Transfer Rumors

All this back and forth from Man United and Real Madrid is pathetic. Only one team at fault and that is clearly Madrid. If they really wanted him they should have out in a proper bid sooner than a few hours before the close of the transfer window. They tried to play around with it and were hoping to save some money by leaving it to the last minute. That's all their fault.

Yup. And United never wanted to sell De Gea, so it was always up to Madrid to push the deal and not the other way round.

And after all that de Gea has signed a new 4 year contract at Man United, with an option of an additional year.

According to Sky Sports, Swansea have agreed a £6.5 million deal for Luc Castaignos from Twente.

Assuming its true im a very happy fan. This is a terrific signing for a great price if you ask me. Castaignos is a fantastic young player and is perfect for the Swans team.

Seen this guy play a few games this season for Eintract Frankfurt. Very good player and is 5 for 5 in apps vs. goals.

After Turkey downed a Russian plane this week. Russia have hit them where it hurts and stopped any Turkish player signing for a Russian club in the January transfer window.

Worst transfer business of the season, QPR selling Charlie Austin to Southampton for £4m. Approaching the last year of his contract in the summer, QPR rejected a £12m offer from Leicester for Austin. They gambled on him signing a new contract which he didn't want to. So they had to sell him on the cheap before he would leave for free, great business for Southampton though.

So we've (Swansea) signed this striker Alberto Paloschi for 8m from Chievo. Can't say I've ever heard of him and his record isn't that impressive either. Looks like a bit of a panic buy if you ask me but I'll preserve judgement for now.

It was the 1st of July yesterday so the transfer window is now open.

Newcastle have bought Matt Ritchie for £12m from Bournemouth & Dwight Gayle from Crystal Palace for £10m. Two Premier League players dropping down a division is a noble prospect. I thought Ritchie was supposed to be one of Bournemouth's best players.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has joined Man Utd on a free. They also had an offer accepted for Dortmund's, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, looks like that deal will be completed imminently. Ryan Giggs has also left the club.

Crystal Palace have bought Steve Mandanda from Marseille for £1.5m. He's a very good keeper. They've also spent £13m on Andros Townsend. Palace are also after Christian Benteke, they've bid £25m for him.

Everton have bought Maarten Stekelenburg from Fulham. He was terrible when playing for Fulham in the Premier League.

Nolito has left Celta Vigo for Man City for £13.5m.

Arsenal have bought Granit Xhaka from Borussia Monchengladbach for £30m. They've paid way too much for him. Especially since Gundogan was only £20m.

Steven Fletcher has joined Sheffield Wednesday on a free transfer.

Hatem Ben Arfa has left Nice and joined PSG. From Hull & Newcastle to Champions League football.

Former Valencia winger, Sofiane Feghouli has joined West Ham on a free transfer. Good player, They also bought Havard Nordveit on a free from Borussia Monchengladbach. Nordveit used to be a trainee at Arsenal.

Sadio Mane joining Liverpool for £34m. Is he worth that?

Watford have bought Isaac Success from Granada for £12.5m. He scored 6 goals last season and was voted their best player!

No idea what Isaac Success is like in real life but I've bought him a few times for Swansea on Football Manager and he's done quite well.

Mane for 34m is overpriced but not as bad as 50m for Sterling.

Newcastle have overpaid for Dwight Gayle and Matt Ritchie in my opinion but they will be good signings for them to get back up to the Premier League.

Crystal Palace are on a spending spree attempt by the look of it. The other day they bid 31m for Batshuyi.

I'm okay with the price of Ritchie. Gayle I'd say we over paid for, but his record isn't bad so he could be worth it, might not be. Tough to tell. Ritchie though is worth the money I think.

Giggs has cracked me up with his leaving speech. Completely ignored Moyes.

Liverpool overpaid for Mane. But that's what Liverpool do, overpay for players.

Palace are showing some real ambition this season by the looks of things. Good goalkeeper, Townsend (if he plays for them like he did for Newcastle then he'll do well for them), they're signing Tomkins from West Ham and bid for Benteke.  Really are showing some real ambition compared to any other team that finished in the bottom half.

Swansea lead the way in wanting to sign Robson-Kanu, but they face competition from Scottish champions Celtic, whose manager Brendan Rodgers worked with the Welshman at Reading several years ago. (Sunday Express)

Sigh... I know he's had a good tournament and scored a blinder - but should that really erase the fact he has been shit the majority of his career? I mean, he's free, so it's not gonna cost anything other than wages, but he's not exactly going to be a star player for Swansea.

I've been talking about him with some people on Facebook. We've seen plenty of players do well at a tournament and then continue to be mediocre at club level. And if he was that good, he'd have a new club already surely? I know he let his contract run down, so it's not like Reading didn't want him as I've read they did offer him a new deal. But, clubs could have started talking to him 6 months ago, so to me if he was as good as people are now making out, someone would have made contact with him before the Euros.

Swansea have signed Fer from QPR. Don't rate him, but he does seem to know how to score the odd great goal, so there's that to look forward to. I think he'll be more of a squad player personally, in which case it's not a bad signing. I didn't even know that he'd been with Swansea since January on loan haha. Decent enough squad player though and I doubt he's cost much which would mean more money to spend on other players.

I'm still waiting on Newcastle to sign a defender (it's like this every year though so don't know why I really expected anything different this time round). We've been linked with some full backs. That's lovely and all, but we need another centre back as a priority. But it will be nice to give Janmaat and Dummet some cover.

EDIT - just as I post this, Newcastle announce that Coloccini has had his contract terminated a year early so that he can go back home and finish his career with his home town club. Definitely need a central defender now as we have just 2 on the books. Once again, defence is our weak point. Hopefully Rafa is the manager to finally sort that out.

Man United are still being linked with Pogba. World record transfer fee is being talked about. Is he really worth that much? From the bits I've seen off him, he looks good, but I don't get why people talk about him like he's the best midfielder in the world and all that, or why he'd cost anywhere near a world record fee. But I don't really watch Italian football much so can only judge by the few of games I've seen him play over the past few years.

Plymouth fans are doing their nuts in about Carl McHugh. Got offered a new contract and said last week that he'd be signing it. Just signed for Motherwell.

We paid 4.5m for Fer.

He's fine I guess but I'm not exactly thrilled about it.

Victor Valdes has just signed for Middlesborough.

Valdes is a great signing for Middlesborough. He's getting on, but he's still very good and keepers can tend to go on longer than players. Could easily still have 2 years of top level football in him.

The Pogba transfer deal is going to be ridiculous. His agent must already be planning on buying an island where he'll build a huge mansion to retire in. He is going to rake the money in. Absolutely no way Pogba is worth this much money.

At this point in negotiations, the basic transfer fee for Pogba is understood to start at around £85m (€100m).

However, when taking into account add-ons and bonuses related to the success of the player and the club – as well as Raiola’s fee – the total amount United pay for Pogba’s transfer could reach over £105m (€123m).

This is not including the player’s contract, which is expected to comfortably exceed £65m, were the club to pay him a basic salary of £250,000 per week on a five-year contract.

Chelsea have apparently agreed a £32m deal with sign Kante from Leicester. He's going to be a huge loss for the current champions.

The Stones transfer rumours still aren't going away. City are apparently front runners for him, but are refusing to go above £40m, as well as trying to offload Bony as part of a deal, but Everton just want over £50m for him. Can't say he's worth £50m though.

Swansea could lose their best defender, as Everton are looking at signing Williams. I assume that would be if Stones left, but with how their defence was last season they'd do well to sign him and pair the two of them up at the back.

The Pogba deal is still ongoing. I still can't see how he's worth anywhere near £100m. Just ridiculous. Half that would be pushing it personally.

More Everton news... they're close to signing Gueye from Aston Villa after matching his release clause. Was the only highlight for Villa last season so he'll be a big loss to them. Funnily enough, the deal is taking a while to go through because Villa want more for him. Everton have matched his release fee though, so not sure how Villa think they can get more for him.

Ashley Williams won't be going anywhere. All the big teams have been after him for years if you listen to the rumours. Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs... now Everton. The same rumours pop up every year and I don't think he's going anywhere, especially since he's already 31.

We do need to sign some players though. Our only recognised striker is Ollie McBurnie, a youth player. We need at least two good quality strikers. Apparently, we are after Leonardo Ulloa and Fernando Llorente.

Ashley Williams won't be going anywhere. All the big teams have been after him for years if you listen to the rumours. Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs... now Everton. The same rumours pop up every year and I don't think he's going anywhere, especially since he's already 31.

Yeah he's always being linked with someone it seems. I doubt he'll leave personally, he's got it good at Swansea.

Talking of Swansea, the big news for today is that West Ham have bid £20m for Ayew. If Swansea accept that, it's not a bad profit considering he was picked up for nothing just 12 months ago and scored only 12 goals. Having loaned out Gomis though, I'd be surprised if you just let Ayew go. Can't think of any other strikers at Swansea personally, but apparently they're interested in Ulloa from Leicester which would be a good signing.

Quite surprised that Villa have stollen McCormack from under the noses of Norwich. Surprised Newcastle haven't knicked him really.

Slightly amusing, but UEFA have listed Stones in Man City's Champions League squad. The deadline for squad announcement was yesterday, and a bid hasn't even been accepted yet as far as anyone is reporting... Seems like UEFA knows something no one else does.

EDIT: reports are now saying a deal is close. Bit odd to list a player for registration when he's not your player though. Anything could happen, and they get a chance to re-registerthe squad before the transfer deadline anyway so why not just add him in then if they have him? Bit of an odd one of you ask me.

EDIT again: And now they've signed him. That was quick work considering there was no word on a new bid even being submitted until about an hour ago.

It's all going on now. After selling Stones, they've agreed a fee for Williams. Swansea are finally about to lose their best defender after years of being linked with moves elsewhere.

Swansea have also agreed a record deal for a striker - Baston from Atletico.