It is now 20 years since the current Premier League transfer window system was put in place and every summer it creates a huge buzz around which big name players are moving from one club to another. This summer Jude Bellingham and Lionel Messi have already signed for new clubs, but sadly neither of them are coming to the Premier League.
Who else is on the move ahead of the 2023-24 Premier League season and could we see the British transfer record broken again?
The transfer window for the Premier League and the EFL opened on 14th June and will ‘slam closed’ on 1st September. Comparing that with other leagues in Europe, the window for LaLiga, Serie A and the Bundesliga opened on 1st July and in each case will also close on 1st September.
In the MLS, the league’s Primary Transfer Window this year ran from 31st January to 24th April, with the Secondary Transfer Window open from 5th July to 2nd August. Plenty of eyes will be on the North American league following Inter Miami’s signing of Messi and Sergio Busquets.
Some of the biggest Premier League transfers that we could see this summer could be made by Arsenal, who are looking to strengthen after they topped the EPL table for 248 days in 2022-23. According to Opta that is, ‘the most for a team who failed to win the title in English top-flight history’.
Hence the Gunners’ urgency to complete the signings of Declan Rice and Jurrien Timber, according to multiple media reports. The club have also confirmed the addition of Kai Havertz from Chelsea for a fee in the region of £65 million.
Some big names are out of contract this summer and therefore looking to move on to pastures new. Messi and Ilkay Gündogan have already found new homes for next season, but there are some other big names who are yet to announce their plans for 2023-24.
David De Gea’s future at Manchester United looks more uncertain as the days go on. Meanwhile, 28-year-old defender Milan Škriniar sees his contract expiring soon after his six years at Inter concluded with him on the bench in the Champions League final.
Škriniar has attracted attention from some of the biggest clubs in Europe due to him being available on a free, with Paris Saint-Germain being the mostly likely destination. Premier League clubs are likely to be monitoring his situation too.
Marcus Thuram and Marco Asensio have both been linked with moves to England as they will also become free agents soon. Liverpool are heavily linked with Thuram as they look to further strengthen in midfield and Asensio is rumoured to be heading to Aston Villa.
The transfer window never disappoints and every season there’s at least one marquee signing that grabs the headlines.
This summer we’ve already seen Jude Bellingham join Real Madrid, with Kylian Mbappé also still being linked with a move to the Spanish capital.
Widely regarded as one of the best talents in Europe, Bellingham has the chance to grow and develop further in the company of Luka Modrić and Toni Kroos. It’s certainly a bold move for the 20 year-old from Birmingham.
Last summer, we saw Erling Haaland move to Manchester City for just over £50 million which already appears to be one of the best signings the club has ever made. August of 2021 saw Cristiano Ronaldo return to Manchester United in the summer window, but that didn’t work out too well.
It was also two years ago that Jack Grealish joined Man City for £100 million from Aston Villa and it took a good 18 months for the England international to find his way under Pep Guardiola.
Grealish’s move to City is the second most expensive transfer in Premier League history after Enzo Fernández’s £105 million move to Chelsea from Benfica which took place in January.
Also in the top five biggest transfers in the Premier League are Romelu Lukaku, Paul Pogba and Antony. Lukaku signed for Chelsea from Inter for a fee of £97.5 million in 2021.
Manchester United paid £89 million to bring Pogba back to the club from Juventus in 2016 and strangely let him go on a free for a second time to Juve in 2022, having also done the same a decade earlier in 2012. United’s second biggest signing ever was Antony for £81 million from Ajax last summer.
United do not appear to be willing to break their transfer record again this year, partly due to the uncertainty over the ownership of the club and a possible sale by owners the Glaziers.
Whilst Liverpool appear to be acquiring players sensibly again this summer, Chelsea are in a selling mode having remarkably spent a reported £600 million on 17 players in the past year under Todd Boehly.
So will it be Arsenal then who smash the transfer record for Rice if West Ham continued to hold them to ransom for the talented English midfielder?
