Transfers

Speculation and excitement grow surrounding Champions League victors Chelsea in the quest to sign a new star striker. Even though the club spent around a whopping $150 million last year to bring in forwards Timo Werner and Kai Havertz, they are still shopping for a special striker before the 2021/22 season. While Havertz was battling Covid issues and Werner couldn’t win over the fans last season, the Blues will look to add a lethal striker to the club. 

ROME - Olivier Giroud is confident he can strike up a fearsome partnership with AC Milan talisman Zlatan Ibrahimović after leaving Chelsea to join the Serie A side in what he described as a dream move.

The 34-year-old is expected to compete with Ibrahimović for one striker spot in Stefano Pioli’s side, but he is open to the idea of forming a vastly experienced front two with the 39-year-old Swede.

Liverpool supporters have spent the summer watching the club's rivals get linked to big-name signings. 

Manchester United has signed Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane, while its neighbor Manchester City is linked with $100m-plus moves for Harry Kane and Jack Grealish. Down in London, Chelsea is being tentatively linked with Borussia Dortmund star Erling Haaland while Arsenal is in the hunt for Inter striker Lautaro Martinez. 

More than a few eyebrows would have been raised at the news of Lassina Traoré's move to Shakhtar Donetsk this summer. Just two years after he joined Ajax from the youth side of the Dutch giant's affiliate in Cape Town, Traoré made the $12 million move to Ukraine as one of the first signings of new manager Roberto De Zerbi, who left Sassuolo to take up the post. 

After a potential title chase ended up in a fifth-place finish and a change of manager, Olympique de Marseille has been remarkably active in the transfer window this summer. 

Jorge Sampaoli has been backed to the tune of $52 million as Marseille has secured 10 signings thus far. This summer has been one of transition for the side from France's second city, as Valère Germain, Yuto Nagatomo and Florian Thauvin have left the club in addition to academy graduate Maxime Lopez, Kevin Strootman and Hiroki Sakai.

Crystal Palace supporters have good reason to be excited for the coming Premier League season. The Eagles, not generally known for efficient or exciting business in the transfer market, are in the midst of a youth revolution in the current window as they seek to improve on last season's 14th-placed finish. 

Aston Villa took supporters by surprise when the club splashed the cash to sign Emi Buendia from Norwich. The $42 million transfer made Buendia, 24, Villa's record signing. 

Come August, there are always a few clubs that capture the imagination with their audacious summer spending before inevitably collapsing by October. Usually this is Everton. 

The return of a club legend, the signing of a highly touted prodigy or a loan move for a big-name player whose career has stalled (or preferably all three in one window) are the usual fixings for getting way too hyped before the start of a new campaign.  

Manchester United isn’t playing around this summer and has had arguably the best transfer window out of all Premier League teams. Other than PSG, the potential Manchester United starting XI 2021 looks like the best in Europe.

The last time Manchester United was Premier League champion, 2013, I was finishing up middle school. Could this group of players be the ones to end its league-title drought?