Kia ora! Matty Flatt again, and we’ve just experienced Deadline Day. Phew.
Spurs’ approach to the transfer window notwithstanding, there was plenty of drama to be had, much of which centered around Everton, Chelsea, and Monaco.
Firstly, Chelsea agreed a deal for the sale of Enzo Fernandes, and targeted Monaco’s Lamine Camara. Chelsea made a couple of offers that were rejected and in the end opted to pull out and not pursue a deal.
Meanwhile, the Toffees switched to targeting Monaco striker Folarin Balogun
after their lowballing of Richarlison made the Ndiaye-Richy “swap” deal fall out (which had its own flow-on effect, with Ndiaye heading to Manchester City). Everything looked agreed with Monaco… until problems showed up in the medical.
At this stage, Monaco panicked: they needed a sale to balance their books, they just didn’t want to lose BOTH Camara and Balogun, and so they went crawling back to Chelsea. Everything was agreed for Camara to head to Chelsea… until all of a sudden Everton agreed terms with Monaco for Balogun.
This meant Monaco pulled out of the Camara sale at the last minute, only for Balogun to then decide he was unhappy with Everton’s lowballing and reject their offer, following in Richy’s footsteps. Everton then panicked and pivoted to Joshua Zirkzee, with their approaches rejected by Manchester United.
It’s a hilarious series of events that has left all of Everton, Monaco, and Chelsea annoyed, and is one of a number of “domino effect” Deadline Day sagas over the years.
Others that come to mind are the goalkeeper drama between Manchester United and Real Madrid: David de Gea was supposed to head to the Spanish capital with Keylor Navas heading the other way, only for issues with a fax machine to ruin the whole thing. There was also the striker chain from hell, with Arsenal selling Olivier Giroud to Chelsea, Chelsea loaning Michy Batshuayi to Borussia Dortmund, and Dortmund selling Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to Arsenal.
There’s two that come to mind involving Spurs and Real Madrid: one fun, one not so fun. The latter was the sale of Gareth Bale. He headed to the Spanish capital for a massive fee, but that outlay meant Real Madrid wanted to recoup some funds, resulting in Mesut Ozil being made available for sale. Arsenal negotiated for Ozil in secret, with Daniel Levy reportedly wanting to include as a condition of the transfer that Real Madrid not sell any players to their North London rivals… and we all know what happened.
The slightly more fun one was funnily enough also triggered by Ozil. When Real Madrid signed the German from Werder Bremen, coach Jose Mourinho told Rafael van der Vaart he would no longer be the starter, leading to the Dutchman looking for opportunities elsewhere. It looked like a move to Bayern Munich was all but agreed, only for that deal to collapse at the last minute on deadline day and Levy swoop in to secure a bargain.
What are some of your favorite Deadline Day sagas?
Matty Flatt’s track of the day: Jigsaw Falling Into Place, by Radiohead
And now for your links:
Alasdair Gold breaks down Spurs’ homegrown and foreign player numbers following the transfer window
The Athletic ($$) gives their verdict on the transfer window
In honor of Fitzie, here’s some tennis news: Gael Monfils becomes the oldest man in over 30 years to win a US Open singles match
And a brain teaser: can you answer which of these players made a Champions League appearance?
