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- Last minute transfers
Dortmund made their move on the last day of the transfer window but they weren’t the only one.
Then weirdest story happened in London, specifically to Chelsea who were in the middle of finalizing a transfer for Ross Barkley, the player was doing the obligatory medical when suddenly he changed his mind about the transfer. You can’t make this stuff up. To top it off Chelsea turned around and signed...Danny Drinkwater for 38€ million!
Meanwhile our Champions League opponents signed both Serge Aurier and Fernando Llorente. While both signings certainly add depth to their roster and in case of Aurier maybe even a starter, but those are not exactly signings that BVB should be afraid of.
The most high profile move happened in Paris. PSG somehow managed to convince AS Monaco to let Kylian Mbappé join them on loan for a year with an obligation to buy at 180€ million. Why was the deal structured that way? Well PSG had to find a way to circumvent “Financial Fair Play” and they did it by postponing the payment to Monaco for a year so the Mbappé-deal and the Neymar-deal would happen in two separate windows. Why Monaco agreed to this is still anyone's guess.
In the meantime, the Bundesliga clubs also made a few moves:
Bayern Munich let Renato Sanches go on loan for a year to Swansea City just a year after he was touted as the next big star.
SC Freiburg secured the signing of Liverpool winger Ryan Kent for a one year loan.
And finally, Bayer Leverkusen capped off one of the weirdest transfer windows in the clubs history by letting Kevin Kampl (sold for ~18€ million to RB Leipzig) and Aleksandar Dragovic (loan to Leicester City) leave while signing Lucas Alario and Panagiotis Retsos.
Leverkusen who are usually a team that doesn’t like to take risks did exactly that this off-season and turned their squad inside out. Veterans like Toprak, Chicharito, Kampl, Calhanoglou and Dragovic were sold or loaned away while they brought in mostly unproven player with the exception of Sven Bender. Dominik Kohr played one solid season with Augsburg but isn’t exactly a “sure thing” and both Retsos and Alario are young and talented but haven’t proven that they can deliver in a league like the Bundesliga. The Werkself took a risk this summer, let’s see if it pays off.
Daily Buzz: Now that it’s over, what grade would you give BVB’s transfer window?