Analysis

Newcastle qualified for the Champions League in the 2022/23 season in their first season under Saudi Arabian ownership, and then they slid back to disappointment in the 2023/24 season, failing to qualify for the Champions League and build on their success. Faced with the need to have a big summer, Newcastle ended up with a poor offseason, signing no new starters and instead focusing heavily on depth players. Not all was bad for Newcastle this summer, but for what was needed to get back to the Champions League level, this window was clearly lacking. So here are the grades for all of Newcastle's summer 2024 signings, with prices coming from Transfermarkt. GK Odysseas Vlachodimos, €23.6M Odysseas Vlachodimos is a very good goalkeeper who is capable of challenging Nick Pope as the new ...

As was rumored for about a week, Chelsea have secured the signing of Jadon Sancho from Manchester United, acquiring one of England's most talented wingers on loan with an unknown obligation to buy attached. The move brings a proven Champions League commodity to Chelsea, and Sancho is capable of getting starts on either wing, with the left wing actually being the most pressing need in light of Mykhaylo Mudryk's inconsistency. Chelsea are beyond loaded on the flanks with Sancho entering the fray. Here is a look at how the Blues could potentially line up with the talented 24-year-old from Dortmund in the XI. Defense GK Filip Jorgensen - The new signing should be the nailed-on starter in goal ahead of Robert Sanchez, even if Enzo Maresca bizarrely wants to stick with the carryover star...

After weeks of speculation, Raheem Sterling has indeed made a move away from Chelsea. But instead of joining Manchester United in a swap deal for Jadon Sancho, the winger is heading to rivals Arsenal on loan, joining Kai Havertz as the latest talented attacker to make the London switch. So far things have worked out for Havertz, who turned his career around in the second half of the season for Arsenal, and there is reason to believe that Sterling can benefit significantly from a switch to the best club in London right now. Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was previously tight-lipped about the prospect of reuniting with Sterling, but we all should have known better than the sneakiest coach in the game had a trick up his sleeve. See, Sterling was a legitimate 20-goal winger at Mancheste...

West Ham are closing in on the signing of attacking midfielder Carlos Soler, who spent the last two seasons with PSG after previously scoring 11 goals in back-to-back seasons with Valencia in LaLiga. New West Ham manager Julen Lopetegui saw Soler's quality up close in Spanish football, and it seems like he is sold on the former Spanish national team player as a piece of the puzzle in London. Soler could be replacing 2023 signing James Ward-Prowse as a main attacking midfielder - of which Lopetegui has been deploying two recently for the Hammers. With new, talented faces in defense, midfield, and attack - including those with LaLiga ties like ex-Real Betis midfielder Guido Rodriguez - there is a great deal of optimism surrounding West Ham in 2024/25. Assuming all goes well and Sole...

Significant developments have come to light in the ongoing investigation into FC Barcelona's payments to José María Enríquez Negreira, the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA). In case you have forgotten, here is a quick recap of the FC Barcelona-Negreira scandal: Barcelona made payments totaling €7 million to José María Enríquez Negreira between 2001 and 2018 while he was the vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA). Barcelona stopped paying Negreira immediately after he left his position within the CTA. Joan Laporta quadrupled the payments to Negreira in 2009 during his first term as Barcelona president. In a testimony to tax administrators, Negreira stated that Barcelona hired him to ensure that refereeing was "neutral" and t...

Brighton are entering uncharted territory in the 2024/25 season. For one, their new manager, Fabian Hürzeler, is the youngest ever in Premier League history. More importantly, the 2024/25 season is Brighton’s first season in the Premier League without Pascal Groß.  The Seagulls sold Der Kaiser to his boyhood club Borussia Dortmund for £8m. Groß scored the club’s very first Premier League goal and left as their all-time top Premier League goalscorer and assist man. Not to mention his versatility. Groß played every position apart from goalkeeper during his seven-year spell as a Seagull.  Replacing a player like Groß is impossible, but I think Brighton have done the next best thing by signing Brajan Gruda. Brajan Gruda, the Groß replacement Out of all the skills that made Groß g...

After qualifying for the Europa League in the 2022/23 season, Brighton took a massive step back last season, finishing 11th in the league. The Seagulls have their eyes on qualifying for Europe again this season with new manager Fabian Hürzeler.  People have talked enough about Brighton’s 31-year-old manager; it’s time to look at the players who could take the club back to Europe this season. Here are the five Brighton players you need to know: RW Yankuba Minteh In typical Brighton fashion, the Seagulls may have pulled off the best signing of summer with their purchase of Yankuba Minteh from Newcastle for £30m.  The 20-year-old winger spent all of last season on loan with Arne Slot’s Feyenoord, where he had 10 goals and 5 assists in 27 league matches. He averaged 0.93 goal contribut...

Strikers have always been the glamor players in world football, and over the last 20 years, few goal-scorers made as many headlines as Robert Lewandowski and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Lewandowski is still going strong as one of the best strikers in Spanish football, likely finishing up his career with Barcelona after forcing a move away from Bayern Munich, where he became one of the greatest strikers of all time. Meanwhile, Zlatan, who also played for Barcelona briefly, is retired and enjoying the next step in his career as an executive for AC Milan, one of his former clubs. In fact, Zlatan played for all three powerhouses of Italian football, but perhaps his period was a largely overlooked tenure in Paris as the first face of the Qatari project before the arrivals of Neymar and Kylian Mba...