Ben Chilwell, Amad Diallo & Adrien Rabiot (Photos by Ryan Pierse, Steve Bardens & Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images)
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The market is still busy as we can see with some free agents, and one major update is we can now officially say that Adrien Rabiot is a new Marseille player. It’s another big signing for Roberto de Zerbi in this ambitious Marseille project, and he was involved in this deal, making the impossible possible.
As was widely reported throughout the summer, Rabiot also had other suitors. There were big, very big proposals from Turkey and Saudi but he only wanted to play in one of the European top leagues.
The Premier League was his dream but his salary requests were considered too expensive. OM have been excellent at working behind the scenes and getting it done for a reduced salary, convincing Rabiot of their project. They worked hard behind the scenes and now he’s a Marseille player on a two-year contract.
I keep getting a lot of questions about Liverpool and their situation with three star players – Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk – all out of contract at Anfield in 2025.
I can guarantee that for all three players the situation is the same, and that is that their priority is Liverpool, and conversations will follow. Let’s be patient and respect the parties negotiating and the timing of it all. There will be negotiations and then we’ll see what happens, but for now I can guarantee that nothing has been decided on Liverpool’s side or on the players’ side, they are still taking their time.
As I said in March earlier this year, Real Madrid keep following the situation of Alexander-Arnold, but this is very normal. Real Madrid are always following top players, and especially if they’re out of contract soon – this is their strategy and we know it very well.
So, yes, Real Madrid are attentive to Alexander-Arnold’s situation because he is one of the best players in the world. Still, at the moment it’s not a negotiation, it’s not like they’re reaching an agreement with the player, we are not at that stage at all, it’s just a case of monitoring the situation.
But again, let’s respect Liverpool and give them some time to negotiate and discuss and then we’ll see what happens, but it remains the case that Alexander-Arnold, as well as Salah and Van Dijk, are giving the priority to Liverpool.
Chelsea reached an agreement months ago to sign Estevao Willian, and they really believe internally that they’ve signed a future star. He’s not just an ordinary player, or even a very good player with very good potential, Chelsea believe he’s something really special.
This is why Chelsea invested important money in Estevao, who keeps on scoring and assisting for Palmeiras. This is good news for Chelsea ahead of his arrival, but it’s also good news for Palmeiras because they’re making money from it as part of their deal with Chelsea.
Chelsea are happy to see Estevao playing well and developing, and now they wait to see him in London in 2025. They keep watching him and waiting for him, and they are very happy with the potential he’s showing, as well as his attitude.
Elsewhere with Chelsea, Ben Chilwell is back with the Chelsea squad now for sure. Still, I don’t think he’s going to have a lot of space as Veiga and Cucurella remain main options at left-back, but he will fight for his place. For January, the expectation is still for Chilwell to look for a move somewhere else.
Bayern director Max Eberl has publicly confirmed that they are prepared to have face to face talks with Joshua Kimmich over a new deal. As we know, Kimmich is out of contract in 2025 and there has been plenty of speculation over his future.
Talks will take place, for sure; Bayern will offer Kimmich a new deal but it could be something that will take some time. Let’s see how talks will evolve, but Kimmich is open to speaking to Bayern for sure, despite links with Premier League clubs.
We heard a lot of rumours over the summer about Premier League clubs and others around Europe, but the reality is that the most concrete interest came from PSG. They ended up signing Joao Neves, and he was their top target in midfield, but they also considered internally if they could also sign Kimmich to play together in midfield with Neves.
PSG’s priority was Neves, but it wasn’t a case of signing one or the other, Kimmich was also a possibility to play with him. In the end, though, nothing happened as PSG decided to focus on other priorities, while Kimmich was also happy to stay with Bayern. Still, there will now be important talks to better understand his future and to resolve the situation of one of the biggest names who could be a free agent next summer.
Barcelona are working on a number of new contracts at the moment for players like Gavi, Ronald Araujo, Frenkie de Jong, but also for Pedri.
Discussions are ongoing, and this is something Barca promised to Pedri a while ago. Everything is very positive between the club and the player, so Barca are confident of getting it done. New manager Hansi Flick also has an excellent relationship with Pedri and this is important, as well as getting the financial agreement, which they hope to do as soon as possible.
There’s also more good news for Real Madrid in terms of new contracts, as they recently tied down goalkeeper Andriy Lunin to avoid losing him as a free agent, and now the same is true with Ferland Mendy.
Mendy had been due to be out of contract in 2025, but I told you back in August that there was an agreement in principle on a new deal, and now that has been 100% confirmed, it’s completely ready.
Carlo Ancelotti deserves a mention here because he was crucial to keeping Mendy at the club. He loves Mendy, he considers him one of the best in the world in his position as a defensive left-back, so that’s why a deal is all but done and we’re just waiting for the formal steps.
So it’s another good move by Real Madrid, as another dangerous situation with a player nearing the end of his contract is now resolved, as he’s now tied down until 2027.
Gabriel Magalhaes was the hero for Arsenal against Tottenham at the weekend, and my fellow columnist Charles Watts discussed his performance and his future in his latest column here.
I can confirm more or less the same – it’s something at an early stage, with nothing particularly concrete so far. For sure Arsenal want to keep all their stars and Gabriel is one of them. It will be a topic in the next months, but nothing imminent.
Manchester United fans have also been asking me about an important contract situation involving young winger Amad Diallo.
For now my information is always the same as I mentioned in June – a new deal will be discussed at the right moment. There is no pressure, there is a great feeling between United and Amad. At United they love him, while Amad is also very happy with his game time now.
