A wild summer transfer window was set to close on Thursday with Manchester United and Manchester City completing signings by the deadline and other Premier League clubs still active in the market despite England’s top flight already spending over $2 billion on new players.
By the time the window closes at 11 p.m. local time (2200 GMT), Chelsea and Liverpool were likely to have made last-minute purchases to fill gaps in their squads while Nottingham Forest could even reach a remarkable number of 20 signatures, or more, since his return to the league.
Chelsea – the biggest spender in Europe this window after spending around $265m – were close to signing striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who only joined Barcelona from Arsenal in February. Left-back Marcos Alonso could go the other way as part of the deal.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has belatedly made signing a midfielder a priority due to a host of injuries in that department, most recently to captain Jordan Henderson, and was reportedly close to signing Arthur Melo on loan from Juventus.
Forest made their 19th signing of the window by bringing in defender Willy Boly from Wolverhampton and are said to have been in talks with two or three other players. The promoted team have already spent more than $150 million this summer.
A number of major moves had already been made, none more significant than Brazilian winger Antony who completed his move to Man United from Ajax for $95million to bear the club’s own expenses in this window at nearly $240 million.
Hours later, United signed Slovakia goalkeeper Martin Dubravka on a season-long loan from Newcastle as a replacement for David De Gea.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s future has been a hot topic since the end of last season – he was pushed to leave because United are not in the Champions League – but manager Erik ten Hag repeated on Wednesday that he was counting on the Portuguese striker this season. Ronaldo was on the United bench for a Premier League game against Leicester on Thursday.
City have decided to bolster their defensive options by signing Swiss international Manuel Akanji from Borussia Dortmund for $17.5m to nab a fifth center in their squad.
Senegal midfielder Idrissa Gueye has sealed a return to Everton from Paris Saint-Germain, who sent left-back Layvin Kurzawa to Fulham on loan for the season. Fulham have also signed former Chelsea and Arsenal winger Willian on a free transfer after recently leaving Brazilian club Corinthians.
Leicester chose the last day of the window to make their first outside signing of the summer, Wout Faes from French club Reims. Faes filled the job vacated by Wesley Fofana, who joined Chelsea on Wednesday for 75 million pounds ($87 million).
It was one of the most eye-catching moves of the summer as the Premier League returned to pre-pandemic spending levels – and more – on the back of its huge worth broadcast global broadcast deals. of around 10 billion pounds ($11.8 billion) over three seasons.
The rest of Europe simply can’t compete, with top league clubs in Spain, Italy, Germany and France on track to spend less than England alone.
Chelsea could still increase their spending on players to around $300m, like they did two summers ago when Kai Havertz and Timo Werner joined for huge fees.
The Premier League’s spending record in a single season – spanning the summer and winter transfer windows – stands at £1.86bn ($2.18bn) in 2017-18. This figure should be comfortably exceeded in this transfer window alone.
___
More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
