Transfer deadline day might have already been and gone in Britain, but in many European countries it remains open until Monday and some huge deals could still be struck.
Most of the big-money moves are likely to take place in Spain’s La Liga, where potential swoops by the big guns have dominated the headlines for much of the summer.
The biggest story, of course, has been the uncertainty over the future of a certain Brazilian superstar…
By far the most high-profile, drawn-out and costly move of the summer would be the return of Neymar to Barcelona from Paris St Germain.
On the face of it, the transfer should be simple: Neymar wants to join Barca, PSG want him out and Barca want him in. But the deal is beset by political boardroom machinations deep enough to make Brexit look like a playground squabble over hopscotch, so it has been very difficult to get
over the finishing line.
A big complication is that Barca don’t have enough money, they even had to take out a bank loan to complete the signing of Antoine Griezmann from Atletico Madrid earlier in the summer. The Catalan club have been trying to conjure up creative alternatives, such as a player-exchange or a
loan deal with a compulsory purchase clause, but none of these have been accepted by PSG.
The French club rejected Barca’s latest offer following two days of talks earlier this week, and reports on Saturday claimed that Neymar has now given up on sealing the move despite the clubs agreeing a valuation of around 200 million euros. However, given the secretive and shady nature of this particular deal, that could be no more than another outbreak of mind games. It’s probably safest not to believe anything until the final bell has sounded.
