The end of the summer transfer window is in sight and it looks certain to be a busy final day, with Premier League clubs scrambling to improve their squads and shift players who are deemed surplus to requirements. Please remember there are few certainties in the market and things can change at any moment — but here are the latest updates as the day begins.
Tottenham trialling COVID-19 test to speed up results
As football continues its quest to create a COVID-secure environment for players, staff and supporters, The Athletic understands Tottenham Hotspur have been trialling a test at their training ground that produces almost instant results and is giving real cause for encouragement.
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Spurs have been running the experiment over the past month alongside the Premier League’s official testing procedure and sources say it has returned virtually identical readings.
The test, produced by Israeli company NanoScent, involves breathing through a breathalyser device into a plastic bag. Breath is filtered over electronic sensors that can detect the virus in just 30 seconds, at a reliability rate of around 85 per cent, according to Forbes. That is below the stated 98.8 per cent accuracy of the Premier League’s testing system — administered by Prenetics — but those results take around 24 hours to be returned from laboratories.
Premier League officials are watching closely, to potentially adopt the breathalyser tests in the restricted “red zones” that are now commonplace in stadiums up and down the country. However, even if they explore quicker testing solutions, they would not want this to come at the expense of accuracy.
There is also the potential for the eventual return of supporters, which was delayed yet again when prime minister Boris Johnson announced a range of new restrictions last month. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has repeatedly urged the government to find a way for fans to return to stadiums and has been spearheading a drive within the football industry to find technological solutions to the pandemic.
Loftus-Cheek and Alli may wait until January for moves with England in mind
Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Dele Alli are two England midfielders who need to be playing first-team football if they are to regain their places in Gareth Southgate’s squad before the delayed Euro 2020. But with the transfer window drawing towards a close, it appears increasingly likely that the pair will have to wait until January before their short-term futures are resolved.
There has been plenty of interest in Loftus-Cheek, who has been omitted from Chelsea’s last five match-day squads, with Southampton and West Ham United among his admirers. However, most suitors for the 24-year-old have so far struggled to find the squad space or finance required to prise him from Chelsea on loan, which means he looks set to remain at Stamford Bridge for the time being.
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Tottenham’s Alli, a team-mate of Loftus-Cheek at the 2018 World Cup, finds himself in a similar position. Having fallen out of favour with Jose Mourinho, he has been pursued by Paris Saint-Germain and the French champions have attempted to sign him on loan. But Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is reluctant to offload Alli, also 24, and would only change that stance if the club received an offer that was too good to refuse. At this stage of the market, that is not expected.
Therefore Alli, like Loftus-Cheek, will most probably remain in London and reassess his situation in January. The delayed start to the season has resulted in the winter window being only three months away, so many of the deals explored in recent weeks could easily be revisited then.
Everton streamline scouting operation
Everton’s impressive transfer window has not stopped them from working to improve their recruitment set-up, with a restructure of the department well underway.
The arrivals of James Rodriguez, Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure have contributed to a 100 per cent start to the season, but the man responsible for bringing them in — director of football Marcel Brands — is determined to make the club’s transfer operation even better.
Several employees have been asked to reapply for positions and that stretches as far as the senior scout Jamie Hoyland.
Everton’s recruitment lead in Italy, Carlo Jacomuzzi, was let go on Friday, which has surprised some in the industry as he is a highly-regarded talent spotter.
Their Portuguese scout Ricardo Figueiredo is another whose contract has not been renewed and he is actively seeking new opportunities. Figueiredo was initially brought in by former Everton manager Marco Silva.
Everton’s scout in Germany left before his deal ran out as he has a job offer from Monaco.
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Those international scouts have not been given the chance to reapply for jobs after being released when their contracts expired at the end of September. However, they will be replaced in some capacity. A source told The Athletic the club would be working more with scouting staff in England after the restructure.
Brands, whose own deal expires next summer, has been delivering the news himself. The decision to cut staff has jarred with some after a summer in which Everton spent close to £50 million improving Carlo Ancelotti’s first team.
COVID-19 bubbles beginning to affect youth teams’ fitness
There is simmering frustration among some at Premier League academy level as first-team bubbles begin to affect the fitness of youth players, sources say.
Training schedules for under-21s are being altered to fit around senior sessions so that the risk of COVID-19 contamination is kept to an absolute minimum, with at least one club requiring youth players to turn up in the evening.
Some clubs are even limiting the time academy players have at the training ground but still requiring teams to complete fixtures, and sources allege this has led to a rise in soft tissue injuries.
Young players are also, on occasions, being kept out of club canteens to ensure there is no possible spread of the virus, but the standard of replacement food has been questioned. A lack of testing at academy level has been raised as the issue.
“Nobody wants any first-team players to be compromised or jeopardised at all,” says a source. “So they are being overly cautious.”
Laurie Whitwell
I didn’t congratulate Liverpool after title win, says Klopp’s former assistant Buvac
In April 2018, assistant coach Zeljko Buvac, once generously dubbed “The Brain” by Jurgen Klopp, left Liverpool after a breakdown of their 17-year-managerial relationship. Neither man ever commented on the reasons for their estrangement. But attitudes don’t seem to have softened much in the interim. Buvac, now sporting director of Dynamo Moscow, told Russian journalist Nobel Arustamyan that he didn’t offer any congratulations to Klopp or anyone else for that matter when the club won their first Premier League for 30 years this summer. “I didn’t,” Buvac said. “I was happy for Liverpool, for the fans, for the players. But I didn’t.” Note the omission of Klopp’s name.
In a section of Arustamyan’s YouTube feature, which is set to publish on the channel tomorrow, Buvac also said he had turned down many offers from clubs to take over as head coach before agreeing to the sporting director role in the Russian capital: “I don’t want to be a manager now. If Barcelona calls me, then I’ll think about it, but otherwise no. You say I’m here just to stay occupied and wait for a better chance. But if you knew what kind of offers I had rejected during the pause in my career, you wouldn’t have said that. But I won’t tell you which clubs”.
The former Mainz 05 midfielder, who had been Klopp’s confidant since 2001, pointedly explained that coaching held no appeal to him, “because it felt like I’ve been the manager for all those 17 years (with Klopp at Mainz, Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool). I did the job of a manager, except speaking in public and giving interviews. Apart from that, I had all the functions and tried to influence my team as much as I could to help them succeed. But I didn’t need that kind of attention.” Klopp will no doubt be delighted to hear that.
Raphael Honigstein
Gunnersaurus latest victim of Arsenal cost-cutting
Arsenal’s COVID-19 cuts have claimed another victim in the shape of dinosaur mascot Gunnersaurus. Jerry Quy, who has played the role since its inception in 1993, has been let go as part of the club’s ongoing streamlining process.
In August, Arsenal announced the decision to make 55 redundancies due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the club’s finances. Many departments have been affected, from scouting through to retail and marketing. As a part-time role, Quy’s departure is not counted among the 55, but is nevertheless part of the same cost-cutting process. The absence of fans has had a significant impact on a club who rely on match-day revenue more than their competitors — and with no supporters in the ground, Quy’s Gunnersaurus role has been deemed no longer necessary.
A hugely popular figure, Quy had a longstanding association with Arsenal, having worked with both the Junior Gunners and the Travel Club. An Arsenal fan since attending his first match in 1963, his devotion to the club has known few bounds — he even missed his brother’s wedding to attend a home game.
Quy was the man inside the iconic Gunnersaurus suit at most Arsenal games, although his identity was a close-guarded secret. He did not travel on pre-season tours — on those occasions, the suit was worn by either a local or another member of Arsenal staff. When the coronavirus outbreak struck, the Gunnersaurus suit was stowed at Quy’s home, which led to a series of candid shots of “Gunnersaurus at home”.
Arsenal confirmed Quy had left his post as they strive to do everything more efficiently. However, they insisted the beloved mascot will return.
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