Transfer deadline day is going to turn ugly... all 20 Premier League clubs are set for a frenetic finale to the window
- Premier League clubs are set for a frenetic finale to the transfer window
- All 20 top-flight sides have business to do on transfer deadline day
- One agent has warned this year's deadline day is set to turn messy
- Read Sportsmail's club-by-club guide to the transfer window below
There is too much at stake here. It is going to get ugly, that I can guarantee. A football agent with a popular player to sell is describing the closing days of the Premier League’s transfer window.
At 11.30pm on Wednesday the curtain falls on a piece of football theatre that supporters love and managers hate. The frenetic finale makes captivating viewing. Some things never change: the breaking news on MailOnline and the question: will Saido Berahino ever leave West Brom?
This time the air of panic is even more palpable, though, as every Premier League club still has business to do.
Taxis are at the door and helicopters are booked. Players have been snaffled away to airports and put on flights to Turkey after agreeing to sign for clubs in Greece, managers have squared up to busy agents waving mandates in hotel foyers and Arsene Wenger is forced to reference The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau before protesting: ‘It is a shame you are not my friend, you would see when you go out with me I spend a lot of money.’
English top-flight clubs have spent a collective £800million so far and the £1billion mark is within reach.
Flush with the promise of new TV riches, clubs are hiking up prices. Values for average players are being distorted and the cost of good ones is going off the scale.
Moneybags Manchester United, bruised by criticism of their recent window shopping, flashed their cash to the tune of £89.3million to snare Paul Pogba from Juventus and put him in a shiny red Chevrolet Camaro to boot, just so we’d notice.
New foreign owners are keen to flex their muscles, champions Leicester still want three new players and soon-to-be-sold Hull City are desperately playing catch-up.
Even Championship sides such as Newcastle, Aston Villa and Derby are spending big, wise to the fact that, unlike last year, there will be no emergency loan window this autumn.
Though he bristles at claims that his club’s spending is unethical, Jose Mourinho readily affirms what the average fan thinks.
‘I think football is crazy, the market has become crazy,’ he said. ‘There are players who cost £10m who are super-expensive because they are worth £500,000 or £1m, so what is expensive and not expensive in football?’
It’s simple Jose, it’s just crazy.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...-League-clubs-set-frenetic-finale-window.html
EVERTON
TOTAL SPEND: £46.1m
NET SPEND: £1.4m profit
RECORD SIGNING: Yannick Bolasie (Crystal Palace, £30m, August 2016)
BIGGEST DEAL SO FAR: See above
BUDGET: £65m
WHAT THEY NEED: Striker, winger, midfielder, right back
MOST LIKELY TO GO: James McCarthy
