[Written by: Roshan Samuel, Edited by: Samud Shetty, Advised by: Shubhang Srinivasan]

It’s that time of the year where managers try to offload players who failed to make their mark and pursue other players with unique potentials, and it is also the time of the year where drama doesn’t stop in just 90 minutes. This has got to be one of the most remarkable transfer windows. But I’ll start with teams who brought game-changers to their clubs and have a positive impact on the team rather than taking space on the bench. Believe me, there are.

Manchester United

Where do I start? At the start of the 18/19 season began the Mourinho drama where players weren’t impressed any longer by his style of playing. [Yes, he’s still alive]. Then came along the near-Shakespearean drama featuring Pogba versus Manchester United where there were around 2 days where they got along fine, the rest was just bitterness and disagreement over the captaincy. Eventually, he got sacked after the 3-1 loss over Liverpool and then a former legend decided to manage the club. Long story short, they were 6th for 52 days, went to 5th and back to 6th and finished the season there, failing to qualify for Champions League. Moreover, all the players got a 50% pay cut. So, what next?

Well, the fact that they qualified for the Europa League instead would make players think twice about agreeing to play for a club like Manchester United; you’d have to be nuts to move to Manchester United when you are already playing Champions League. So, having world-class players like Paul Pogba makes it easier to be ‘linked’ with other players rather than actively negotiating a possible transfer. So, they stuck to finding young, strong prospects from clubs below them and on training the potential first-team players from their youth camp. Lo and behold! Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Daniel James with a market value of €35million and €12million respectively. Manchester United bought Wan-Bissaka for €55million from Crystal Palace and bought Daniel James for €17million from Swansea. Both are incredible young talents in English Football and use their quick pace to their advantage. Believe it or not, Solksjaer said that their presence creates competition for the starting line-ups [except for Alexis Sanchez no one knows where he is, probably playing piano somewhere]. Another name to remember, Mason Greenwood. The lad made his debut in the second leg of the Champions League win against PSG and has been developing over the summer. Fans expect high from him and the club, so it’ll be interesting to watch them play.

Juventus

Agent CR7 did his bit as Portugal beat Netherlands in the UEFA Nations League and at the end of the match, he asked De Ligt to come to Juventus. At first, he was speechless and probably took it lightly till he realized it wasn’t troll. Matthijs De Ligt has been watched from top clubs around the world as he captained Ajax to the Champions League Semi-Finals but won in their domestic league Eredivisie, dedicating that to please their idol Johan Cruyff. He gave an inspirational speech to the thousands of Ajax supporters, and HE’S ONLY 19! Then, of course, he declared Ronaldo wasn’t the only reason he came to Juventus but had it not been for CR7 himself, he’d be playing in Europa League with Solksjaer at the wheel.

Maurizio Sarri left Chelsea for Juventus as Massimiliano Allegri left claiming it had a better past than other clubs. Can’t blame him, smoked his way in the Premier League, calling out Marcos Alonso, yet surprisingly winning the Europa League and finishing 3rd in EPL, securing the Champions League. Let’s not forget, he used to manage Napoli, who are rivals with Juventus, and Napoli fans certainly were disgusted after the backstabbing, so they destroyed the plaque of honor they put in their home stadium. Napoli’s carbon emissions drastically reduced since his departure, so what or how will Juventus do?

Real Madrid

Amidst the Gareth Bale saga, Zidane has brought in some game-changers using the €500million budget allotted by the Los Blancos Board of Directors.
Luka Jovic was signed for €60million from Eintracht Frankfurt, Eden Hazard, the much-anticipated transfer, was signed for €100million from Chelsea, Rodrygo Goes was signed from Santos FC [Serie A in case you were unaware] for €45million, Éder Militão was signed from FC Porto for €50million, Ferland Mendy was signed for €48million from Olympique Lyon, and James Rodriguez returns from F.C. Bayern. All this is great recruitment, but the test starts when the La Liga season commences.

In the 18/19 season, Julen Lopetegui came in and was sacked after the 5-1 defeat in the El Clásico. Then came along Santiago Solari who hacked the La Liga table for them, getting them to third place and then the homesick Zidane left Juventus and came back to manage Real Madrid. Then the Zidane-Bale drama began with serious disrespect towards each other. The question here, will Bale pursue a career as a golfer or move elsewhere after the €1million-a-week Chinese club Jiangsu Suning move was denied by Real Madrid?

Chelsea

Loan F.C. as fans call it are banned from signing players until the end of January 2020, but they bought Mateo Kovačić since he was on loan from Real Madrid in the 18/19 season for €45million. With Maurizio gone, Petr Čech was hired as technical and performance advisor, Claude Makélélé returned as youth coach, and Frank Lampard agreed to manage Chelsea and is off to an impressive start with youngsters like Mason Mount [not on loan yet], Ethan Ampadu [loan to RB Leipzig for €650K] and Christian Pulisic [no loan for him] making a name for themselves. His tactics seem promising, but again, the real test begins when the season starts, and the nerve-wracking competition begins. Cheers.

F.C. Barcelona

Antoine Griezmann eloped to F.C. Barcelona to play alongside Lionel Messi and now is reunited with some of his mates who won the FIFA World Cup 2018 with France. They say that if a player is simply linked with this club, and if he starts to skip training, you know he’s guaranteed to come to Camp Nou. However, Atlético Madrid filed a report to La Liga authorities on not paying the correct release clause of €180million [they paid €108million instead.]

Matthijs De Ligt isn’t the only Dutch wonder-kid being scouted, Frenkie de Jong performed exceptionally outstanding in the UEFA Nations League for the Netherlands, and now he’s got the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of former Barcelona legend Johan Cruyff, wearing the kit number 21. The transfer cost was €75million, €10million less than his market value. Norberto Murara Neto, former Valencia goalkeeper was bought for €26million since Jasper Cillessen, former keeper of Barça didn’t get first-team football, and was sold to Valencia for €35million. This was not a ‘swap’ deal, just two individual transfers. I think this would create competition for playtime, although, for big matches, the German would probably be the first choice.

Note: This report was created based on a mini-survey privately conducted by us to find out the teams support people in NPS. I analyzed many other teams like Atlético Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, but the fan count is near-zero.

Source: https://www.transfermarkt.com/