Key events
Will Unwin
Burnley defender Joe Worrall is closing in on a move to Championship rivals Wrexham after the clubs agreed a fee in the region for £2m.
The centre-back has never become a regular at Turf Moor and is expected to sign a three-year deal with at the Racecourse Ground.
Burnley could move for a centre-back to replace him, and have previously been interested in Galatasaray’s Victor Nelsson, who is available for free.
Hull and Ipswich may already have Premier League wins under their belts, but the two promoted teams are not done when it comes to incoming transfers. And it seems they are targeting the best Championship talent, a pretty standard move for newly-promoted sides.
Sky are reporting that Hull have agreed a deal to sign Sorba Thomas from Stoke – but that the Potters want to find a replacement before sanctioning the winger’s exit – while Ipswich, according to TeamTalk, are closing in on Burnley striker Zian Flemming.
An email from David Wall on one of Liverpool’s many current issues:
Is one of Liverpool’s main problems that they’ve been thinking for so long about finding a partner for Van Dijk that they didn’t really think about finding a replacement for him? If it wasn’t already clear at times last season, it should be from the start of this. He’s far from the player he was even in Liverpool’s recent title-winning year and is often the source of their defensive problems now (with lack of pace and subsequent poor positioning) rather than the solution to them.
I think that’s a very smart observation, David. But a centre-back doesn’t appear to be on Liverpool’s shortlist for the immediate term.
Chelsea: It’s genuinely hard to keep track of Chelsea’s ever-changing squad and it should be of no surprise to anyone that the Blues look likely to conduct more business before tomorrow’s deadline.
Xabi Alonso’s side may have to accommodate for the departure of Enzo Fernández, who could join Manchester City, so have Lamine Camara – also linked with Liverpool – and Roma’s French midfielder Manu Koné on their shortlist of replacements. Chelsea have already signed Valentín Barco and Jordan Henderson to boost their midfield numbers this summer, with Moises Caicedo and Roméo Lavia among Alonso’s first choices.
It’s another Rubik’s Cube of transfer possibilities Chelsea will have to unscramble in the next day or so.
Jamie Jackson
Manchester United have spent £150m overhauling their midfield this summer, yet their standout midfield player in the 5-2 thumping of Ipswich came free from the pitches of Cheadle, Stockport – academy product Kobbie Mainoo.
Harry Maguire waxed lyrical about Mainoo after the 21-year-old all-round stellar midfield display at Old Trafford on Sunday.
The defender said: “I thought he was brilliant, Kobbie. To say he hasn’t played for I don’t know how long – not really got many minutes in pre-season and things like that, he was magnificent. He put a great shift in and I think his work without the ball has improved so much since Michael [Carrick, the manager] has been in.
“That’s probably credit to Michael and his staff. But I think without the ball now, he’s becoming a real monster in there, and he wins a lot of second balls. He wins a lot of duels. You won’t want to play against him in there and that’s the biggest compliment I can give to him from playing and watching him behind.
“He’s so young, if we want him to play for this club for another 10 years, there’s going to be times where he’s going to go through a patch like with Rashy and myself, but that’s part and parcel. I think he’s really level-headed, he’s really composed, he has great belief in his ability and, he’s going to be a magnificent play for this club for many, many years.”
Toby Podmore weighs in on email with some ‘amusing transfer banter’ – his words:
Concerning your post at 11hr50, what’s the going price for selling Jesus these days? I imagine that inflation has made 30 pieces of silver highly uncompetitive.
Manchester City fan Sean Baker responds to the question from Liverpool fan Graeme about the prospect of signing Cody Gakpo:
I’m excited by the prospect of Gakpo joining. He’s been very consistent in the Premier League – won the league, has Champions League experience, and has scored goals at the Euros and World Cup. Is he the most exciting winger in the world right now? No, probably not. But I think he offers great versatility, something not all wingers can provide. He primarily plays on the left, but can do a good job as a striker, and seems like he’s not shabby on the right
wing either.This means he can play across the entire front three and will be a great backup to Haaland/Doku/Semenyo. With City in the mix for four different competitions, he’s going to get plenty of minutes, and I’m pretty confident he’ll be able to deliver.
Yes, £85m is not cheap, and many will argue it’s way too much for a player that’s not a nailed-on starter – but I think he’d be great and would be keen to see him join.
These Unai Emery quotes have sparked a fair bit of debate, as the Spaniard was asked about Aston Villa’s relationship with Chelsea given the players that have moved between the clubs this summer and in recent years.
Emi Martinez and Morgan Rogers have joined the Blues from Villa, with Alejandro Garnacho heading the other way. Last year, Villa signed Axel Disasi on loan from Chelsea and in 2024 paid £37.5m to sign Ian Maatsen from the west Londoners.
Emery said: “Good relations? They want to kill us and we want to kill them!”
“We have good players and we can sign one player off them, it’s not a good relationship – it’s a deal for money and a deal for players. I am happy for Emiliano Martinez and Morgan Rogers and I know I am not happy for Chelsea.”
Arsenal agree to sell Jesus, Martinelli and Vieira
Arsenal are running out of time to persuade Julián Alvarez to join them from Atlético Madrid after agreeing to sell Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Fábio Vieira in deals collectively worth more than £70m.
Ed Aarons has the skinny from the Emirates – it seems even the champions could be busy between now and 11pm tomorrow.
An email from regular contributor Krishna has just dropped in my inbox.
“Hello Dominic,” he says. “[Folarin] Balogun is a good bargain for any team. He can commit any number of fouls and can be reinstated after a phone call from one vain man to another.”
I wonder what that’s in reference to …
As per our man Jacob Steinberg earlier, West Ham have now announced and confirm the arrival of Edvin Austbø from Viking. The deal is worth about £10m.
How much more business will the Hammers do in an effort to supercharge their promotion campaign?
Manchester City Women sign Leverkusen’s Wamser
Tom Garry
Manchester City Women have signed the Germany full-back Carlotta Wamser from Bayer Leverkusen on a four-year contract.
The 22-year-old is the defending WSL champions’ third signing of the summer so far, after the England internationals Beth Mead and Niamh Charles.
Wamser, who has 14 senior caps and was part of Germany’s squad at 2025’s Euros, told Manchester City’s media channels: “The English league is the best league in the world and Manchester City is one of the best clubs in the world. I feel like I need the next step for my career and I feel that I can develop as a player here.”
City’s director of football Therese Sjögran said: “We are delighted to welcome Carlotta to the Club. She is a player we’ve admired for some time and know she will bring energy, passion and a willingness to learn to the team. For such a young, exciting talent to trust us with the next step of her career is something we feel conveys a strong message of what we are building here at City.”
Fiorentina have reportedly agreed a deal to sign Willy Gnonto on loan from Leeds, with a medical booked on Tuesday.
The Italian winger has had a curious spell at Elland Road. He began like a house on fire, then drifted in and out of the team, finding himself as a substitute more often than not last season. Perhaps a fresh start for the 22-year-old is necessary.
Liverpool fans are getting a little angsty ahead of the transfer window’s final days and we’ve had this email from Graeme Neill:
I’m not exactly going to be sorry to see the back of Richard Hughes. Our transfer strategy over the last few seasons has been chaotic. Why we sold both Jones and Quansah remains baffling. We overpaid for Isak and, unlike Muñoz, he hasn’t felt like the kind of relatively bargain buy that defined the late 2010s. And the less said about his pre-season last year and corresponding fitness issues, the better. Unless Barcola can be reinvented as Fabinho circa 2019, it’s hard to get too excited about him either.
I am genuinely curious how excited City fans are about the prospect of Gakpo though.
Manchester City fans, get in touch: would you be excited to see Cody Gakpo as part of your frontline?
Some slightly lower-key deals for you:
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Rotherham United have confirmed the signing of Manchester United youngster Jayce Fitzgerald on loan for the rest of the season.
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Barcelona have signed 16-year-old prodigy Mikael Baza from Hamburg – he will join their youth ranks.
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Jaden Heskey is to return to Sheffield Wednesday from Manchester City on loan after impressing last season.
We’ll keep you updated with more deals like this throughout the day.
Here are our transfer interactives for you to keep on top of:
It’s turning into quite an interesting window for Everton. Balogun should be an upgrade on Beto up front, while David Moyes has sounded quite confident about Thierno Barry’s progress at the start of his second season in English football – always a crucial point in a player’s development. How much game time Barry gets if and when Balogun arrives will be interesting.
Losing Ndiaye would be a loss but Richarlison is beloved on the blue side of Merseyside and a fine left-wing replacement if that deal from Spurs happens, while there is still talk of a possible second loan for Jack Grealish.
Woltemade set for Juventus loan, Everton in talks with Balogun
Nick Woltemade is closing in on a loan move from Newcastle to Juventus, a year after arriving on Tyneside in a club record £69m deal; while Everton are in talks with Monaco over a deal to sign Folarin Balogun after agreeing to sell Beto to Fiorentina.
Here’s the full story from our writers:
Re: Liverpool’s transfer strategy, here is our correspondent Andy Hunter writing in today’s 10 talking points from week’s Premier League games:
It underlines the strangeness of Liverpool’s recent transfer strategy that the understandable excitement generated by Bradley Barcola’s impending £123m arrival from Paris Saint-Germain is offset by concern over the gaps in Iraola’s squad that have not been filled – right-wing, right-back and central midfield being the most obvious ones. The need to improve in all three departments was evident as Liverpool had to fight back to salvage a late 2-2 draw [against Nottingham Forest]. “We don’t know what the squad is going to be on 2 September,” said Iraola, surely holding out hope that wingers are not the only incomings before Tuesday. “I think every analysis I can make is when I know and when everything finishes, when I will know who is going to be here all the season or until January.”
Jacob Steinberg
West Ham: The Hammers are closing on a deal to sign the Viking winger Edvin Austbø for about £10m. The Championship club have also submitted an offer to sign Ryan Giles on loan with an option to buy, but Hull do not want to lose the left-back.
Ollie Watkins has gone from Aston Villa to the Saudi Pro League to join Al-Hilal, and the England striker will be thrown straight into a big game against Al-Ahli and faces the highest of expectations – against fellow Three Lions forward hopeful, Ivan Toney.
John Duerden reports on the two English strikers vying for Thomas Tuchel’s attention from the gulf.
Liverpool: Why do the Reds want to sell Cody Gakpo, I hear you ask?
It’s a good question as Gakpo, despite some criticism from fans at times, has been pretty consistent during his three-and-a-half years at Anfield, scoring 51 goals in around 180 appearances for Liverpool, playing almost exclusively on the left wing.
The departure of Mohamed Salah, plus the signing of Victor Muñoz, the emergence of Rio Ngumoha and the pending arrival of Bradley Barcola have all contributed to a situation where Liverpool believe selling Gakpo and reinvesting the cash would be a wise move.
Ngumoha, Muñoz and Barcola are all better on the left flank, where Gakpo likes to play, while Liverpool have right-sided forwards – such as Brighton’s Yankuba Minteh and Ismaïla Sarr of Crystal Palace – on their radar. It seems Liverpool want to address the balance of their attack and Gakpo is the fall guy. Still, selling to Manchester City, as has been suggested, would be surprising. Big clubs don’t like to sell first team players to their rivals.
The Rumour Mill is the only place to start, if you will forgive the self-promotion, given I was tasked with writing today’s edition.
A merry-go-round of wide forwards could be upon us in the final days of the window.
Preamble
The end of a long summer of transfers is nigh: but not before a final, desperate, scrap for signings ensues in the final couple of days of the window. It never ceases to amaze us how and why clubs allow this to happen… but it provides compelling reading and watching as the deals roll in.
There are a number of ‘sagas’ to keep your eyes on: Cody Gakpo, Enzo Fernández and Ismaïla Sarr are three high-profile Premier League stars who could be on the move, with Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City three big clubs who ought to be very active in the next day or two. They won’t be alone. The signings keep on coming at Tottenham – and the Spurs owners may decree that more are required after a disappointing start to the season. Then there is Manchester United and their left-back situation, while lower down the English top flight the likes of Fulham and Crystal Palace, with new managers, will feel they must strengthen. And don’t forget about big deals around the continent, and in the women’s game.
So much to happen, to little time. Do join us throughout today and tomorrow as we build towards that 11pm (BST) transfer deadline tomorrow (Tuesday) when the window – and we’re obliged to say this – SLAMS SHUT. The deadline for WSL clubs is on Thursday 3 September.