Breaking down all the major deals and rumors from transfer deadline day

The 2024 summer transfer window has slammed shut. Get caught up on deadline day with theScore’s quick-hit analysis.

What you need to know 📌

• The transfer window has closed in all five of Europe’s top leagues
• Teams that submitted deal sheets before the deadline can complete those signings
• Saudi clubs can complete transfers until Oct. 6

Last deals on the horizon 👀

Here are the transfers that still need finalizing:

• Jadon Sancho to Chelsea
• Trevoh Chalobah to Crystal Palace

Biggest deals completed ✅

Manchester United’s €50-million deal for Manuel Ugarte tops the list of deadline day transfers. Sebastien Haller’s loan move to Spanish side Leganes also catches the eye. Below are the most notable transfers of the day. All fees are reported.

Osimhen stuck in purgatory 😬

Victor Osimhen seemed to have his bags packed and ready to go. All that was to be decided was the destination. Chelsea and Saudi side Al-Ahli were reportedly in talks with Osimhen, and, at one point, it seemed like the decision was his to make. But Sky Sport Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio later reported that the puzzle was never as close to being completed as many had thought. While Osimhen had an agreement with Al-Ahli over a monstrous four-year contract worth €40 million per season, the Saudi side couldn’t bridge a €5-million gap in negotiations with Napoli over a transfer fee. Chelsea encountered the opposite issue, having agreed to a fee with Napoli but not on terms with the player.

Al-Ahli simply went ahead and signed Ivan Toney for a reported €40 million. When a last-ditch attempt to persuade Osimhen failed, Chelsea backed out, too, and the 25-year-old suddenly found himself in the unenvious position of staying at a club that no longer needed or wanted him.

How could Napoli wait so long to move a player they’d made available for transfer as early as January? How could Osimhen not let up on some of his demands to facilitate a mutually beneficial exit? His only hope is that another Saudi club comes in and rescues him before the transfer window in the Middle East closes in October. If that doesn’t happen, he’ll have to sacrifice months of his prime on the sidelines and bide his time until the transfer window reopens in January.

Chelsea kicking problems down the road 🥾

Chelsea may have a squad of around 30 players by the time the dust settles, down from the 42 that threatened to destabilize Enzo Maresca’s first season at the helm. But many of the players they’ve shed will, at some point, be back. Chelsea couldn’t possibly accept anything other than loan deals for healthy scratches banished from first-team activities. No club was ever going to pay top dollar for Chelsea’s afterthought. They were too desperate to get rid of these guys to have possibly preserved their value.

It’s why Arsenal’s deal for Raheem Sterling is only temporary and on incredibly favourable terms, with the Gunners reportedly paying less than 50% of his £325,000 weekly salary for the season. It’s why Crystal Palace won’t sign Trevoh Chalobah on anything other than a loan deal, and why Chelsea couldn’t find anyone willing to pay a transfer fee up front for Armando Broja. Even Strasbourg, owned by the same U.S. consortium that runs Chelsea, reportedly backed out of a potential €21-million move for Deivid Washington, the seldom-used prospect Chelsea signed just a year ago. No amount of back-patting could save them here.

Still, it is something. And as if to reward themselves for doing anything at all to alleviate their situation, Chelsea reportedly struck a deal with Manchester United to sign Jadon Sancho on loan with a £25-million obligation to buy. Who cares if Maresca already has three viable left-wingers? Chelsea must have another.

What’s with Milan’s Chelsea love affair? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

AC Milan clearly see value in players Chelsea have sold or deemed surplus to requirements in recent years, or else they wouldn’t have added another of their ex-players to their ranks Friday.

English forward Tammy Abraham joins former Blues Alvaro Morata, Christian Pulisic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and Fikayo Tomori at Milan after being added on loan from Roma. Abraham will back up Morata and reunite with Tomori, a close friend and fellow graduate of Chelsea’s academy.

Milan have signed these players mostly because the price has been right. Pulisic has proven himself well worth the reported €20 million Milan paid to sign him last season, and the rest cost them a reported €65 million combined. The Rossoneri have filled out their squad with Chelsea’s leftovers at half the usual cost of players of their standing.

Chelsea didn’t get rid of these players because they weren’t good enough. They sacrificed pretty much all of them for financial reasons. They sold Abraham to Roma in August 2021 for €40 million and Tomori to Milan for a reported €35 million, recording those amounts as pure profit, while pocketing fees for Loftus-Cheek and Pulisic before they walked away for nothing.

The more players Chelsea sign, the more likely they are to part with talent they just can’t accommodate. Think of the way they gifted Mateo Kovacic to Manchester City or Jorginho to Arsenal. There are bargains to be had in west London.

Youth players raised for slaughter 😡

Manchester United sold Scott McTominay to Napoli for a reported €30 million primarily because he offered them a profit. He’s not the first academy graduate or the last to be sacrified for financial gain. But the trend, particularly among Premier League clubs, is concerning. Many teams, including Manchester United, Aston Villa, and Chelsea, have traded their youngsters like cattle, raising them not as prospects but as assets to flog just so that they could stay within the league’s financial guidelines.

“We have to discuss the rules, when you have to sell and obviously homegrown and academy players bring more value, that’s not the right thing to do,” United manager Erik ten Hag admitted Friday. “But I think for everyone, for all parts it’s a good deal, for Scott he’s happy with it, for Napoli a very good player, but also for us.”

McTominay isn’t exactly being exiled to the island of Elba. He’s heading to Napoli, where he’ll likely get more minutes, and he’ll find a manager in Antonio Conte who appreciates the versatility the Scottish midfielder offers. But he’s no different than Lewis Hall, the homegrown defender Chelsea sold to Newcastle for a reported £28 million last year, or Lewis Dobbin, an Evertonian who came through the club’s youth academy, then dealt to Aston Villa as part of a mutually beneficial exchange of homegrown players. It feels wrong. It is wrong. It eats at the romance of football and reduces it ever more to a cynical business.

Do we blame the rules of the game or the clubs playing it? Maybe Manchester United and Everton wouldn’t have to sacrifice their born and bred if they didn’t upend their balance sheet during one of their many spending sprees.

Will Man City regret standing pat? 🤔

Manchester City chose not to replace Julian Alvarez after selling him to Atletico Madrid, a move manager Pep Guardiola described as a potential “mistake” that could leave him without a viable replacement if Erling Haaland is ever out long term.

Remarkably, City have spent less than any other Premier League team, dropping a meager €25 million to sign Savinho from Troyes, according to transfermarkt.com. They also brought back Ilkay Gundogan on a free transfer. It doesn’t appear their relative stasis has been financially motivated, but City may have found it prudent to lay low as they prepare to fight the 115 charges against them for financial breaches.

They may have also found solutions from within. Oscar Bobb has the makings of a tricky winger and will return from injury soon. Phil Foden remains a versatile option along the front line. Even Gundogan has proven himself in an attacking role, having scored so many crucial goals for City down the stretch of the 2022-23 season.

It’s also refreshing to see a club look inward and give chances to youth players. Guardiola name-dropped central midfielder James McAtee as a solution to any shortcomings and admitted he’d rather not have a bunch of players sitting unhappy on the sidelines.

Toney’s Saudi move disappoints 😔

Only eight months ago, Brentford were demanding over £100 million for Ivan Toney. Back then, a bidding war between Chelsea and Manchester United seemed likely. Now, he’s completed a €40-million move to Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ahli, a fraction of the sky-high figure Brentford seemed so confident to collect in January.

Brentford clearly misread the market for Toney, and perhaps the player did himself. After serving a months-long betting ban, Toney has essentially chosen to further bury his career prospects for the riches of Saudi Arabia. There goes his international career, the visibility that the Premier League brings, and perhaps any shot at playing in the Champions League.

That’s not to judge Toney for taking the money. Rejecting €20 million per season, as he’s reportedly set to earn, can’t be easy, especially for a player who’s had to claw his way to relevance from the lower leagues. He’s earned his payday.

But certain hopes die with this move. Toney was shaping up to be Harry Kane’s heir for England. He was a Premier League Golden Boot winner in the making. He was ready for a top club. Maybe those prospects have passed him anyway. But now it’s all but official.

Palace resist huge bids for Guehi 🚫

You have to give Crystal Palace some credit. Newcastle reportedly submitted four bids for Marc Guehi, going as high as £65 million, but Palace rejected all of them, knowing the hole he’d leave in their defense would cost them much more.

“Congrats to Crystal Palace, to the chairman, to the owners, to everyone, that they didn’t give in. Especially after the transfer of Joachim Andersen, it was very important that Marc stays,” Palace manager Oliver Glasner told reporters. “Thank you to Marc. We always were close and talking a lot. All of the rumours didn’t influence his performance, his mood, his (professionalism).

“He always told me he is not pushing to leave Crystal Palace, and that’s always for me the most important thing.”

Palace managed to reinforce their defense without selling Guehi. Andersen’s replacement, Wolfsburg defender Maxence Lacroix, arrived Friday for a reported €18 million, and Chelsea’s Trevoh Chalobah is reportedly set to join on loan.

Guehi is coming off impressive showings with England at Euro 2024 and has two years remaining on his contract.

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Visit theScore’s Premier League transfer tracker to get caught up on every EPL signing of the 2024 summer window.