{"id":20208,"date":"2026-07-22T21:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T21:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=20208"},"modified":"2026-07-22T21:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T21:07:11","slug":"chelseas-financial-shrug-and-liverpool-leaking-players-what-you-may-have-missed-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=20208","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea\u2019s financial shrug and Liverpool leaking players \u2013 what you may have missed | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"
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TIME FOR A RECAP<\/strong><\/h2>\n
After the eye-watering excess of the Geopolitics World Cup, we can return to the modest, measured land of the domestic game. While our attention has been elsewhere, Manchester City have splashed \u00a3116m on Elliot Anderson. Chelsea, not to be outshone, have splurged \u00a3117m on Morgan Rogers. Even Tottenham have parted with \u00a3230m to revamp their mildly traumatised squad. Manchester United, who went down to Wrexham in their first pre-season friendly in Helsinki, have kept things modest, buying Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans for the same \u00a385m Spurs have thrown in the direction of relegation\u2019s West Ham for Mateus Fernandes.<\/p>\n
Liverpool, who blew all their dosh last summer, are one of three Premier League heavyweights under new management. Andoni Iraola, it seems, is more concerned with stemming the flow of departures from his inherited squad after Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 all slipped out. The smiley Spaniard gave his transfer strategy away this week and blurted: \u201cI want to keep my good players.\u201d Any big club with a short memory will be keen on Alexis Mac Allister, while Iraola is also keen to hold on to his experienced players. \u201cWe need the references like Virgil (van Dijk), Alisson, Joe Gomez,\u201d he doubletaked from the USA USA USA, where Liverpool will take on exotic friendly opposition in Sunderland, Wrexham and Leeds.<\/p>\n
Over at Chelsea, Xabi Alonso was last seen standing over the shoulder of club-record fee\u2019s Rogers as he signed his contract, presumably to make sure he didn\u2019t do a runner. The nine-figure outlay is an expensive way of keeping Rogers\u2019 good mate Cole Palmer happy and a sort of financial shoulder shrug from a club who posted a \u00a3355m loss in the 2024-25 season. Chelsea have also spent more than \u00a3100m on Marco Palestra, Geovany Quenda and Emmanuel Emegha (all real players) this summer as they bid to reach the holy grail that is Tin Pot qualification. Pre-season takes them to Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia \u2013 but Marc Cucurella won\u2019t be there. He\u2019s been shipped off to Real Madrid, raising funds for the polish needed to keep that glorious Copa Gianni shiny, Chelsea wondering if he still thinks about them.<\/p>\n
Manchester City have moved on from the Pep Guardiola era by auctioning off the contents of his office for charity, including his whistle, notes, desk chair and coffee cups. Football Daily was outbid for his incense collection, which reached \u00a31,294 this morning. Enzo Maresca can console himself with the arrival of Anderson, another of England\u2019s brave bronze medallists, before City fly out to Hong Kong for a meeting with Inter in the Asahi Super Dry Trophy. That\u2019s followed by dates with the K League All-Stars and Atl\u00e9tico Madrid in Seoul. \u201cCity is an incredibly well-run football club,\u201d Maresca tooted, no doubt remembering his days at Stamford Bridge. Amid the GWC noise, Chelsea produced a statement blaming last season\u2019s failings on \u201cthe disruption caused\u201d by Maresca\u2019s resignation in January. They referred to him as \u201cthe Head Coach\u201d throughout with the sort of bitterness and rogue capital letters you\u2019d expect from a Truth Social post. If Donald Trump has really fallen for soccer, maybe he\u2019ll be there to gatecrash another trophy celebration in August. Roll on the Community Shield!<\/p>\n