One of the biggest sagas of the Premier League transfer window has finally come to an end, with Chelsea announcing the signing of defender Wesley Fofana from Leicester City on Wednesday.
Speculation over this deal has been going on for what feels like forever, with the Foxes reportedly knocking back multiple bids from their Premier League rivals.
Fofana agreed to a seven-year contract with Chelsea, who will reportedly pay up to £70 million ($81.3 million) for the French centre-back.
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The 21-year-old was left out of the Leicester team by boss Brendan Rodgers once Chelsea’s interest became public, fuelling a bitter transfer saga that lasted for several weeks.
Partly as a result of Fofana’s absence, Leicester have slumped to the bottom of the Premier League, leading Rodgers to make some critical comments about unsettled player destabilising his squad.
But once he’d put pen to paper with the English giants, Fofana took to social media to hit back at these comments.
“It’s time to say goodbye,” Fofana wrote on Instagram.
“During these two seasons here. I have probably experienced the most intense moments of my young football career. I have grown as a player but also as a man.
“Thank you to you, Foxes fans, for your kindness and your constant support, even in the moment you were led to believe I didn’t respect the club. I will never forget how we vibrated, exulted or cried, together… I will never forget you.
“I chose not to communicate during this transfer window despite all the criticism and all the often false and misleading comments, even when they were coming from the club. I understood and I learned.
“I thank Top (Srivaddhanaprabha, chairman) for his understanding, thanks to the managers, to the coach who has always appreciated me, even if he chose to expose me a lot lately. I get it coach.
“There were ups and downs but I never cheated, you can be sure of that. Thank you to all the people who work here every day, you are the soul of this club!
“Finally, thanks to my teammates, my brothers, the Foxes soldiers. We’ll meet again, on a football field or somewhere else.”
Fofana will be a key addition for Chelsea after the departures of centre-backs Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen to Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona.
The Frenchman made 52 appearances for the Foxes after completing a move to the club from Saint-Etienne in October 2020, for a reported fee of £32 million.
Fofana started for Leicester City in their FA triumph last year, beating Chelsea 1-0 at Wembley, courtesy of a Youri Tielemans second-half strike.
Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly has praised Fofana after the defender completed his move to Stamford Bridge, describing him as a “hugely promising defender”.
“Wesley is a hugely promising defender who has already proven his quality in the Premier League at a young age,” Boehly said.
“We are delighted we were able to bring one of Europe’s most exciting talents to Chelsea and further strengthen that area of our squad, both for this season and many more to come”.
After starting their season with a 1-0 win against Everton at Goodison Park, Chelsea have struggled for wins this season.
The Blues have won just one of their four matches since their season opener, which was a 2-1 win at home against Fofana’s old club Leicester City.
But a 2-1 defeat at Southampton earlier this week underlined Chelsea’s problems and their spending might not be over yet.
Thomas Tuchel’s side remain linked with former Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who is currently playing with Barcelona.
WHEN DOES THE DEADLINE CLOSE?
The English transfer window – both for Premier League teams and lower divisions – ends at 11pm BST (8am Friday AEST). It is the same in Spain, while Scotland’s window closes one hour later at 9am AEST.
The first window to shut is Germany, which closes at 2am AEST. Italy’s shuts at 4am AEST, and France’s closes at 9am AEST.
However, deals can be concluded after the deadline – up to two hours after the Premier League deadline, so long as both clubs have submitted a ‘deal sheet’ to authorities in the final two hours of the window. They are then granted extra time to finalise contract details.
Clubs can also sign free agents – players without a club – after the deadline shuts.
TEN HAG GETS HIS MAN
After a disastrous start to their Premier League season, Manchester United made sure to add at least one more world class player to their ranks before the end of the transfer window.
The Red Devils lost their first two matches of the new season, slumping to last on the ladder, but have turned their fortunes around over the past few weeks.
A 2-1 win at home against rivals Liverpool lifted some pressure of new manager Erik ten Hag, and they went on to win again four days later against Southampton.
United signed five-time Champions League winner Casemiro from Real Madrid last week, and he’ll be joined by another Brazil international who has joined the club.
The English giants have reportedly spent around €100 million ($144m AUD) to lure Brazil international Antony to Old Trafford from Ajax.
After scoring 31 goals in 134 appearances for both Ajax and Sao Paulo, Antony has become the second most expensive signing in the history of the famous club.
But some experts have questioned whether it’s the right move, with football reporter Alex Crook describing the move as “desperate”.
“That was the information I got this afternoon, that talks were progressing positively between Manchester United and Ajax, as I guess they would be when United are willing to spend £84 million on a player who surely they could’ve got for a fraction of that earlier in the window,” Crook told The Transfer Hub on talkSPORT.
“Clubs know that Manchester United, after their poor start to the season… are getting desperate and therefore the price has gone up.
“I think he’s a good player by the way so I don’t think we should hold the price tag against Antony, but I think it’s a lot of money who’s only really proven in the Dutch league.
“Erik ten Hag is finally going to get one of his long term targets.”
WOLVES SIGN ‘TALENTED’ FORWARD
Wolves have announced the signing of Austrian striker Sasa Kalajdzic, who joins the club after a successful two year stint in Germany’s Bundesliga.
Kalajdzic is definitely a much needed signing for Wolverhampton, who are still yet to win a game this season and have only scored two goals from five games.
The 25-year-old has represented his country 15 times, and was VfB Stuttgart’s leading scorer in both of their last two full Bundesliga seasons.
Wolves technical director Scott Sellars is eager to see what the new signing can do for Wolves this season.
“We are very happy to secure the signing of Sasa, who is a talented young striker, has many excellent attributes to his game and fits the profile that we have been looking for this summer,” Sellars told Wolves’ website.
“Sasa has had great success in Germany’s Bundesliga, and we are looking forward to seeing what he can do in the Premier League”.
Kalajdzic will wear the number 18 jersey for Wolves.
EVERY CLUBS’ SIGNINGS
Arsenal
Marquinhos – Sao Paulo – £3.15m
Fabio Vieira – Porto – £31.5m
Matt Turner – NE Revolution – £5.73m
Gabriel Jesus – Manchester City – £47m
Oleksandr Zinchenko – Manchester City – £31.5m
Aston Villa
Philippe Coutinho – Barcelona – £18m
Boubacar Kamara – Marseille – Free
Diego Carlos – Sevilla – £27.9m
Robin Olsen – Roma – £3.15m
Rory Wilson – Rangers – £407k
Ludwig Augustinsson – Sevilla – Loan – £450k
Ewan Simpson – Hearts – £290k
Bournemouth
Ryan Fredericks – West Ham – Free
Joe Rothwell – Blackburn – Free
Marcus Tavernier – Middlesbrough – £10.71m
Neto – Barcelona – Free
Marcos Senesi – Feyenoord – £13.5m
Brentford
Max Dickov – Unknown – Undisclosed
Max Wilcox – Bolton – Free
Aaron Hickey – Bologna – £14.85m
Keane Lewis-Potter – Hull – £17.1m
Kyreece Lisbie – Watford U18s – Free
Thomas Strakosha – Lazio – Free
Yehor Yarmoliuk – Dnipro – Undisclosed
Ben Mee – Burnley – Free
Michael Olakigbe – Fulham –
Lucias Vine – Aldershot – Free
Isaac Holland – Sheffield Wednesday – Undisclosed
Mikkel Damsgaard – Sampdoria – £13.50m
Mathias Jorgensen – Fenerbahce S.K. – Free
Brighton
Julio Enciso – Libertad Asuncion – £10.44m
Benicio Baker-Boaitey – Porto – Undisclosed
Simon Adingra – Nordsjaelland – £7.2m
Imari Samuels – Reading – Free
Levi Colwill – Chelsea – Loan
Luca Barrington – Manchester City – Undisclosed
Pervis Estupinan – Villarreal – £16m
Chelsea
Eddie Beach – Southampton – Undisclosed
Raheem Sterling – Manchester City – £50.58m
Kalidou Koulibaly – Napoli – £34.2m
Omari Hutchinson – Arsenal – Free
Gabriel Slonina – Chicago Fire – £8.18m
Carney Chukwuemeka – Aston Villa – £16.2m
Marc Cucurella – Brighton – £58.77m
Cesare Casadei – Inter Milan – £13.5m
Wesley Fofana – Leicester – £70m
Crystal Palace
Malcolm Ebiowei – Derby – Free
Sam Johnstone – West Brom – Free
Cheick Doucoure – Lens – £20.34m
Cormac Austin – Linfield – Undisclosed
Chris Richards – Bayern Munich – £10.8m
Kofi Balmer – Larne – £3oo
Everton
James Tarkowski – Burnley – Free
Ruben Vinagre – Sporting Lisbon – Loan
Dwight McNeil – Burnley – Undisclosed
Conor Coady – Wolves – Loan
Amadou Onana – Lille – £32.4m
Neal Maupay – Brighton – Undisclosed
Fulham
Joao Palhinha – Sporting Lisbon – £18m
Kristian Sekularac – Juventus – Free
Callum McFarlane – Unknown – Free
Andreas Pereira – Manchester United – £8.55m
Manor Solomon – Shakhtar Donetsk – Loan
Kevin Mbabu – Wolfsburg – £4.95m
Bernd Leno – Arsenal – £3.24m
Shane Duffy – Brighton – Loan
Issa Diop – West Ham – £16m
Leeds United
Brenden Aaronson – RB Salzburg – £29.56m
Ramus Kristensen – RB Salzburg – £11.7m
Marc Roca – Bayern Munich – £10.8m
Darko Gyabi – Manchester City – £5.22m
Tyler Adams – RB Leipzig – £15.3m
Luis Sinisterra – Feyenoord – £22.5m
Sonny Perkins – West Ham – Free
Joel Robles – Real Betis – Free
Leicester City
Alex Smithies – Cardiff – Free
Liverpool
Fabio Carvalho –Fulham – £5.31m
Darwin Nunez – Benfica – £67.5m
Calvin Ramsay – Aberdeen – £4.41m
Manchester City
Erling Haaland – Dortmund – £54m
Stefan Ortega Moreno – Arminia Bielefeld – Free
Kalvin Phillips – Leeds – £43.87m
Sergio Gomez – Anderlecht – £11.7m
Manchester United
Tyrell Malacia – Feyenoord – £13.5m
Christian Eriksen – Brentford – Free
Lisandro Martinez – Ajax – £51.63m
Casemiro – Real Madrid – £63.59m
Antony – Ajax – €100m
Newcastle United
Alex Murphy – Galway United – £100k
Nick Pope – Burnley – £10.35m
Matt Targett – Aston Villa – £15.75m
Sven Botman – Lille – £33.3m
Charlie McArthur – Kilmarnock –
Jude Smith – East Fife – Undisclosed
Alexander Isak – Real Sociedad – £63m
Nottingham Forest
Ryan Hammond – Milwall – Free
Taiwo Awoniyi – Union Berlin – £18.45m
Dean Henderson – Manchester United – Loan
Giulian Biancone – Troyes – £9m
Moussa Niakhate – Mainz – £9m
Omar Richards – Bayern Munich – £7.65m
Neco Williams – Liverpool – £18m
Wayne Hennessey – Burnley – Free
Brandon Aguilera – Alajuelense – £855k
Harry Toffolo – Huddersfield – £2.16m
Lewis O’Brien – Huddersfield – £8.46m
Jesse Lingard – Manchester United – Free
Orel Mangala – Stuggart – £11.7m
Emmanuel Dennis – Watford – £13.32m
Cheikhou Kouyate – Crystal Palace – Free
Remo Freuler – Atalanta – £8.1m
Morgan Gibbs-White – Wolves – £26.55m
Renan Lodi – Atletico Madrid – Loan
Southampton
Alex Iwumene – Sutton – Undisclosed
Gavin Bazunu – Manchester City – £12.6m
Mateusz Lis – Altay – Free
Armel Bella-Kotchap – Bochum – £9m
Romeo Lavia – Manchester City – £11.07m
Joe Aribo – Rangers – £6.39m
Sekou Mara – Bordeaux – £11.7m
Tottenham Hotspur
Ivan Perisic – Inter Milan – Free
Fraser Forster – Southampton – Free
Yves Bissouma – Brighton – £26.28m
Richarlison – Everton – £52.2m
Tyrell Ashcroft – Reading – Undisclosed
Josh Keeley – St Patrick’s Athletic – Free
Clement Lenglet – Barcelona – Loan
Djed Spence – Middlesbrough – £13.23m
Destiny Udogie – Udinese – 16.2m
Cristian Romero – Atalanta – £50m
Will Lankshear – Sheffield United – £1.20m
West Ham United
Nayef Aguerd – Rennes – £31.5m
Alphonse Areola – PSG – £8.37m
Patrick Kelly – Coleraine – £500k
Flynn Downes – Swansea – £9.59m
Gianluca Scamacca – Sassuolo – £32.4m
Maxwel Cornet – Burnley – £18.63m
Thilo Kehrer – PSG – £10.8m
Emerson – Chelsea – £11.7m
Lucas Paqueta – Lyon – Undisclosed
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Nathan Collins – Burnley – £21.87m
Goncalo Guedes – Valencia – £29.34m
Matheus Nunes – Sporting Lisbon – £40.5m
Sasa Kalajdzic – Stuggart – £15.5m
Hee-chan Hwang – RB Leipzic – £15.03m
