TIME FOR A RECAP
After the eye-watering excess of the Geopolitics World Cup, we can return to the modest, measured land of the domestic game. While our attention has been elsewhere, Manchester City have splashed £116m on Elliot Anderson. Chelsea, not to be outshone, have splurged £117m on Morgan Rogers. Even Tottenham have parted with £230m to revamp their mildly traumatised squad. Manchester United, who went down to Wrexham in their first pre-season friendly in Helsinki, have kept things modest, buying Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans for the same £85m Spurs have thrown in the direction of relegation’s West Ham for Mateus Fernandes.
- Liverpool boss Andoni Iraola prioritizes stopping player exits, keeping leaders like Virgil van Dijk, Alisson, and Joe Gomez.
- Chelsea continues heavy spending despite a £355m loss, sold Marc Cucurella to Real Madrid to raise funds.
- Manchester City bid farewell to Pep Guardiola with an office auction; incoming Enzo Maresca praises the club ahead of Asian friendlies.
Liverpool, who blew all their dosh last summer, are one of three Premier League heavyweights under new management. Andoni Iraola, it seems, is more concerned with stemming the flow of departures from his inherited squad after Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konaté all slipped out. The smiley Spaniard gave his transfer strategy away this week and blurted: “I want to keep my good players.” Any big club with a short memory will be keen on Alexis Mac Allister, while Iraola is also keen to hold on to his experienced players. “We need the references like Virgil [van Dijk], Alisson, Joe Gomez,” he doubletaked from the USA USA USA, where Liverpool will take on exotic friendly opposition in Sunderland, Wrexham and Leeds.
Over at Chelsea, Xabi Alonso was last seen standing over the shoulder of club-record fee’s Rogers as he signed his contract, presumably to make sure he didn’t do a runner. The nine-figure outlay is an expensive way of keeping Rogers’ good mate Cole Palmer happy and a sort of financial shoulder shrug from a club who posted a £355m loss in the 2024-25 season. Chelsea have also spent more than £100m on Marco Palestra, Geovany Quenda and Emmanuel Emegha (all real players) this summer as they bid to reach the holy grail that is Tin Pot qualification. Pre-season takes them to Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia – but Marc Cucurella won’t be there. He’s been shipped off to Real Madrid, raising funds for the polish needed to keep that glorious Copa Gianni shiny, Chelsea wondering if he still thinks about them.
Manchester City have moved on from the Pep Guardiola era by auctioning off the contents of his office for charity, including his whistle, notes, desk chair and coffee cups. Football Daily was outbid for his incense collection, which reached £1,294 this morning. Enzo Maresca can console himself with the arrival of Anderson, another of England’s brave bronze medallists, before City fly out to Hong Kong for a meeting with Inter in the Asahi Super Dry Trophy. That’s followed by dates with the K League All-Stars and Atlético Madrid in Seoul. “City is an incredibly well-run football club,” Maresca tooted, no doubt remembering his days at Stamford Bridge. Amid the GWC noise, Chelsea produced a statement blaming last season’s failings on “the disruption caused” by Maresca’s resignation in January. They referred to him as “the Head Coach” throughout with the sort of bitterness and rogue capital letters you’d expect from a Truth Social post. If Donald Trump has really fallen for soccer, maybe he’ll be there to gatecrash another trophy celebration in August. Roll on the Community Shield!
QUOTE OF THE DAY
I was pleased with a lot of things that I saw in the game. We could do better. We could have taken more responsibility to have the ball instead of just watching and reacting … efficiency is very important at this level. When you don’t kill, you get killed” – new Hearts boss Wouter Vrancken chooses to focus on the positives after the, erm, 4-0 tonking by Sturm Graz in the first leg of their Bigger Cup qualifier.
