The summer window shuts at 11pm on Tuesday 1 September. That leaves eight days, and both Manchester clubs have chosen to spend them solving the same problem in the same part of the pitch.
Manchester United are close to announcing Carlos Baleba after reaching a full agreement with Brighton. It has been the least secret pursuit of the window, which does not make it any less significant. Baleba is the sort of signing that changes what a United midfield is allowed to do rather than simply adding a name to it.
Across the city, Manchester City are expected to confirm Ayyoub Bouaddi from Lille. The framing around that deal is unavoidable and slightly unfair to the player, because Bouaddi arrives as the answer to the Rodri question. Replacing a player of that profile is not really a transfer so much as a multi-year project, and City have at least started it.
Arsenal moved early and then moved again
Arsenal made the summer’s first genuine statement by taking Bruno Guimaraes from Newcastle. That would have been enough on its own. Then William Saliba picked up a long-term injury, and Arsenal went back into the market for Ezri Konsa from Aston Villa.
There is a version of this summer where the Konsa deal is remembered as the more important of the two. Signing a midfielder of Guimaraes’ standing is a luxury. Replacing a first-choice centre-back in August, without paying a panic premium, is survival, and plenty of clubs have failed at it.
Newcastle keep rebuilding the same squad
Newcastle’s window has been almost entirely reactive, and that is not a criticism so much as a description. Nearly every incoming has been a response to an outgoing. Sandro Tonali went to Spurs, so Newcastle brought in Aladji Bamba from Monaco to hold the same area of the pitch. Guimaraes went to Arsenal. The squad at the end of this window will look a lot like the squad at the start of it, staffed by different people.
Whether that counts as standing still or running hard to stay in place depends on how the first month goes.
Deals are still landing across Europe daily, and the last week of a window has a habit of producing the moves nobody had written about in July. Expect at least one.
Sources: Sky Sports Transfer Centre, Football365 and the Premier League transfer centre.