
Luis Suarez. Liverpool to Barcelona.
Despite his FIFA ban from all football-related activity, Suarez has said goodbye to Anfield and hello to the Camp Nou, joining Spanish giants Barcelona in a £75 million deal. It means the Barcelona front three will likely be Suarez, Messi and Neymar. Wow.
Ivan Rakitic. Sevilla to Barcelona.
The Croatian captained his former team to glory in the Europa League and was the tournament’s standout performer, while he scored 15 goals in La Liga. New Barca coach Luis Enrique has a fantastic play, who’ll fill the gap left by Fabregas.
Alexis Sanchez. Barcelona to Arsenal.
Another player out the door of the Camp Nou this summer was Alexis Sanchez. He has joined Arsenal for £30 million and Barca’s loss is definitely the Premier League’s gain. The Chilean is a world class player with goal scoring ability, pace and the ability to play wide or through the middle. He could be the signing of the summer.
Diego Costa. Ateltico Madrid to Chelsea.
Spain’s Brazilian forward Diego Costa joins a Chelsea side that is a bit weak in the final third. Chelsea strikers found it hard going last season, rarely finding the net, so Mourinho had to make a striker a priority in this window. Has he got the right man? Time will tell – many fans are sceptical. Still, it is a big purchase and Chelsea can build around a strong physical presence up front. He netted 27 goals in 35 La Liga games as Atelti lifted the title and bagged eight in nine UCL games as they lost out in the final to city rivals Real.
Mario Mandzukic. Bayern Munich to Atletico Madrid.
With Costa and David Villa leaving, Atelti needed a good striker and in Mandzukic they have it. It’s an important bit of business for Diego Simeone.
Robert Lewandowski. Dortmund to Bayern Munich.
You might wonder why Bayern let Mandzukic go. This is the answer. The transfer was one of the window’s first following a long and protracted move from Dortmund. Lewandowski, whose contract expired in the summer, signed a five-year-deal with the Bundesliga champions in January. He scored 74 goals and set up 31 more in 131 Bundesliga games for Dortmund since joining from Polish side Lech Poznan in 2010, helping them to claim the Bundesliga in his first two seasons at the club, as well as the German Cup in his second.
Luke Shaw. Southampton to Manchester United.
He is one of the brightest prospects in English football and moves to Manchester United virtue of a massive £30 million fee. The 18-year-old has three England caps and made 67 appearances for Southampton since making his debut in 2012.
Filipe Luis. Ateltico Madrid to Chelsea.
While United were splashing all that cash on Shaw, Chelsea forked out £10 million less for Ateltico Madrid’s Filipe Luis. We can’t help but think it’s the better deal. Filipe was a UCL runner up last season, although in terms of potential, Shaw has bags of it. Time will tell who did the better business.
Ander Herrera. Athletic Bilbao to Manchester United.
The Spain international is the man van Gaal chose to sign over World Cup winner Kroos and many aren’t convinced he’s made the right choice – especially Nicky Butt. The United hero said he expected Herrera to succeed in the Premier League but wasn’t as good as Kroos or Paul Pogba. Pogba would have cost in the region of £60 million, but United paid £28.4 for Herrera, £4.4 more than Real paid for Kroos (although wages aren’t being taken into account).
Adam Lallana. Southampton to Liverpool.
If you’re questioning United’s logic, then this one will leave you completely perplexed. Yep, Liverpool paid £25 million to Saints for Lallana. It could yet prove a masterstroke but we remain sceptical.
Ashley Cole. Chelsea to Roma.
He was left out of Roy Hodgson’s England squad – but probably should have been selected, judging by Leighton Baines’ lacklustre performances – and Cole used the summer to negotiate a transfer to Roma. He’s excited by the prospect of playing in Italy and reportedly took a massive pay cut. Guess we can’t call him Cashley Hole anymore?
Deals to come…
James Rodriguez. Monaco to Real Madrid.
Messi won the FIFA Golden Ball award for being the best player at the 2014 World Cup but many feel that should have gone to Colombia’s James Rodriguez. He scored six times as Colombia reached the quarter-final of the World Cup in Brazil for the first time in their history, and according to reports in Spain, Real have agreed a fee for the much fancied playmaker.
Images via Getty
