With kick off to the Premier League still a month away, we have lots of time to indulge in its Human Resources.
We'll start with Liverpool, whose pursual of top names continues with the signing of three-time Estonian Player of the Year Ragnar Klavan. The most remarkable thing about Klavan is that we have a picture of him on file, but virtue of his appearance against Ireland in the Euro 2012 play-offs.
Klavan arrives for around £4 million from Augsburg, and will provide some much-needed defensive cover for a side without the services of Mamadou Sakho and Joe Gomez for the beginning of the season, and those of Kolo Toure and Martin Skrtel FOREVER, following Toure's release and Skrtel's move to Fenerbache.
Liverpool are also on the verge of adding a 143rd midfielder to the squad, with Newcastle's Dutch midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum subject of interest from Jurgen Klopp. Newcastle are trying to hold out for £27 million for Wijnaldum, with Liverpool confident that they can seal the deal for £20 million, as per Chris Bascombe of The Telegraph.
Elsewhere, Joe Allen is being linked with an audacious move across the streams to Manchester United. Allen's contract is running out at Liverpool, and he has been linked a move away from Anfield in search of first-team football. Given that, and the fact that no player has made a direct transfer between United and Liverpool in 53 years, it's all rather surprising.
Antonio Conte's reign at Chelsea began with a two-goal friendly defeat to Rapid Vienna, and contrary to initial reports, it seems like Diego Costa is perfectly happy at being indulged at Stamford Bridge. Reports from AS in Spain claimed that Costa was unhappy in England and wanted to return to Spain, but the Evening Standard Sport have refuted the claims this afternoon:
Been told that Diego Costa hasn't handed in a transfer request, is training hard with the squad today and will be staying at #cfc
— Simon Johnson (@SJohnsonSport) July 18, 2016
Irish international Simon Cox has bagged a move to Southend United in League One, and sadly not Southampton, which would have offered him the chance to rekindle one of the best-named partnerships in football: Long/Cox. This is second only to former Celtic defensive partnership of Tebily/Shidte.
Everton are believed to be interested in signing Portugal's Euros heroes Rui Patricio and William Carvalho, while Leicester and West Ham are in competition for the signing of Wissam Ben Yedder, a French striker from Toulouse. Should either club make the signing, it would continue the siphoning off of Ligue Un talent to the Premier League. Consider this Marseille line-up from the 2014-15 season, all of whom have now left the club:
