As some players arrive for pre-season while others are still going in the 2024/2025 campaign thanks to the Club World Cup, we’re looking ahead to the World Cup Proper next summer and the transfers that we reckon need to happen in the remaining few weeks of the current window for England to win the big gong.
Marcus Rashford – Manchester United to Barcelona
Despite Rashford doing everything short of donating body parts in order to force through his ‘dream’ move to Barcelona, he was third choice until about a week ago. But the Nico Williams snub has now put him in pole position for the transfer, in quite the remarkable boon for his career and England’s chances of redressing the balance of their lopsided attack.
Luis Diaz can ‘agree’ to as many transfers as he likes – Liverpool didn’t want to sell him before so surely won’t now, while top target Williams has signed a new deal with Athletic Club having quite reasonably been perturbed by Barcelona’s inability to assure him that he could actually be registered to play football.
Rashford faces the same grim possibility, but these things tend to work out for mega-clubs like Barcelona, and the juice is undoubtedly worth the squeeze for the United academy graduate. Having seen what he did for Villa in six months, it’s hard to imagine Rashford not being brilliant under a manager with an excellent track record of getting the best out of attacking players in a team where it appears to be impossible not to get a shedload of goal contributions as a forward. Ferran Torres got 26 last season.
And while Tuchel already knows that Harry Kane will play as his No.9 with Bukayo Saka on the right and one of the 427 wonderful No.10s as his No.10, there is currently no standout candidate for that left-wing spot. The thought of Anthony Gordon starting there is hardly encouraging as things stand and Tuchel can’t make the same Gareth Southgate mistake of crowbarring a Phil Foden or Cole Palmer into that role.
An in-form Rashford would be ideal and we can’t imagine a better place for him to find and maintain that form than with Barcelona.
READ MORE: Rashford to Arsenal among eight logical Man Utd transfer reunions this summer
Marc Guehi – Crystal Palace to Liverpool
Liverpool aren’t currently willing to pay the £50m up front that Crystal Palace want for Guehi, but an ‘agreement in principle’ between the player and buying club, along with him ‘pushing’ for the transfer suggests a compromise will be reached.
Guehi has understandable concerns over his game time at Anfield as he looks ahead to the World Cup, but has presumably come to the obvious conclusion that he will go straight into the team alongside Virgil van Dijk because a) Ibrahima Konate has made a rod for his own back through his reported desire to be the next free transfer Judas, and b) we’re not convinced Konate is all that anyway as a free-kick mannequin could be made to look half-decent next to the greatest centre-back the Premier League has ever seen.
Guehi looked a bit dodgy against Latvia in March but more than proved his big-tournament worth at the Euros, and a season of Champions League football next to Big Virg would make us feel rather more at ease over what’s currently a lick-your-finger-and-raise-it-to-the-sky position.
Eberechi Eze – Crystal Palace to Arsenal
It’s to Crystal Palace’s great credit that they’ve nurtured so many footballers to the point where they should be playing Champions League football, but kudos and hat tips aren’t going to win you trophies… Oh, that’s right, they already bloody won one.
Europa League football came with that wonderful FA Cup win, but whether because he feels like he’s achieved everything he can and more at Palace or he’s been looking wistfully at what best pal Michael Olise’s been doing at Bayern Munich for the last year, Eze is supposedly ‘desperate’ to return to the club that released him at the age of 13.
Part of us thinks “no, f*** you Arsenal, you had your chance”, but we’ve got our England hats on and surely nothing but good can come from Eze and Declan Rice playing together week in, week out.
Adam Wharton – Staying at Crystal Palace
We are in dangerous territory assuming that Eze and Rice will form a partnership at Arsenal that can drip through to England as that sounds suspiciously like Rice in a holding midfield role akin to a tiger walking around an enclosure.
Tuchel doesn’t want a caged Rice but the one who ran all over Real Madrid and embarrassed Jude Bellingham across two legs in the Champions League, but that can only happen if a quality No.6 comes through this season to set him free. We believe that man is Wharton and that the best way for him to stake his claim is to remain at Palace, which is fortunate as we’re guessing Steve Parish would want a bazillion pounds for him if Guehi and Eze are on their way out.
A non-transfer but one we felt worthy of mention as it’s the glaring issue facing Tuchel right now and to offset out guilt at giving the green light to arguably our favourite Premier League team being gutted this summer.
John Stones – Manchester City to Everton
Stones will likely be looking at his competition for a starting spot at Manchester City and fancy his chances. Neither Abdukodir Khusanov nor Vitor Reis have arrived and demanded a place through their displays and a battle with Manuel Akanji or Nathan Ake to play alongside Ruben Dias is one he’s frequently won.
When fit, of course, which has been so rare as to put Stones in a position that City players appear to often find themselves in under Pep Guardiola, where the manager’s desire to be cautious over the fitness of the perennially injured far outstrips the reality that most footballers need to play football to get fit.
We’re hoping David Moyes has got enough of the Old School still in him not to concern himself with niggles, proximity to Red Zones or that other fancy-schmancy sports science guff and play Stones if he says he’s ready to play, which we assume he will be all of the time during a season before what could be his last big tournament hurrah.
He ticks the Dick Hill marquee-signing box and offers the opportunity of an England partnership forming alongside Jarrad Branthwaite.
Ollie Watkins – Aston Villa to Manchester United
Rasmus Hojlund reportedly wants to stay at Manchester United having spectacularly failed to read the room and Ruben Amorim faces the prospect of the Denmark international doing sod all again up top for United next season as predictably little progress has been made on finding buyers for their overpaid crop of outcasts.
No interested club is daft enough to pay full price for your Alejandro Garnachos, Antonys or Jadon Sanchos in the knowledge that the Red Devils will say yes to any offer to get them out of the club on deadline day.
A £60 move for Watkins is therefore very unlikely, but Villa have shown some interest in United’s pariahs, offering hope of a swap or a separate but very definitely linked PSR-swerving dodgy deal.
While we would be surprised if Watkins joined and banged in goal after goal he would at least be guaranteed a spot in the team, which was far from the case under Unai Emery last season. We want the guy who’s going to play minimal football while watching Kane at the World Cup to have played plenty during the season, thank you very much.
Noni Madueke – Chelsea to Arsenal
Madueke was arguably England’s most impressive player against Andorra in June and could absolutely be in the mix for a starting spot next summer if he moves to Arsenal or stays at Chelsea, but this is less about him and more about Starboy.
The injury which kept Bukayo Saka out for a big chunk of last season may be entirely unrelated to him being flogged by Mikel Arteta at an average of 46 games in the previous three campaigns, but as overuse injuries go, a hamstring ping is a common one.
Madueke could play on Arsenal’s left in the same team as Saka but, more importantly for England, in his place on the right on occasion, to save some of his energy and dynamism for the international left-backs who need to feel the Saka pain if the Three Lions are to have any hope.
Jack Grealish – Manchester City to Napoli
He’s made just four starts at No.10 since his move to Manchester City four years ago and two of his 17 goals for the Citizens have come in those games. That provides fairly good evidence of his value in that role over his typical spot under Pep Guardiola on the left wing, as did his display for England in that role vs Ireland under Lee Carsley in September, when he scored and was seen doing Jack Grealish type things we’ve been denied the joy of watching for far too long.
Guardiola’s negging has given Grealish little option but to leave Manchester City and Napoli are thought to be among those most interested. We’re not quite sure how Antonio Conte might fit Grealish into a line-up with Scott McTominay and Kevin De Bruyne but now we think about it we’re not sure there’s a midfield trio we would rather watch in action.
Harvey Elliott – Liverpool to Newcastle
After his outstanding displays to drive the England U21s to Euros glory we really need to find out just how good Elliott is at football this season, and that’s only going to happen away from Liverpool.
Fulham are interested but we’re guessing Elliott is setting his sights a little higher. Borussia Dortmund offers a sanctuary for lost English souls and will be an attractive option. But if Eddie Howe can – with all due respect – get nine goals and 14 assists out of Jacob Murphy in a season then Elliott must fancy his chances of staking his England claim at St James’ Park.
Fabian Ruiz – PSG to Manchester United
A strange one for those hoping for a revitalised Kobbie Mainoo this season and we count ourselves among those crossing our fingers that Ruben Amorim can find a suitable spot for him in his 3-4-3 to allow him to shine for the Red Devils as he did for England at Euro 2024.
But Mainoo’s absence from the team thanks to Ruiz’s arrival would only be short-lived before he usurps a guy who was brilliant for England’s conquerors Spain at Euro 2024 but would arrive at the World Cup bereft of all confidence having had it sapped from him by a year at Old Trafford.
