00:00 After months of drama, the transfer window has finally closed.
00:03 Squads around Europe are set until January.
00:06 But which signings will be a success?
00:08 And who will fail to live up to expectation?
00:11 Hello there and welcome to Football Now from Doha.
00:18 The domestic leagues in Europe are not long underway,
00:21 but for many countries on the continent,
00:22 the transfer window has, as they say, slammed shut.
00:26 It means that the likes of the Premier League,
00:28 the Bundesliga, Serie A, Liga and La Liga
00:31 must now all wait until the window reopens in January
00:33 for any potential new signings.
00:36 Although the new kids on the block, the Saudi Pro League,
00:38 the deadline doesn't end until later in September.
00:41 More on that shortly.
00:42 But first, let's remind ourselves about some of the biggest deals
00:45 the game has ever seen.
00:47 Around the Premier League,
00:48 there were plenty of high-profile names on the move,
00:50 as the British transfer record was smashed on multiple occasions.
00:54 Early on, we saw Declan Rice swap West Ham for Arsenal
00:57 in a €115m deal,
00:59 but that fee was topped again by Chelsea,
01:02 who beat Liverpool to the signature of Brighton start Moises Caicedo
01:05 for a staggering €120m.
01:09 It wasn't all doom and gloom at Anfield, though,
01:11 as Jürgen Klopp still completed an overhaul of his midfield.
01:14 Their outgoings were replaced by Alexis McAllister,
01:17 Dominic Sobislai,
01:18 Wataru Endo
01:19 and Ryan Gravenberg,
01:21 who should all provide a much-needed injection of energy
01:23 into Klopp's team.
01:25 I think all in all, it looks really healthy for Liverpool.
01:28 Essentially restarting the midfield,
01:30 obviously Alexis McAllister has got Premier League experience,
01:33 I think Endo was an excellent signing,
01:36 a bit of experience in there when you've got young players
01:39 like Sobislai especially,
01:41 who's not going to necessarily hit the ground running,
01:44 Ryan Gravenberg's similar.
01:46 They've strengthened in terms of defensive midfield,
01:48 they've strengthened attacking positions,
01:50 they'll be more mobile,
01:52 they arguably have a better passing ability now,
01:54 so I think it's a really good move for them.
01:56 Chelsea's rate of spending meant that they had to offload
01:59 a couple of players, one of whom was Romelu Lukaku,
02:02 who ended up on loan at Roma and reunited
02:04 with his former Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho.
02:08 Over in Spain, Barcelona signed both Ilkay Gundogan
02:11 and Joao Cancelo from Manchester City,
02:13 and Real Madrid signed one of the biggest talents in Europe,
02:15 snapping up Jude Bellingham from Borussia Dortmund.
02:18 But as one star left the Bundesliga, another arrived,
02:21 Harry Kane finally making the decision to leave Tottenham,
02:24 as he made his way to Bayern Munich,
02:26 in a move that could finally see him
02:28 lift some long-awaited silverware.
02:29 It's definitely, I guess, a bit of a knock to the product.
02:32 Obviously, the Premier League markets itself
02:35 as the best league in the world,
02:37 and whenever you lose a player who's as good as Harry Kane is,
02:41 that's going to be a bit of a knock to you.
02:44 And I think for England, it's good for him to go out
02:47 and, you know, have a new league.
02:49 That will arguably make him a better player.
02:52 But for him leaving the Premier League, it's interesting that,
02:54 obviously, Tottenham got knocked out of the Carabao Cup.
02:58 It just shows he needed to leave to go and try and win cup competitions,
03:02 or anything, to be honest,
03:04 because that's arguably Spurs' best chance of winning something this season.
03:08 They've already lost it, it wasn't even September when that happened.
03:11 One player that probably won't have escaped your attention there is Moises Saicedo.
03:15 The former Brighton man finally got his move this summer,
03:17 following an eye-watering €120 million deal to Chelsea.
03:21 A Premier League record, the transfer was a top trend on social media for 48 hours,
03:26 whilst the Blues and Liverpool competed for his services.
03:29 One man reporting on the deal was Ben Jacobs,
03:31 who told us about the complexities of the move.
03:34 At the beginning of the summer, it all just seemed so simple.
03:36 Chelsea wanted Saicedo, Saicedo wanted Chelsea.
03:39 Personal terms were agreed, and then things got complicated.
03:44 First of all, Chelsea felt like Saicedo shouldn't have been more than £80 million.
03:49 And as talks started to drag on, I think that Liverpool saw a window of opportunity.
03:54 They bid £111 million, but as ever, in a window, it's not just about money,
03:59 it's also about the player.
04:01 And Saicedo made it clear to Chelsea and Liverpool that he only wanted Chelsea.
04:07 Well, one man well-versed in the madness of the transfer window is Gajska Mendieta,
04:11 the former Valencia captain featured in La Liga, the Premier League and Serie A,
04:16 and he gave us an insight into life as a player on the move.
04:19 Well, in my particular case, it was good, because it was kind of my decision.
04:24 Alongside with the club, we thought it was the best time for me to leave.
04:27 It was very, very stressful and very, very tense when you have to move.
04:33 And the news is every day you're going here, you're going there,
04:37 you're speaking to your agent all the time.
04:39 There were some offers, but we didn't know exactly which team we would be.
04:43 And then, yeah, eventually, after, let's say, maybe a bit less than a month,
04:49 things started to get in place.
04:52 And then, yeah, the move happened, and I was happy that eventually it was all sorted.
04:58 Now, as we mentioned, the Saudi transfer deadline fell a little later than in Europe.
05:03 The Pro League has shaken up the summer so far with some incredible deals,
05:06 including Karim Benzema in Neymar, helping to make this the most lucrative summer ever.
05:11 The question is, how high will these transfers go?
05:14 Saudis are here to stay.
05:15 As we all know, the programme of the PIF, to invest in local football,
05:21 in order to make the Saudi Pro League one of the best ten leagues in the world,
05:26 is until 2030 at least.
05:30 You know, we have seven years to work with a round,
05:35 and with a budget, a declared budget of around €20 billion for this purpose.
05:41 And I think that after the transfer window of summer 2023,
05:45 nobody will look on football and Saudi Arabia the same way.
05:49 The window never ceases to entertain, does it?
05:52 That brings us to the end of this week's show.
05:54 Do let us know your thoughts at home using the hashtag #footballnowtransfers,
05:57 and we'll see you at the same time next week.
05:58 Bye for now.
05:59 (MUSIC)
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