THE summer transfer window officially opened on Friday, triggering 63 days of wild speculation and what are certain to be record- high levels of spending by English clubs.
So here’s a prediction. Every one of the Premier League’s Big Six will break their own club transfer records in the next three months.
It will take around £100m for Chelsea to persuade Everton to part with Romelu Lukaku, twice as much as it cost them to take Fernando Torres from Liverpool in 2011.
Antonio Conte was talking about strengthening his squad long before his text message bust-up with Diego Costa, and there’s plenty of cash available without Roman Abramovich having to sell a yacht.
The club has £50m from Oscar’s move to China, plus £150m in Premier League prize money and TV revenue at their disposal. And that’s not counting what they’d get for their troublesome striker.
Tottenham’s record fee was set last summer at £30m for Moussa Sissoko. Pretty much anyone Mauricio Pochettino signs would be more expensive than that.
Arsenal’s biggest-ever outlay is the relatively modest £40m paid for Mesut Ozil four years ago but it’s inconceivable that will still be the case when the window shuts.
Arsene Wenger is under pressure to spend big after signing his new contract at The Emirates. Should they pursue their interest in Monaco’s Kylian Mbappe, we could be looking at three times that amount.
Pep Guardiola has been given £300m to rectify the inadequacies of his first season at Manchester City.
City’s record buy is currently Kevin de Bruyne at £62m, but should they try to take Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal – or cash in on Liverpool’s humiliating failure over Virgil van Dijk – the Belgian’s fee will surely be exceeded.
Liverpool were so anxious to spend their Champions League money that they had to issue an grovelling apology over their approach to Southampton over van Dijk. But it’s a cast-iron certainty that the club-record £35m fee paid for Andy Carroll will be blown out of the water this summer.
Money is no object for Jose Mourinho, with Manchester United only last week valued at £2.86 billion on the Forbes Rich List, making them the world’s biggest football club.
If they renew their interest in Antoine Griezmann or Gareth Bale, or Real Madrid play hard ball with Alvaro Morata, even the Paul Pogba record of £89.3m could be consigned to the dustbin.
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