News Thread

Romelu Lukaku took his tally for the Belgium national team to an impressive 83 goals from just 113 games in all competitions during the international break, with no less than four goals in a 5-0 demolition of Azerbaijan. The result not only kept Belgium top of their qualifying group for next season’s European Championships, but also continued an impressive trend of the towering striker scoring goals for fun for his country. In this qualifying campaign alone, Lukaku has now bagged 11 goals and an assist to boot in just seven games. 

Ange Postecoglou has been a revelation since taking charge at Tottenham Hotspur but his managerial credentials will come under scrutiny across the next few weeks. The Australian accrued the most points of any manager in their first 10 games in the history of the English Premier League. Tottenham went undefeated, collecting 26 points as Postecoglou received two manager of the month awards. It was the club’s best-ever start in the Premier League era and their second best-ever in English football, behind the title winning side of 1960-01.

Brazil’s national team are struggling in their quest to qualify for the next World Cup, but several talented youngsters are emerging for the Selecao. Endrick is widely regarded as the future of Brazilian football and he’s already signed for Real Madrid but Gabriel Moscardo is rapidly growing in prominence.

The Scottish Premiership has been an attractive market for top European clubs to find bargain transfers across the last decade. Virgil van Djik epitomises this pathway with Southampton acquiring the Netherlands international for €15.7 million from Celtic in 2015 before selling him to Liverpool for €84.65m just 30 months later. Van Djik developed into one of the best defenders in the world while John McGinn, Andy Robertson and Odsonne Eduoard have all been successful signings for English clubs. Talented Scottish youngsters have also become more desirable for English Premier League sides due to restrictions imposed by Brexit, preventing the signings of under-18 year olds from overseas.  

Ray Kendry Páez Andrade: A name that sounds like it was generated by the computer game Football Manager. But Kendry Páez is a real player, even if his short career and performances seem unreal. The Ecuadorian wonderkid has a bright future ahead of him, which Chelsea secured for a deal worth up to €20 million. Chelsea beat out Borussia Dortmund at the last minute. But one thing after another. 

The winter transfer window is rapidly approaching with clubs finalising their strategies to improve their squads, but some deals could be sealed before then. While major permanent transfers aren’t as frequent in January as the summer window, some big players could still switch clubs with the loan market a popular avenue. Chelsea were extremely active last January, spending big money on Mykhaylo Mudryk and Enzo Fernandez. Virgil Van Dijk famously swapped Southampton for Liverpool in January 2018 with the Merseyside club recouping €135m for Philippe Coutinho from Barcelona during the same window. But clubs could add new signings before the January window opens with a number of high-profile players still without a club.

The Premier League is the next of the top five leagues to get new market values before Christmas, and the world’s most expensive football market has two midfielders, who already broke the €100 million mark in the last update, making further progress – worldwide, there are now only six players with a higher market value than the pair. While the biggest losers of the update, Manchester United, drop clearly behind Liverpool, while rivals Manchester City boast the biggest plus of the update and reach their highest squad value since April 2020. With only a marginal loss, the most valuable league continues to maintain a total value of €11 billion.

Manchester United have endured a difficult season and that’s resulted in their overall market value falling more than any other English Premier League club to €799.35 million in the latest Transfermarkt update. Erik ten Hag enjoyed a successful debut campaign, leading United to third place and their first trophy in six years with the League Cup. The improvement was expected to continue this season after investing €203.4m in the summer with Andre Onana, Mason Mount and Rasmus Hojlund all high-profile arrivals.

Chelsea’s abysmal 2023 has extended over the last few months and their overall market has dropped by €16.2million in the latest Transfermarkt update. Only Manchester United’s squad valuation has dropped more than Chelsea but, remarkably, their squad remains the third most valuable in the English Premier League at €982.8m, behind just Manchester City and Arsenal. Their ranking is predominantly down to their squad and their massive investment in the transfer market across recent windows. Chelsea spent €467.8m in the summer, more than €200m more than any other club, although they recouped €269.4m in player sales. Chelsea also spent €611.49 during the 2022/23 season and their total expenditure of €742.03m across the last three windows is more than double second biggest spenders Manchester United.

The Premier League is widely considered as the strongest league in world football right now - it has the highest cumulative value of any league by some distance, and teams from England won both the Champions League (Manchester City) and the Europa Conference League (West Ham) last season. Given the pressure for managers to get instant results in the English top-flight, at times opportunities for younger players are limited, but there are still a group of elite youngsters taking to the Premier League like a duck to water.