It’s going to be interesting to watch and see how this whole Anthony Gordon saga plays out here, over the final days of the summer transfer window. As we detailed in a previous article earlier today, Chelsea FC have now bid £60 million for the Everton forward and Liverpool native.
Said Toffees boss and Chelsea all-time leading scorer Frank Lampard, on the potential for a deal: “Gordon’s our player, everyone knows of Chelsea’s interest…We have a good relationship, ideally [a quick resolution to the situation] or we carry on and he’s our player.”
Manager Frank Lampard is dealing with a very short-handed, injury depleted final third, so the last thing he wants to do is make it thinner. Also, you have to wonder how personal feelings come in, regarding a sale to the club where he made his name. After they sacked him, in the midst of the 2020-21 season, Thomas Tuchel took over and led the Blues to European glory. The path towards potentially winning the UCL again begins this week as the groupings for the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League will be announced live Thursday at 12PM ET.
Held in Istanbul, Turkey, the Champions League draw will feature 32 teams being split into four seeding pots. UCL Fixtures will be confirmed after the draw for an eight-week long group stage that will begin on September 6. Here’s how to watch:
Stream the UEFA Champions League group stage draw live Thursday at 12PM ET on Paramount+. Try it FREE!
Beyond Gordon, there are a lot of other Chelsea transfer sagas to keep an eye on, including Wesley Fofana. Leicester City, the only club in all of the big five European leagues not to have bought a single new player this summer, immediately rejected Chelsea’s third bid for the defender.
According to the Evening Standard, that bid amount was “£70million, including add-ons,” as “Leicester are holding out for £80 million, the same world-record fee Manchester United paid for Harry Maguire in 2019, but Chelsea will not part with such a sum.”
The two clubs will clash this weekend, in a match-up of the 12th and 19th place teams. Will Fofana suit up?
Meanwhile Maguire has now been linked with a move to Chelsea, believe it or not. And finally, Emerson Palmieri is switching London clubs, with an official announcement that he’s left to join West Ham United. The Hammers, who currently sit bottom in the table, certainly need help in the back, and maybe they have now found a substantial amount of it in the Italian international left back.
“It’s a big challenge for me, it’s a big team, so I’m very happy to be here and I’m ready,” Emerson said to West Ham United’s official website.
West London ?? East London
Welcome, @emersonpalmieri! ? pic.twitter.com/JUQfxah2fB
— West Ham United (@WestHam) August 23, 2022
That’s a rather nifty announcement video that we posted above. West Ham are understood to have paid a fee in the region of £13 million pounds ($15.36 million) for his acquisition.
He has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune, and he co-hosts the After Extra Time podcast, part of Edge of the Crowd Network. Follow him and the website on Twitter and Instagram.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Bank (TheSportsBank.Net) and author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” as well as “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
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