MY TOP 10 SUMMER SIGNINGS
By IAN LADYMAN FOOTBALLEDITOR
1 ERLING HAALAND
DORTMUND TO MAN CITY, £51m Manchester city won the Premier League without a recognised goalscorer last season which makes you wonder just what levels they may now reach with the 22-year-old in their ranks.
after he scored the first goal of his city career in a friendly against Bayern Munich during pre-season, haaland said he had been watching Pep Guardiola’s team for months and imagining how he could find the net. strong, quick and with an ability to come and link play, city now have a proper throughthe-middle striker. impressed? you should be.
2 RAHEEM STERLING MAN CITY TO CHELSEA, £47.5m
THOMAS TUCHEL has signed a thoroughbred Premier League forward for a good price but sterling faces two immediate challenges.
Firstly, this is a step down. chelsea are a big club with a great coach but they are not city and it will require a significant mental shift for sterling to adjust to that.
secondly, chelsea are a team in transition. chelsea — with unsettled players and others seemingly set to leave — will look to sterling to lead them through what could be some tricky early weeks of the season. the 27-year-old will either rise to that challenge or he won’t.
3 DARWIN NUNEZ BENFICA TO LIVERPOOL, £64m
When the uruguayan scored goals home and away against Liverpool in the champions League in april few could have anticipated that he would be playing for the Fa cup winners by the time the next season rolled around.
some have described nunez as a replacement for sadio Mane, now at Bayern Munich. But that is not the way this will play out. nunez is a 6ft 2in striker who we can expect to give Jurgen Klopp some fresh options through the middle. Liverpool’s wide players will be Mo salah and Luis Diaz.
nunez will have much to prove at anfield but Liverpool simply don’t seem to buy bad players in attacking positions.
4 GABRIEL JESUS MAN CITY TO ARSENAL, £45m
the Brazilian was signed by city five years ago as a replacement for sergio aguero but never quite managed to hit the required levels and this is what makes his move to arsenal so intriguing.
still only 25, Jesus should have his best years ahead of him and will be working with a coach who knows him in former city assistant manager Mikel arteta.
Maybe arteta feels he can bring something out of his new player that Pep Guardiola never could. But does Jesus genuinely have the quality required to take himself and arsenal to the next level?
it looks a huge ask for a player who has never scored more than 14 goals in an english league season.
5 6 RICHARLISON EVERTON TO TOTTENHAM, £60m
Whether tottenham really have won the transfer window as many people are saying will only become apparent when the actual football starts but certainly they have acted decisively and quickly in the market. richarlison, another Brazilian forward, is the one deal of the half a dozen completed by the club that really stands out. the 25-year-old has been in the Premier League for five years now and has proven quality. he is quick, nimble and a technically adept finisher. Just one nagging doubt: richarlison has grown used to being the biggest fish in the pond at club level and at spurs he will not be. indeed, with harry Kane and son heung-min ahead of him, he may not even be in the team. richarlison as a substitute? he will love that. not.
6 CHRISTIAN ERIKSEN BRENTFORD TO MAN UTD, FREE
UNITED have spent much of the summer involved in one of those awful, drawn out transfer sagas as they try to prise Dutch midfielder Frenkie de Jong out of Barcelona.
But while all of that has been going on, they got themselves to the front of the queue to take eriksen after his short- term deal at Brentford expired.
Given the London club were the only ones to take a chance on eriksen as he returned from his cardiac arrest suffered at euro 2020 last season, the romantic end to the story would have seen him stay in west London. the reality is eriksen is a worldclass playmaker with much to offer and united have been smart to get him. it looks a win-win at this stage.
7JESSE LINGARD MAN UTD TO NOTTINGHAM FOREST, FREE
RARELY has so much fuss been made about one free transfer. But Lingard seems to be one of those players who can never seem to do anything right in the eyes of the public. Depending on who you listen to, Lingard is either being paid too much or his social media posts have been too showy. all of which is nonsense. Lingard is a good, committed footballer who can thrive in the right environment, as he once did with united, england and West ham. Forest, newly promoted, have shown ambition to sign him and the only issue will come if he doesn’t perform. But isn’t is that the same
with every transfer?
8NICK POPE BURNLEY TO NEWCASTLE N UTD, £ 10.4m
POPE P has led the exodus ex from turf Moor Mo in the wake of Burnley’s Burn relegation and newcastle n seems like a good fit for a talented goalkeeper with a good attitude and a point to prove.
With a winter World cup on the horizon, Pope will want to start well for eddie howe’s team as he seeks to put pressure on Jordan
Pickford ahead of Gareth southgate’s squad selection. That howe chose to buy a goalkeeper, meanwhile, is also interesting. Both Karl Darlow and Martin Dubravka are more than capable but howe wants elite performers in every position and sees Pope as fitting that job spec. it’s a sign of where Newcastle see themselves heading. SINISTERRA
9LUIS FEYENOORD TO LEEDS UTD, £22.5m
LeeDs have faced a challenging summer with the loss of Kalvin Phillips and Raphinha but this seems to be a decent deal for a player who helped his former club to a european final last season. sinisterra is a 23-year-old Colombia winger who was expected to move to a big spanish or italian club this summer.
But Leeds stole a march to get him through the door at the start of July and he seems destined to form a key part of a new-look Jesse Marsch team at elland Road. All
Leeds require now is a reliable scorer of goals. Last season’s top scorer was Raphinha with 11 — and he’s now playing for Barcelona.
10 JULIAN ALVAREZ RIVER PLATE TO MAN CITY, £15.3m
This transfer was concluded last January with the 22- year- old striker immediately loaned back to his parent club.
But now Alvarez is at City for good and has already grabbed some attention with a poacher’s goal in the Community shield defeat by Liverpool.
Alvarez is an Argentina international who has averaged more than a goal every other game in his country’s top division for the last two seasons.
he may not start too many games early in his City career but if modern football is all about squad depth then City look to have done a smart piece of business here.
sometimes, it’s not the headline deals that take you where you wish to go.