Football transfer news

Norwich City are in advanced talks to sign Brandon Williams on a season-long loan from Manchester United. 

Williams has been a bit-part player at Old Trafford over the past two seasons, providing cover at both full-back positions. He has made 50 appearances in total since making his debut during the 2019/20 campaign. 

Newcastle and Southampton were both keen to take him on loan last summer but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer blocked his departure as he wanted him around for squad depth. The situation is different this time around, though, with Diogo Dalot – who spent last season on loan at Milan impressing Solskjaer in pre-season. 

According to Sky Sports, another loan move for Dalot has been ruled out and he is set to compete with Aaron Wan-Bissaka for the right-back spot. 

This has opened the door for Williams to potentially depart before the transfer window slams shut. Norwich are leading the race for his signature this time around and although other Premier League clubs are interested, the Canaries are confident of striking a deal. Saying that, negotiations are not expected to be completed this week.

Williams would be a good replacement for current starting right-back Max Aarons, who 90min understands Norwich are fearful of losing this summer. Both Arsenal and Tottenham have been strongly linked in the past, but they are not the only Premier League clubs sniffing around the defender. 

Norwich have already lost one key player this window with Emiliano Buendia sealing a £38m move to Aston Villa back in June. The Canaries have been active since then, sealing no less than eight signings so far. 

They did not get off to the best start, though, slipping to a 3-0 defeat to Liverpool in their opening Premier League game of the season. 

Atletico Madrid are believed to have reached a €70m agreement with Fiorentina over the transfer of Serbian striker Dusan Vlahovic, who scored 21 goals in Serie A last season.

Vlahovic only turned 21 midway through the campaign but enjoyed a breakout year, with only Romelu Lukaku, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Muriel netting more often.

Corriere dello Sport reports that a €70m fee has been agreed between Atletico and Fiorentina, but the final say on whether the transfer will go through lies with La Viola president Rocco Commisso.

Tottenham have been linked with Vlahovic amid the uncertainty surrounding Harry Kane’s future in north London. Inter are also said to have expressed interest, only to back away once the figures being talked about began to exceed €50m.

The player’s agent, Darko Ristic, is even said to have held unsuccessful talks with Arsenal.

Fiorentina had wanted Vlahovic to sign a new contract to get him to stay longer at Stadio Artemio Franchi, offering a new deal until 2026 on a €3m salary with bonuses. That proposal is also reported to have included a release clause of at least €70m that would have become active in 2022.

90min understands that talks over the new contract stalled when an approach for Vlahovic came in.

Atletico largely relied on the goals of Luis Suarez last season to deliver their first La Liga title since 2014. Joao Felix (10) and Marcos Llorente (13) also recorded double figures in the league. But with Suarez due to turn 35 in January, the future has to be part of the strategy.

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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta will not stand in the way of captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang leaving the club this month, 90min understands.

Aubameyang missed the club’s season opener against Brentford after being ruled out late on with an illness, along with Alexandre Lacazette, and the pair’s involvement in the fixture against Chelsea this Sunday is uncertain.

Arsenal signed Aubameyang from Borussia Dortmund in January 2018, and the now Arsenal captain agreed a contract extension with the club last year. He has two years remaining on that contract, worth around £350,000 a week, and stands as one of the highest paid players in the Premier League.

90min has learned however that Aubameyang and Arteta have had disagreements in recent months, and now serious doubt remains over how much football the 32-year-old will see before the transfer window closes.

Club chief Edu is working behind the scenes on a possible exit plan for the Gabon star. However, as seen with a number of players on big wages this summer, it is not always that easy to move players who carry a such a hefty salary. That is certainly the case with Aubameyang.

The financial commitments make it hugely difficult for Arsenal to find a club to deal with.

Barcelona have had a long-standing interest in the player, but their current financial situation means it would be unlikely they would take on such a huge wage packet.

It has been suggested that Barcelona could swap Philippe Coutinho, who is on a similar wage and is of interest to Arsenal, but 90min has been told that would be a hugely difficult situation to agree with all sides. As it stands the two clubs have not talked directly about any such deal.

Arsenal now find themselves in a situation where they could again be paying their top wage earner to sit on the sidelines; something they had to go through with Mesut Ozil for more than a year towards the end of his stay at the club.

It’s a well-known fallacy by now that every football fan thinks that their club is as equally special as they are unlucky and downright calamitous. But what we can all agree on is that Arsenal are the ultimate soap opera club.

The Gunners may as well change their strips from red to purple and move on up to the fictional town of Harchester. 90min understands that the latest drama in N5 is that manager Mikel Arteta is open to selling club captain and star player Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, as the curse of Arsenal’s skipper goes on.

But how cursed is the armband? Let’s look at the recent captains of Arsenal Football Club and what happened to them next…

How his captaincy started: Defender with lots of international experience
How his captaincy ended: Leaking information about squad tensions
Arsenal banter era rating: 7/10

Gallas was a great defender in his prime, something which is often overlooked when discussing Arsenal’s sale of Ashley Cole to Chelsea. But when a centre-back takes the number ten shirt, you’re not going to be a popular guy in the world of football for much longer.

After infamously sulking on the pitch after defeat against Birmingham, he left Arsenal on a free transfer in 2010 to join rivals Tottenham – and captained them to their first ever win at the Emirates Stadium months later.

How his captaincy started: One of the longest-serving players after joining from Barcelona
How his captaincy ended: Leaving for Barcelona
Arsenal banter era rating: 8/10

Fabregas is an undisputed Premier League legend, but his legacy at Arsenal is a complicated one.

There’s a strong argument that he’s the best player the Gunners have had since leaving Highbury, but his status as a great at Chelsea muddies the waters. At least we know for sure that he hates Spurs.

How his captaincy started: The last star standing
How his captaincy ended: Forcing a move to Wenger’s biggest rival
Arsenal banter era rating: 9/10

After carrying Arsenal to an unlikely third-placed finish and winning the Premier League golden boot, Van Persie decided he needed to be competing for titles – and he did not believe that was possible at Arsenal.

The ‘little boy’ inside him told him to move to Man Utd, and within a year he was a champion.

How his captaincy started: Well someone has to have the armband
How his captaincy ended: Also leaving for Barcelona
Arsenal banter era rating: 3/10

Why Barça were interested in Vermaelen at this stage of his career is one of the great mysteries of life.

He had been dropped from Arsenal’s first-choice XI long before his final season, and yet after one year in Catalonia he had added a Champions League medal to his collection. Whatever.

How his captaincy started: The most underrated player in the league
How his captaincy ended: A string of injuries and retirement
Arsenal banter era rating: 5/10

Vermaelen kicked off a trend of the club captain of Arsenal hardly ever featuring, and this tradition was continued by Arteta.

Nowadays, the Spaniard still has a pretty important role at the club while also still not playing. It’s not going well for him.

How his captaincy started: The slowest athlete in history
How his captaincy ended: The slowest athlete in history, but slower
Arsenal banter era rating: 1/10

It felt like Mertesacker actually retired a few years before he actually did in 2018, when he took up the role as manager of the Arsenal academy.

Considering the amount of young players breaking through at the Emirates, he’s probably doing a better job than Arteta is post-retirement.

Nouveau joueur, nouveau maillot, retrouvez-le dès maintenant ici ? https://t.co/6Jb2BRKbIo pic.twitter.com/eCfsGaSUYS

— FC Girondins de Bordeaux (@girondins) August 6, 2019

How his captaincy started: The first of the post-Wenger era
How his captaincy ended: With this ‘disrespectful’ unveiling at Bordeaux
Arsenal banter era rating: 7/10

Personally don’t see anything disrespectful about this video, but it rubbed some Arsenal fans the wrong way and that’s all that matters.

How his captaincy started: When he was given the house keys as a child
How his captaincy ended: Being booed by 60,000 people and swearing at them in response
Arsenal banter era rating: 10/10

Unbelievably, Xhaka is still at Arsenal today, and the club even triggered an extension in his contract after failing to sell him this transfer window.

Here’s to many more great memories.

How his captaincy started: Brink of legendary status
How his captaincy ended: N/A
Arsenal banter era rating: TBD

After almost single-handedly dragging Arsenal to their FA Cup triumph in 2020, fans were sure that Aubameyang would end his Emirates Stadium career alongside Thierry Henry and Ian Wright as one of the true legendary forwards.

A bumper contract to extend his stay in north London was followed by a rather disappointing season, and now it looks like he could be forced out the door before this window ends. That’s the Arsenal way.

For everything Thomas Tuchel has got right at Chelsea (and there’s a whole lot of that), one criticism of his reign so far has to be his management of Tammy Abraham.

The academy graduate bagged a club-high 18 goals in 2019/20 and led Chelsea’s scoring charts at the time of Tuchel’s arrival, only to be near-enough frozen out by the German, who preferred an out-of-position Kai Havertz and a misfiring Timo Werner to a hungry youngster with a proven record of Premier League goals.

With two years left on his contract and no hope of minutes following the £97.5m signing of Romelu Lukaku, Abraham upped sticks and headed to Roma, reuniting with Jose Mourinho on a mutual quest to prove English football wrong.

That hug though… ?
#ASRoma pic.twitter.com/JO2eQXbJtV

— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) August 17, 2021

Did we really need to get to this point?

Tuchel’s treatment of Abraham obviously worked out on the whole. Havertz scored the winning goal in the Champions League final and the addition of Lukaku has made Chelsea genuine title contenders again, but all of that could have been accomplished without giving the boot to the club’s only proven goalscorer of the past two years.

From the minute he hauled Abraham off at half-time in his second game against Burnley, it seemed as though Tuchel had made his mind up about the striker. As the manager, he’s obviously entitled to do that, but what made the situation so confusing is that Tuchel’s alternative to Abraham wasn’t even cutting it.

Both Werner and false-nine Havertz scored in just two Premier League games under Tuchel last year, and it was their struggles in front of goal, not Abraham’s, that started the ‘Chelsea need a striker to be genuine contenders’ narrative.

Chelsea had that striker, but for whatever reason, he barely got the chance to prove himself.

Now, let’s not get too excited here and claim that Abraham was Ballon d’Or stuff last year. He himself will admit that he wasn’t at his potent best, but he was still better than the alternatives when it came to putting the ball in the back of the net.

His 0.52 goals per 90 minutes was the highest of any Chelsea player last year and significantly higher than Havertz (0.24) and Werner (0.21). There’s a reason he finished level on goals with Werner despite playing well below half the minutes handed to the German.

Abraham should have been more involved last year, and that would have opened the door for him to stay and fill the void of second-fiddle to Lukaku which is instead going to two players who are not really supposed to be playing there.

Havertz wants to be a right-sided ten and Werner wants that role on the left, so there is still an Abraham-sized hole in the striker department, but why would the Englishman want it after the six months he had?

‘You didn’t ask earlier! You should have asked!’ ?#LukWhosBack pic.twitter.com/fqpFyuedem

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 17, 2021

Anyone with eyes knows Abraham is good enough for top-flight football. Tuchel will not be blind to his talent but, as his pursuit of Lukaku proved, the boss was more bothered about finding someone with different characteristics to Abraham, and that’s fine.

At the end of the day, it’s Tuchel’s job to win trophies. When you interview for the Chelsea job, you’re told that it’s all about immediate global dominance, and the German has done superbly to get Chelsea on track for that.

However, could he have done all that without leaving Abraham disillusioned? If Tuchel could accomplish everything he has so far without an actual goalscorer, just imagine what he may have managed with one.

Made in Cobham. ? pic.twitter.com/peDhduiw3Z

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 17, 2021

Tuchel has earned some faith from fans, and it’s not as if Chelsea’s squad is in a worse state having swapped Abraham for Lukaku, but there’s a feeling that he didn’t have to close one door to open another.

That frustration will be Abraham’s fuel out in Rome. He always felt he was good enough to play for a top side, and now he’s finally getting the chance to prove it.