England, Spain, Italy and Germany: update on the last transfers in the major leagues

England: all eyes on Liverpool

After hesitating for a long time, Liverpool registered two defensive reinforcements on Monday, on the last day of the winter transfer window with the arrivals of Ben Davies from Preston North End (Championship / D2) and Turkish Ozan Kabak, on loan from Schalke.

Two arrivals all the more welcome as Jürgen Klopp also announced Monday evening that Cameroonian defender Joël Matip would be unavailable for the rest of the season due to a ligament injury to an ankle.

In this sector of play, the Reds are already deprived, for varying durations, of Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez or Fabinho.

In a market that has remained very wise, due to the economic crisis, it is the arrival of Thomas Tuchel in place of Frank Lampard on the Chelsea bench, which has finally been the most notable movement of this winter.

Arsenal succeeded in its downsizing operation by finding points of fall for Mesut Özil and his bulky salary (Fenerbahçe), as well as for Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Olympiakos), while perhaps waiting for Mustafi.

On the arrivals side, the Gunners secured the loan of promising midfielder Martin Odegaard (Real Madrid), while Manchester United prepared for the future by attracting Atalanta Bergamo winger Amad Diallo (18).

Spain: Valencia is active

In Spain, transfers were rare, and not very significant: no operation exceeded the ten million euro mark.

Usual agitators of the transfer window, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona preferred to look at their navels, occupied in turning around a difficult season.

Valencia has been the most active Spanish club in the last 24 hours, with three official loans, those of the Italian Patrick Cutrone (Wolverhampton), the Portuguese Ferro (Benfica) and the Uruguayan Christian Oliva (Cagliari).

Atlético Madrid and Sevilla FC have pulled off the best shots. The Colchoneros attracted French striker Moussa Dembélé (Lyon) on a six-month loan (EUR 1.5m), with a call option of EUR 33.5m (excluding bonus).

In Andalusia, sporting director Monchi enlisted Argentinian international attacking midfielder “Papu” Gomez (Atalanta), in exchange for EUR 8-9 million according to the press.

It should also be noted that Getafe obtained the loan until the end of the season for midfielder Takefusa Kubo (Real Madrid).

The most expensive operation is the work of Real Sociedad: the Basques signed the center forward Carlos Fernandez (Seville) until 2027 for around 9 M EUR, to compensate for the departure of Willian José (Wolverhampton) .

Germany: movement in Berlin

Bayern, who had announced they would not recruit, have loaned two of their young talents until the end of the season: 19-year-old Dutch striker Joshua Zirkzee leaves for Parma (with option to buy 15M EUR), and 21-year-old American defender Chris Richards for Hoffenheim.

In addition, club boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge confirmed Monday that David Alaba will leave this summer “at 99.99%”, and that the “Rekordmeister” was in contact to replace him with French central defender Dayot Upamecano (Leipzig ).

Hertha Berlin, in great difficulty in the Championship, announced at the last minute the recruitments of Sami Khedira (Juventus) and Nemanja Radonjic (Marseille).

The 33-year-old German, 2014 world champion, has not played since November 2019 in Serie A. The 24-year-old Serb arrives on the basis of a loan with option to buy.

Hoffenheim also announced the arrival of young French striker Georginio Rutter (Rennes), considered one of the Breton club’s great hopes.

January has already been lively, between the arrival in Leipzig of the Hungarian talent Dominik Szoboszlai (RB Salzburg) for 20 million EUR, and the return of the 37-year-old Dutchman Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Ajax) to Schalke 04, red lantern of the Bundesliga.

Serbian striker Luka Jovic has also found Eintracht Frankfurt, who sold him in 2019 to Real. But in Madrid, he never prevailed.

Italy: no striker at Juventus

A last day of calm enough unprecedented in Italy, where some clubs nevertheless took the opportunity to make final adjustments, and some players lacking ground to find a new club.

This is the case of Italian defender Daniele Rugani, who arrived in Rennes in October, on loan from Juventus. Long injured, he only played 107 minutes and preferred to return to Italy, where he was loaned to Cagliari.

The former international Graziano Pellè will also return to Serie A, after several seasons in China, to try to help another club in difficulty, Parma, according to several media.

Atalanta Bergamo has found a replacement – at least numerically – for its Argentinian playmaker Alejandro “Papu” Gomez, who left for Seville: it is the Ukrainian international midfielder Viktor Kovalenko (Shakhtar Donetsk).

Former Bordeaux player Adam Ounas goes from one loan to another: he goes from Cagliari to Crotone, without going through the Naples box on which he still depends.

Roma welcome on loan with obligation to buy the American defender of Dallas Bryan Reynolds, 19, on which Juventus Turin had an eye. Edin Dzeko is still there despite the great tensions with coach Paulo Fonseca, tensions that will now have to be alleviated internally.

At Juventus, the departure of Sami Khedira for Hertha Berlin will not ultimately have been accompanied by an arrival in attack, as desired at the start of the transfer window by Andrea Pirlo.

No last minute move either to Inter Milan, which will not have spent a cent during the month of January, as requested by its Chinese owner in serious financial difficulty.

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