Saint-Maximin under Mourinho, £72m Arsenal flop in Spain: 10 summer transfers you probably missed

Not knowing every single transfer to happen over the course of a summer is allowed, believe it or not. Here are 10 brilliantly random moves you probably missed.

Erik Lamela to AEK Athens
Lamela was hot and cold for Tottenham but is held in unfeasibly high regard by the club’s supporters.

The Argentine’s latest venture sees him land in Greece after three years with Sevilla and we genuinely had no idea. We presume you didn’t either.

Nicolas Pepe to Villarreal
Villarreal have been busy this summer, landing former Newcastle United forward and Euro 2024 winner Ayoze Perez from Real Betis and Willy Kambwala from Manchester United, spending around £53million on nine new players in total.

One player they signed on a free transfer is former Arsenal winger Pepe, who was the Gunners’ most expensive signing for three years. The Ivorian spent last year at Trabzonspor, scoring six goals in 23 matches in Turkey. It’s time for his first spell in Spain.

Gabriel Sara (and Michy Batshuayi) to Galatasaray
The relevance of Batshuayi’s move is that he is now completed an extraordinary Istanbul treble, joining Galatasaray after spells with Fenerbahce and Besiktas. The man simply doesn’t give a f**k.

Sara, meanwhile, made the less volatile move from Norwich City for around £15m. You probably didn’t miss this one but you might have forgotten. He is a wonderful player and should thrive in Turkey.

It will be interesting to see if the Brazilian returns to England; he is 25 now and signed a five-year contract. If he does, it will probably happen within the next two years.

Khephren Thuram to Juventus
Thuram has been linked with a few Premier League clubs over the last year or two but will be playing with former Aston Villa star Douglas Luiz in Thiago Motta’s midfield.

Juventus have started the season brilliantly with two 3-0 wins. Thuram featured in the opening-day victory over Cesc Fabregas’ Como but was injured as the Old Lady easily beat Hellas Verona on Monday.

Antonio Nusa to Leipzig
Like Thuram, young Nusa has been the subject of many a Premier League transfer rumour since the start of last summer. He was lighting it up in Belgium with Club Brugge and was close to joining Brentford before a move to Tottenham looked inevitable. Instead, he has joined Leipzig this summer, which means he is destined for a big-money move in a year or two.

Another Belgian youngster making the move to Leipzig is Arthur Vermeeren, who leaves Atletico Madrid on loan with a mandatory buy clause.

Vermeeren was being pursued by several big clubs before Atletico won the race for his signature in January. It was viewed as a huge coup at the time but months later he is gone. What happened? All we do know is that Leipzig have got a brilliant pair of Belgian 19-year-olds on their hands.

Robin Le Normand to Atletico Madrid
There is such an attacker bias in this feature that we felt obliged to include European Championship winner Le Normand, who swapped Real Sociedad for Atletico Madrid 13 days after his Euro 2024 triumph with Spain.

The 27-year-old joins Diego Simeone’s side at the age of 27 and at the peak of his powers. Atletico have spent big this summer as they look to close the gap on Real Madrid and Barcelona, a task they have relished over the last 15 years.

Allan Saint-Maximin to Fenerbahce
We love this transfer and we love Saint-Maximin being managed by Jose Mourinho. In fairness to Mourinho, he is allowing the former Newcastle United winger to strut his stuff on the pitch and he is doing just as we remember: skinning players for fun and messing up the final pass or shot.

This guy literally had Pep Guardiola on his knees and was the only good thing about Newcastle pre-PIF; even in the PIF era, he took one for the team and moved to Saudi Arabia. He lasted a year in the Middle East before joining Fenerbahce on a season-long loan.

James Rodriguez to Rayo Vallecano
The freshest of every transfer on this list, former wonderkid Rodriguez is back in Spain after spells with Everton, Al Rayyan, Olympiacos, and most recently Sao Paulo.

Rayo Vallecano have decided to bring the Colombian back to Europe and his signing on a free could turn out to be a real coup. He was brilliant at Copa America.

The Spanish side are also reportedly targeting Memphis Depay. Such fun.

Kelechi Iheanacho to Sevilla
We don’t think Iheanacho will play much this season but still felt like this transfer was worth including. Just because, alright?

Junior Hoilett to Hibs
Aye, that Junior Hoilett. He was actually at Aberdeen last season, so it’s hardly a random deal. Still amusing, mind.

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