LIVE Transfer Talk: Ronaldo to make Fenerbahce move?

The summer transfer window is closed for the major leagues in Europe. However, with an eye on January, there’s plenty of gossip swirling about who’s moving where. Transfer Talk brings you all the latest buzz on rumours, comings, goings and, of course, done deals!

TOP STORY: Fenerbahce to make move for Ronaldo?

The Cristiano Ronaldo saga took a late deadline day twist on Thursday with reports in Turkey indicating that the 37-year-old Manchester United striker has agreed in principle to join Fenerbahce.

Ajansspor says that only the final details are required before the move can become official, after the Portugal international reached an agreement with Fenerbahce president Ali Koc.

It is reported that Ronaldo met with manager Jorge Jesus, who was able to persuade his compatriot to make the switch to the Super Lig, and with the transfer window now closed across Europe’s top leagues, the Yellow Canaries are optimistic of landing him ahead of other suitors.

The transfer market remains open until Sept. 8 in Turkey, giving Fenerbahce until then to reach an agreement over a fee with United, who have won their last three Premier League games in which Erik ten Hag has named Ronaldo among the substitutes.

Fenerbahce have also signed Chelsea striker Michy Batshuayi, after his deal collapsed with Nottingham Forest late in the window.

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LIVE BLOG

16.00 BST: Barcelona landed Arsenal defender Hector Bellerin on a free transfer.

14.40 BST: Pep Guardiola says Manchester City were forced into the transfer market to sign Manuel Akanji over fears about Aymeric Laporte’s fitness.

City completed the €17.5m signing of Akanji from Borussia Dortmund on deadline day. And Guardiola says the decision was partly down to the availability of Laporte, who has not played this season after undergoing knee surgery in the summer.

“We have four incredible centre-backs before but sometimes we’ve had it tough with injuries,” Guardiola told a news conference on Friday. “Some are getting better but a month or month and a half [for Laporte] and Nathan [Ake] could not play [the last two games].

“So we’ve just had two centre-backs. We had an opportunity to bring him [Akanji], one year left in Dortmund, a lot of experience, he’s perfect for what we need and we’re very pleased to have him here as competition.”

14.16 BST: Mikel Arteta has admitted his frustration at Arsenal’s failure to sign a midfielder on deadline day after confirming Mohamed Elneny will be sidelined for several months with a hamstring injury.

Sources told ESPN that the Gunners had three bids rejected for Aston Villa’s Douglas Luiz on Thursday — the last of which was worth £25m — as they tried to bolster their midfield options in the wake of setbacks for Elneny and Thomas Partey.

Asked about his disappointment at missing out on Luiz, Arteta told a news conference: “Listen, we had a lot of things still to do in the squad. You see the amount of departures comparing to the players that we have recruited.

“The club has done a phenomenal job and put everything on the table to try to bring the players and the profiles we wanted. We did business pretty early but unfortunately in the last 72 hours, Thomas got injured in the same place he got injured last time and then Mo has a long-term injury and we had to react in the market. We tried but at the end of the day, we have to bring the player that we feel is the right player for the team and as well for the club and we didn’t manage to do that.”

Villa were adamant they would not let Luiz depart, with Danilo at Palmeiras one of several other players under consideration. However, Arteta suggested the club were determined not to overpay or panic late in the window after past mistakes.

“We have our limitations,” he said. “Time was a big limitation with what happens in the last 72 hours in our midfield and we tried to act but we didn’t find the right player.

“We have learned a lot from that and the players we have to get out, we only have to bring top talent, top quality people through that door and be very disciplined. In those moments, you can make huge mistakes that can cost the club and the team a lot, not in the near future but maybe a little bit ahead and we want to avoid that as much as possible.”

13.55 BST: Premier League clubs have broken their transfer spending record for a season in the summer window alone, spending £1.9 billion ($2.2bn) during the period, according to analysis from finance company Deloitte.

The summer transfer window, which closed on Thursday, beat the previous record of £1.86bn ($2.5bn) spent in a whole season, which was set in 2017-18.

It also beat the previous summer spending record of £1.4bn ($1.6bn) set in 2017.

Several other records were broken in the same window, including Premier League clubs spending more than Spain’s LaLiga, Italy’s Serie A and the German Bundesliga combined.

13.34 BST: Former Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen has left Benfica and joined Anderlecht on a two-year deal.

Vertonghen, 35, has 139 caps for Belgium but has never competed in the Belgian league, having signed for Ajax Amsterdam in the Netherlands as a teenager and then playing over 300 games at Tottenham before spending the last two season at Benfica in Portugal.

The move allows the central defender to continue to play regularly and keep up his place in the Belgium national team, who are headed to the World Cup in Qatar later this year.

13.00 BST: ICYMI — news of two USMNT stars from Thursday.

– AC Milan have completed the signing of United States international Sergino Dest on a season-long loan from Barcelona. The Serie A champions have an option to make the deal permanent next summer for €20m.

ESPN reported earlier this summer that Barca coach Xavi Hernandez had told Dest he was no longer part of his plans. Dest, 21, initially said he wanted to stay at Camp Nou but changed his mind after being left out of the squad for the opening three games of the season. The defender is set to feature for U.S. at the World Cup, which begins in November, and he decided the offer from Milan, who will play in the Champions League this season, was too good to turn down.

– Christian Pulisic will stay at Chelsea at least until January after the summer transfer window closed without a move materializing.

Pulisic has yet to start any of Chelsea’s first five games of the Premier League season, appearing for a total of 95 minutes off the substitutes’ bench. The 23-year-old has been linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge this summer in order to find regular playing time ahead of the 2022 World Cup, which starts in November.

ESPN reported last month that Pulisic held talks with Chelsea over his future. One source with knowledge of the discussions told ESPN that Pulisic was informed he would be used primarily as an impact player, but with every chance he could break into the first team.

11.42 BST: Fenerbache have signed Chelsea striker Michy Batshuayi after his deadline day move to Nottingham Forest collapsed.

Batshuayi, 28, scored 14 goals in 42 games on loan at Besiktas last season but has returned to Stamford Bridge and has struggled for game time.

He is now set to head back to the Turkish league.

11.20 BST: Man United’s big-money moves for Antony, Casemiro revealed manager Erik ten Hag’s growing authority. ESPN’s Rob Dawson goes inside the club’s summer transfer dealings.

Ten Hag has got almost everything he wanted this summer, but it has also been a window (also dominated by the saga of Cristiano Ronaldo ultimately staying put) that has, at times, appeared haphazard and reflected what has been a struggle for authority behind the scenes.

In the end, United have signed more players and spent more money than they originally planned, and much of that has been down to Ten Hag’s own persistence. Sources have told ESPN that, more than once, the club were keen to walk away from negotiations with Ajax regarding Antony. The Brazil winger was a player identified as a possible target as early as March, but Ajax’s valuation of more than €80m made the deal problematic from the start.

It was agreed that other attacking options would be considered with Chelsea’s Christian Pulisic and Borussia Monchengladbach’s Marcus Thuram put forward by the recruitment department, and PSV’s Cody Gakpo, who shares an agency with Ten Hag, proposed by the manager.

Deals for each were discussed internally, but Ten Hag insisted Antony was still the best fit and implored the club to go back to the negotiating table. By that point Ajax felt emboldened to ask for more — in part to cover solidarity payments owed to Antony’s former clubs — having already raised more than €116m in outgoings. United saw an €80m bid rejected and when an improved €90m offer was also turned down, recruitment chiefs wanted to end negotiations.

It was only after Ten Hag stepped in again that an agreement was reached for an initial €95m with another €5m in add-ons to make Antony the second-most-expensive signing in the club’s history behind Paul Pogba when he arrived from Juventus in 2016 for €105m.

11.00 BST: Chelsea signed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for €12m, but should they have?

09.45 BST: Nottingham Forest made their 21st signing of the summer on Thursday, breaking the English record for the most arrivals in one transfer window.

Forest, who secured promotion to the Premier League last season, completed deals for defenders Loic Bade, from Rennes, and Willy Boly, from Wolves, as well as winger Josh Bowler from Blackpool on a hectic final day of the transfer window. Bowler was subsequently loaned to Greek side Olympiakos for the remainder of the season.

The previous record for most signings by an English club in one transfer window was Crystal Palace’s 17 in the summer of 2013, according to Transfermarkt.

Forest’s total could yet increase further with reports that they had agreed a deal to sign free agent Serge Aurier.

09.32 BST: Real Betis midfielder William Carvalho has signed a new contract until June 2024.

I’ll start.#WilliamExtension pic.twitter.com/g58ezbMawW

— Real Betis Balompié (@RealBetis_en) September 2, 2022

09.11 BST: Arsenal‘s deadline day attempts to sign Douglas Luiz saw Aston Villa reject a third bid for the midfielder in the region of £25m, sources have told ESPN’s James Olley.

With just over an hour of the window remaining, Arsenal had a third offer for the 24-year-old turned down after seeing previous bids of £20m and £23m rejected earlier on Thursday.

Villa were adamant throughout negotiations that Luiz would not leave, despite the Brazil international having just one year remaining on his contract. Sources have told ESPN that Villa have not given up convincing Luiz to sign a new deal.

09.00 BST: Chelsea announced last night that left-back Marcos Alonso‘s contract was terminated by mutual consent.

The Spain international, who spent six years with Chelsea, is set to join Barcelona and is set to be presented today on a free transfer.

PAPER GOSSIP

– PSG offered Manchester City the chance to sign Neymar at the end of the window, says Marca. Neymar, the world’s most expensive player at €222m, is under the spotlight as his relationship with striker Kylian Mbappe has suffered in recent games. However, concerned at the impact Neymar would have on the City dressing room, Pep Guardiola said no.

– Mundo Deportivo claims that Real Betis are interested in signing former Man United forward Juan Mata. The 34-year-old is a free agent after leaving United this summer and has also been linked with a move to his old club Valencia.

– Chelsea made a €50m bid to sign Ajax and Mexico midfielder Edson Alvarez, sources have told ESPN, but De Telegraaf claims the Dutch club did not allow him to leave as they felt they had lost too many players this summer. The 24-year-old refused to train in order to push through a move but was told in a meeting with Ajax technical manager Gerry Hamstra and ex-striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar that he would not be allowed to move.

– Calciomercato says that AC Milan were ready to move for Arsenal forward Gabriel Martinelli if Chelsea landed Rafael Leao. The Blues reportedly made a bid of €80m plus players to sign the Portugal forward, but Milan rejected it.