Ten predictions for the 2023 summer transfer window based on 2022 includes Sadio Mane to Chelsea
Assuming Premier League sides will follow the same strategies as in the summer of 2022, we’ve made some predictions for the upcoming window.
Could Frenkie de Jong be the new Frenkie de Jong? Which Brighton players will leave and become immediately terrible? Which ‘average’ centre-back will Manchester City sign? And which forward will arrive at Anfield out of nowhere?
Sadio Mane to Chelsea
‘Who needs goals?’ asked the owners for two-and-half months before Thomas Tuchel declared that Chelsea do and persuaded them to sign his old stooge Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on deadline day. Old is the operative word; cr*p is another one.
Reports suggest Chelsea will sign another striker with Aubameyang a goner, and while Victor Osimhen, Rasmus Hojlund and Lautaro Martinez sound like good options, why go for them when there’s an over-the-hill forward available who’s played in the Premier League but is no longer cut out for the pace of it?
A Frenkie de Jong transfer saga
Frenkie de Jong this, Frenkie de Jong that. The transfer guff was incredibly tiresome and all should have been avoided by Manchester United taking the midfielder at his word – De Jong had zero interest in leaving Barcelona.
It would be great if the Frenkie de Jong transfer saga of this summer was another Frenkie de Jong transfer saga as Football365 alter the timestamps for the 427 transfer stories by a year, but reports claim Erik ten Hag has ‘learnt his lesson’ with regard to his former Ajax star.
Kim Min-jae is an early candidate, but it looks like he actually wants to go to United, which is a bit of a shame.
Arsenal’s Man City offcuts
Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko looked for a long while like transfer strokes of genius that would win Arsenal the title, but Pep Guardiola was toying with them, knowing one would get injured and the other would become one of the chief bottlers.
Ilkay Gundogan’s been linked with the Emirates at the end of his contract, which would be a coup far beyond the additions of last summer and also quite the blow to Guardiola, who would presumably be showing the German pictures of Barceloneta Beach and shoving patatas bravas down his throat in a bid to push him elsewhere.
Joao Cancelo is another likely acquisition having left City on loan five months before the Treble. Ouch.
Liverpool to sign another forward
Alexis Mac Allister has arrived so that’s the midfield sorted – time for another forward. Liverpool just can’t help themselves.
Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo have all arrived in under three years, which is significant even before you realise they hadn’t signed a single midfielder in that time. They normally come out of nowhere too, with zero indication that Liverpool want or indeed need a forward leading up to the point that they sign another one.
Flops from Brighton
Mac Allister and Moises Caicedo have been utterly brilliant and it seems inconceivable that they wouldn’t continue to be brilliant elsewhere, but then there weren’t too many doubting Marc Cucurella and Yves Bissouma, both of whom have a case for being the worst Premier League players of the season. To be fair, there were plenty of people doubting Neal Maupay, but that’s Everton for you.
Mac Allister and Caicedo do seem like a level above, and the former has also just won the World Cup, so his qualities have already proven to stretch beyond the sweet confines of the Brighton talent factory.
It feels like Kaoru Mitoma and Pervis Estpuninan are the more likely candidates to flop away from the Amex should they be lured elsewhere, brilliant though they’ve been.
‘Average’ centre-back to Man City
£40m for Nathan Ake seemed like a lot for an average centre-back and Manuel Akanji had to be average because he only cost £15m. Both have been critical in Guardiola’s formation shift which has seen them win the Treble at a canter.
You’ve got to wonder how many more mediocre centre-backs he can get into the side? Could he stick a pair of goalkeeping gloves on Robin Koch? How many goals could Eric Dier bag as second striker to Erling Haaland?
Manchester United paying over the odds
Antony’s market value was €35m when United signed him for €95m from the pants-pullers at Ajax, and he just about performed as a €35m player should in his first season: eight goals, three assists, some (mostly pointless) trickery and plenty of pundit scoffing.
His primary use since arriving in England has been as a barometer for other selling clubs, with their argument for lofty price tags as simple as ‘If Antony cost that much, Player X is worth three times what you’re offering’.
And that’s sure to hurt United in their bid to sign a striker this summer, with the Antony tax meaning Randal Kolo Muani will cost them £200m and Victor Osimhen £300m.
Chelsea spend a fortune
£600m spent in one season and laughably little to show for it. Chelsea still need a striker, two or three central midfielders (depending on who leaves) and a goalkeeper. That’s what? Another £300m? And that’s without knowledge of players we assume they’ll keep but Mauricio Pochettino may actually want replacements for.
Tottenham spend £100m on nothing
Richarlison (£53m), Bissouma (£25m) and Djed Spence (£20m) made 22 starts combined in the Premier League for Spurs last season, with the latter playing for just five minutes before moving on loan to Rennes in January.
It’s no wonder Daniel Levy won’t accept £100m for Harry Kane from Manchester United when this is what he gets for that amount of money.
Newcastle win the window
They signed Nick Pope for £10m and Sven Botman for £33m, who were both key to the meanest defence in the Premier League, and Alexander Isak, who dazzled with his dribbling skill and fine finishing, for £59m. They’ve got frustratingly little wrong as a nation state football entity.
Latest reports suggest they’re ‘on pole’ for James Maddison, who again feels as though he would slot in perfectly, while Raphinha is also on their hit list.
