Alan Smith’s Expert Analysis: Summer Transfer Window Rumours & Targets

Jack Grealish Links

I think he’d improve Newcastle, and maybe improve their versatility in terms of attacking. It’s certainly a different sort of player from what they’ve got, and if he were to play on the left, I don’t think he’s gonna displace Anthony Gordon, but Grealish can also play as a 10.

Although I’m not sure. It doesn’t feel right to me for him to go to Newcastle. I don’t see him as an Eddie Howe player. Maybe more like Everton, or maybe West Ham, I think he’s been linked with them as well. You’d see that as a better fit, but we don’t know what Jack sees as the best fit. He’ll have a few offers, I’m sure, but whether they’re the ones he’d want, I don’t know.

He’s a talented lad, so he needs to be playing regularly.

João Pedro Interest

We still don’t know whether Callum Wilson’s gonna stay there, do we? He’s on a free transfer. I think they’ve offered him a deal, maybe pay-as-you-play. But given his injury record, they do need somebody else to be able to play through the middle, and João Pedro can certainly do that. He is versatile and can play on a flank as well.

I do like him, I think he’s talented, and I think he’s got good character as well, a good leader. He was captain at Watford for a time. Got himself 10 goals in the league this season. Maybe not an out-and-out goalscorer, but I think he’s a player that a lot of clubs would quite fancy.

I mean, Brighton – they’re a dealing, buying, selling sort of club, aren’t they? They have a turnover of players, and they sell at the right time, so we’ll see on that one.

James Trafford Goalkeeper Move

If Pope stays there, then I think Trafford would be number two. He’s a young lad still. Obviously had a great season with Burnley, but to step up to Champions League football, would that be a little too much too soon? Maybe, if he came there, I think he’d perhaps be an understudy for Pope and get some games.

He’s got a bit of England experience now with the senior team, which will help his development. But definitely a talented boy, and a great age. He’s only gonna get better.

Jobe Bellingham Loss

It is a blow – it’s going to be tough for Sunderland anyway, with or without Jobe Bellingham, but to lose one of your best players, he’s not going to be easy to replace, that’s for certain. Maybe they want to get a bit of Premier League experience into the starting XI.

There’s talk of maybe Jordan Henderson going there. I spoke about that last week. So, the transfer for Bellingham could have been one that they’d already sorted out before they clinched promotion, in the last few weeks or months of the season. It may be something that got sorted. And he’s following in his brother’s footsteps, so not ideal for Sunderland, but they’ve got to replace that, and I’d guess that they’d want some proper Premier League experience in that position.

James McAtee’s Potential Move

I think he can thrive elsewhere. Not many young players do what Cole Palmer did – I mean, he just hit the ground running, he was on fire as soon as he joined Chelsea virtually, and it was just outstanding. But McAtee needs to find a home.

Everton, despite David Moyes getting hold of them and dragging them away from the bottom, are going to be in the bottom half of the table, I think, and a lot of games will be scraps. So it’d be totally different from Man City. But they need some creativity, don’t they, Everton? They’ve not had enough over the last few years.

So perhaps for McAtee, it would be – you learn a lot under David Moyes – a different kind of education from the one he’s had with Pep, and that might help his development, because he’s had both sides of it then.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s Future

It would be a big punt for a club, wouldn’t it? Given his injury record, he might have to have a pay-per-game type situation. Clubs will be wary of him. I listened to him on a podcast the other day, and he says he wants to be in a winning environment, and not be in a side that is just all about survival.

But he’s got to prove that he’s good enough to be in that kind of team, and I was looking at his league goals: 17 league goals in the past 4 seasons. And obviously, injuries have played a massive part there, but his goal return has been disappointing. He needs to stay fit and then get back on a run.

It’d be difficult – I don’t know where he would go. It’s a difficult one to place him, really, and whether he’d fancy going abroad, who knows, but it might be that he would have to because his career’s just ground to a halt. Beto’s come in, taken over the reins, scored goals, and so it’s a big move for him, I think. Big move.

Carlos Baleba Links

He’s 21 years old, and you think, oh, maybe he’s a bit young, but players move younger now, and if they’ve got the talent, they develop quicker. He’s had a couple of seasons at Brighton. Really good campaign under Hurzeler this past season.

You look at Caicedo – a similar sort of player – who went to Chelsea, and it took him a season to acclimatise and get to grips with the challenge. He had that big price tag on his shoulders, but Baleba’s a really good player, and you could see him in one of the top sides, or certainly in the squad of one of the top sides.

So again, with Brighton, if the offer’s there – an attractive enough one – maybe they will let him go.

Viktor Gyokeres Priority

Ruben Amorim knows him well from Sporting, and I wondered whether he was going to go to Arsenal; it was kind of Sesko or him for a time, and it looks like Sesko, perhaps, is going to go to the Emirates. So maybe Gyokeres is running out of clubs in the Premier League, or attractive ones anyway. Especially now with Chelsea signing Liam Delap too.

So it might be that he goes back and joins up with his old manager, and yes, they do need a centre forward. Hojlund has toiled. His confidence has hit rock bottom at times. You can feel for him, because he’s still young, but Gyokeres has got that good experience in the Portuguese league. Scored a lot of goals in the Champions League, so that would be a plus point for them.

They got Matthias Cunha and Amad, perhaps, but they do need a centre forward, somebody in that penalty area to stick the chances away, because the goal return over the last couple of seasons has been dismal.

Alejandro Garnacho to Chelsea

It’s maybe one of those where it’s a financial decision, to free up some cash to buy other players. Mbeumo goes there – he kind of plays on the right, so that takes up one of the flanks, and with Chelsea offloading Sancho, sending him back to United, maybe there’s a position there for him.

I think United fans would be a little sorry to see him go, having spent a long time there, but needs must, perhaps. He had his run-ins with the manager, didn’t he? A bit of discipline problems, and that, and he was outspoken, but he is a good player. And if he goes to Chelsea and Maresca gets hold of him, he could be a really good signing, but United are rebuilding, aren’t they? And it might mean that he has to go to get somebody else in.

Anthony Elanga Departure Concerns

It wouldn’t send out a good signal to the other players there if he left. People like Morgan Gibbs-White have been linked to other teams as well. And you wouldn’t want to see that squad breaking up.

Listen, it’s going to be difficult to repeat what they did this season in terms of fighting for the Champions League place. Now they’ve got the added burden of Europe. So they need all their good players to stay, and additions to cope with that workload. So if Elanga were to go, because he’s been a success at the City Ground, no doubt about that, that would be a blow.

Other teammates in that dressing room would go, “Oh, what kind of direction is this club heading in?” So it might send out a negative vibe.

Alan will continue to monitor the most exciting developments in the football world, sharing his analysis on how these changes might shape the upcoming season. Keep an eye out for his next installment, exclusively on Best Betting Sites, for more insights into the future of football.