Less than a month remains until the official opening of the summer transfer window, but that was not an obstacle for some top-five leagues’ clubs, who managed to conclude several transfers and further strengthen the teams before the preparations for next season.The busiest were the Premier League members – Manchester City, Aston Villa and Leeds have already spent around 160 million euros together. Bundesliga clubs have brought reinforcements worth around 80 million euros, Napoli have been quite active in Italy…PREMIER LEAGUEThe sports sector of Aston Villa was working at full speed in England, without competition. But before we look at the reinforcements that Steven Gerrard brought, let’s talk about the transfer bomb that shocked Europe on May 10.It was clear that Erling Haaland would leave Dortmund next summer, and that very day Manchester City said – “Haaland is ours!”. City decided to put an end to a story that, like Mbappe’s, had the potential to grow into a lengthy transfer saga.Tue 21:45: (2.35) Germany (3.25) England (3.40)Although it was known for months that he would be available at a price of 75 million euros (exit clause) from July and that the specialized Transfermarkt has already registered his transfer under that amount, there are speculations that the Cityzens paid Borussia some 15 million less. Until the official amount is published, we can only state that Manchester City hit the jackpot and that Pep Guardiola finally has a striker capable of 25 or more goals in the English elite.It may not be the most accurate to say that the club from Etihad blew out the competition in the form of Real Madrid and Barcelona, since the first man of the Catalans, Joan Laporta, made it clear that he would not jeopardize the club’s finances by bringing in expensive players, and that Real Madrid’s top target was Kylian Mbappe.Anyhow, Haaland will very soon become one of the highest-paid, if not the highest-paid football player in the Premier League, having in mind the first projections of his annual net salary state 30 million euros. His father Alf-Inge will receive a commission of 30 million euros, and the Norwegian will get a chance to silence all those critics who have been shouting in recent years that it is easy to score an average goal per match when competing in the Bundesliga.Haaland will not be the only signing for City, which are already chasing after left-back Marc Cucurella from Brighton and are looking for a replacement for Fernandinho in the midfield. However, we must give credit to Aston Villa who have already completed most of the work, because of the transfers they made. At least on paper, those seem very well selected and high quality, including yesterday’s 3.5 million euros buyout of Swedish goalkeeper Robin Olsen from Roma.No Neymar, no problem – if you ask TiteMarseille’s Boubacar Kamara was monitored by greats like Bayern, Barcelona, Chelsea back in January already, and five months later the Birmingham club managed to sign him without compensation. Earlier, the management estimated that Philippe Coutinho had shown that he is buyout-worthy so 20 million euros were paid to Barcelona. If the retention of Coutinho was an expected move, Villa surprised the public by announcing that Diego Carlos is coming to Villa Park. For a long time, the Sevilla defenders duo Kounde-Carlos was one of the most sought after in Europe, Manchester United and even Real Madrid were in contact with Carlos, and after protesting that he was not released to Newcastle in January, the Brazilian somehow found his way to the Premier League. That road was paved by Villa with 31 million euros.Tue 21:45: (2.35) Germany (3.25) England (3.40)When it comes to Tottenham, many doubted the affairs of the sports director Fabio Paratici, who brought Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski from Juventus. There were also some accusations that the former first operative of the Old Lady helped the Turin club sort out their finance books, but time has shown that both were what the Spurs needed. Also, Antonio Conte has managed to convince his former universal player Ivan Perisic, who did not extend his contract with Inter, to join him in London. His experience could be extremely important to Tottenham, although the 33-year-old Croatian international has no experience of playing in the Premier League.Midfield refreshed! Lazio unearth a Brazilian gem from war-torn UkraineThe 21-year-old American Brenden Aaronson also lacks experience in general, but that did not stop Leeds from making the most expensive purchase in the history of the club, worth as much as 33 million euros, in order to survive in the Premier League. There is no doubt that the offensive midfielder was the wish of coach Jesse Marsch, who worked with him for six months in Salzburg. Even before the start of the transfer window, the Austrian club earned 63 million from the sale of footballers because they also sold Karim Adeyemi to Borussia Dortmund.BUNDESLIGAIn fact, Borussia immediately directed the earnings they made from the first star of the team, Erling Haaland, to bring a replacement, and after several months of speculation, they hired Adeyemi. Throughout the spring, the possibility of the German returning to Bayern was mentioned, but Borussia were more specific and convinced Salzburg with 30 million euros fixed and the possibility of the Austrian champion earning another 2.5 million through bonuses.At the beginning of February, the Millionaires convinced Niklas Sule to join their ranks after the expiration of his contract with Bayern, and three months later, with the signature of the new German national team player Nico Schlotterbeck, they made a defender tandem for the next few seasons. The Bavarian giant tried to steal Schlotterbeck, but the club from Westphalia still won by paying Freiburg 20 million euros fixed, while the potential bonuses amount to 5 million. Only 48 hours after the loss of Schlotterbeck, Freiburg promoted a replacement – Matthias Gunther. Gunther broke the stereotype that everything in football revolves around money and showed that romance is not completely extinct.”I wanted to do something special in my career, and for me there is nothing more special than to return to my city and the club where I started,” said Günther, although Bayern wanted him, as well as Italian greats like Inter and Juventus.Borussia Dortmund everywhere.📸 @DFB_Team#BVB pic.twitter.com/LGIoZMXnMb— BVB Newsblog (@bvbnewsblog) June 2, 2022 Let’s go back to Borussia. Usually, Bayern were the ones who usually take players ahead of Dortmund, but in a way, both Sule and Schlotterbeck represent small revenge of the Millionaires… Although Bayern passive-aggressively told the rival to forget about the championship title, the honorary president Uli Hoenes commented on the signings of Borussia with the words: “Second place is guaranteed”.We will also remind you that Dortmund recently found a replacement for Axel Witsel in Salih Ozcan, and that the 24-year-old central midfielder was paid 5 million euros to Cologne.Unlike Borussia, the arrival of Ajax’s Nusair Mazraoui was the only deal Bayern made official. The right-back will arrive as a free agent, but be sure that the Bavarians will not stop there. The transfer of Ryan Gravenberch, also from Ajax, is on the horizon, and as things stand, the Munich giant will also take Liverpool’s Sadio Mane a year before his contract with the Reds expires.It was only a matter of time before the greatest talent of Czech football, Adam Hlozek, would leave Sparta, and the process of leaving Prague was accelerated by Bayer Leverkusen. Sparta accepted the offer of the Pharmacists worth 13 million euros for the popular ‘Czech Cristiano Ronaldo’ and the guy who is rumored to be more talented than Tomas Rosicky.OFFICIAL: Antonio Rudiger joins Real Madrid on a four-year dealLA LIGAWhen it comes to the Spanish Primera Division, the Royal Club followed the same model they utilized last year. They hijacked David Alaba from Bayern and now they got another top-class defender. Juventus wanted Antonio Rudiger, Bayern also wished to see him in their ranks, but the German national team player whose contract with Chelsea expired, chose the biggest club in the world and will defend the European throne next year. An annual salary of 9 million was no problem for Los Blancos as they took Toni without compensation.Barcelona should be severely close to signing Franck Kessie from AC Milan for free, while Atletico Madrid bought Samuel Lino, Brazilian left winger and one of the best players of Gil Vicente for 6.5 million euros, who scored 12 goals last season and set up five in the Portuguese elite.New owners are coming in strong – domestic young star and a tested ace at San SiroSERIE AIf we exclude the fact that Juventus officially bought Federico Chiesa (who has been with the club for two years now) from Fiorentina for 40 million euros, that Inter and Atalanta officially kept Joaquin Correa (Lazio got 23.6 million) and Jeremie Boga from loans (22 million euros to Sassuolo), that AC Milan are just getting ready to make massive deals at the football market, only Napoli took concrete steps before the start of the transfer window.The club from the south of Italy said goodbye to Naples’ native Lorenzo Insigne a long time ago and quickly found a replacement for the Italian who is moving to Toronto, ie MLS. The owner of the club, Aurelio De Laurentis, approved the transfer of 10 million euros for the talented Georgian, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.##EDITORS_CHOICE##The only thing that remains unclear in the whole story is on whose account the money went, since a couple of months ago, due to the war in Ukraine, Khvicha agreed to terminate his contract with Rubin from Kazan and played in the homeland for Dinamo Batumi. Transfermarkt claims that the Georgian club received a huge financial injection, some Italian media claim that the Russian club still made money.In any case, Napoli did not stop there as they bought Matthias Oliveira, Getafe’s left back, for 15 million euros. They did strengthen the left side of the field, although on paper it is far from the reinforcements that guarantee the race for the scudetto from which they dropped out at the end of the championship this season.Unlike the other four elite European leagues, the French have been pretty quiet for now. Only Paris Saint-Germain bought the contract of Sporting’s Nuno Mendes. Anyhow, Man City, Aston Villa, Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, and even Napoli, gave us a proper teaser before the opening of the transfer window on July 1.
