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Many of you have been asking me why the January transfer window was so quiet. I think it’s important to explain what happened, because although we saw Tottenham making some big moves for Radu Dragusin, Timo Werner and Lucas Bergvall, there wasn’t a single senior player signed by any one of Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool or Newcastle.
It was a super quiet window, especially in England. Elsewhere we saw that Bayern Munich were quite busy, PSG signed some talented young players but no major spending, and it was quiet as well for clubs in Italy and Spain, with Financial Fair Play being key.
FFP was creating big issues for English clubs – we’re a bit more used to it in Italy and Spain, with balancing the books very important, but for English clubs it feels like something quite new. It’s important to stick to the rules and do things in a very precise way, and that’s why all these big clubs didn’t sign a single player. For Tottenham it was different after selling Harry Kane in the summer and not using that budget straight away.
For the others, FFP made a big impact, and it’s had an impact in terms of top clubs having to sell some of their academy players to make some profit ahead of the summer window. In the summer it will also be different because fresh money is expected to come from Saudi clubs again – that is going to be crucial for clubs to reinvest on the market.
The feeling is that the summer transfer window will be crazy, with many big deals happening. Kylian Mbappe is one situation to follow – both Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid are expecting Mbappe to announce his decision soon, we’re still waiting for that communication – first he will communicate his decision to PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, but for sure Real Madrid keep working very strong and very hard on this deal – they are on it.
Still, let me clarify that. despite what’s been reported by some, I never said Mbappe will announce his future on Feb 14, I don’t know where this is coming from. In any case there are constant contacts from Madrid to make it happen. The discussion is about the salary, potential contract and more, and it’s constant…
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