Prem's drop

GM football fans. Route One here, and we’re covering the drop in Premier League spending, Suarez’s Inter Miami triumph and much more. Enjoy Route One? Share us with a friend on WhatsApp with this link.

TONIGHT’S STATS

Carabao Cup, Leicester City vs Tranmere Rovers. This will be a rematch of the League Cup Final from 2000, that Leicester won 2-1 at the Old Wembley; more Carabao Cup stats here. Champions League Qualifier, Galatasaray vs Young Boys (2-3 Agg). Galatasaray have lost their last four European away matches - after going unbeaten through the previous 10. La Liga, Rayo Vallecano vs Barcelona. Hansi Flick’s side are looking to continue their perfect start in La Liga. But Rayo have won three of their last six against the Catalans in the league.

Plus…

• John Obi Mikel responds to Nicolas Jackson telling him to ‘shut up’ (More)

• A look inside Barcelona’s 280 goals in 286 matches midfielder prospect (More)

• Brighton complete record signing of Matt O’Riley from Celtic (More)

• Liverpool make initial approach for Federico Chiesa (More)

PREMIER LEAGUE

Premier League spending down by £800m

Premier League clubs spent a record £2.2bn on new signings in the summer of 2023, but have paid out just £1.5bn - so far - in the current window, per BBC.

At the time of writing, the English top flight has completed the same amount of deals (105) as La Liga, but fewer than both Serie A (115) and Bundesliga (135). 

But the data - from Football Transfers - shows that the Premier League still spends far more than its European counterparts. The £1.5bn spent already is well beyond Italy (£617m), France (£529m), Spain (£435m) and Germany (£462m).

Big spenders

While Southampton have made the most signings with 13, Chelsea lead the way as the biggest spenders - having spent £204mn in the transfer window.

Yesterday, Brighton overtook Aston Villa (£149mn) as the second-highest spenders with the signing of Matt O’Reily from Celtic. The deal is thought to be worth an initial £26mn which takes the Seagull’s spending to around £170mn, and they could reach the £200mn mark if they put Ferdi Kadioglu’s name to paper.

Tottenham have spent the most on an individual player: The signing of Dominic Solanke from Bournemouth for £65mn currently sits as the most expensive signing.

Big picture: Transfer Markt estimates that spending on new players is down 14% - a notable drop. According to Football Transfers, this dip in activity may be a result of the league’s Profit and Sustainability Regulations (PSR) and “the perceived over-inflated value of players in the market”.

POLL

HEAD START

🪦 Former England manager Eriksson dies aged 76. Sven-Goran Eriksson revealed in January 2024 that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and that he likely had “at best” about a year to live. The Swede managed 12 clubs, including Manchester City, Leicester, Roma and Lazio, winning 18 trophies. He was also the first non-British manager of the England team, leading the Three Lions to the quarter-finals at three major tournaments. Condolences and greetings can be left on the website https://svengoraneriksson.com/. 

🔴 Liverpool could sign one of Europe’s best shot-stoppers. The Reds have struck an agreement to sign goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili from Valencia, though he will not join the club this summer. The deal is worth £29.6mn, per David Lynch. According to Opta, Mamardashvili overperformed his expected goals on target (xGOT) in 2022-23 more than any other goalkeeper in the Premier League - bar Bernd Leno - with 10.5 goals prevented. The 6’6” 23-year-old is expected to succeed Alisson Becker, who’s still relatively young for a goalkeeper at 31.

✅ Barcelona finally register Olmo as a player. Dani Olmo was bought for £50.8mn but has yet to play a game for his boyhood club. La Liga rules on salary limits meant the club were unable to add Olmo to their playing squad. But Barcelona has finally managed to register its biggest singing of the summer according to RAC1 and Mundo Deportivo. The registration was only made possible due to Christensen’s long-term absence from injury, making Olmo eligible to play against Ray Vallecano tonight.

MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER

Suarez turns Inter Miami’s fortune around, Messi reportedly rejects Saudi

Rumours have been floating online that Lionel Messi has rejected a weekly salary from Al-Hilal worth between €15-20mn, per Fox Sports Argentina. That’s a yearly salary of €900mn-1bn. 

It sounds almost too good to be true, and the lack of sources confirming the Saudi Pro League side’s offer make it unlikely to be true. 

Either way, Messi has been sidelined with an ankle ligament injury. His manager Tata Martino has “guaranteed” that the Argentine will return before the end of the MLS regular season on October 19, per ESPN.

Leading the way

In Messi’s absence, Luis Suarez has taken the reigns. In his first season for Inter Miami, he has 14 goals and 5 assists in 19 matches - and only 15 starts. 

His 6-minute brace against second-place FC Cincinnati on the weekend secured 10-man Inter Miami a slot in the 2024 Major League Soccer playoffs. His goal in just 30 seconds gave the Uruguayan the fastest goal in the club’s short six-year history.

A change in fortunes: The Herons sit top of the league, a huge improvement since they failed to qualify last year when they finished 14th on the Easten Conference table with just 34 points in 34 games.

With eight regular-season matches left to play, Miami also leads the race for the 2024 Supporters' Shield and can set a new team points record.

AROUND THE FOOTBALL WORLD

🇪🇸 La Liga: James Rodriguez, 33, has completed his transfer to Rayo Vallecano (More)

🇸🇦 Saudi Pro League: Al-Orobah and West Ham have reached an agreement for Kurt Zouma, medical in progress (More)

🇩🇪 Bundesliga: Kingsley Coman has decided to leave Bayern Munich after 9 years at the club (More) / in French

🇧🇷 Serié A: Since Thiago Silva's debut, Fluminense are yet to concede a single goal, with 5 wins in 6 games; his side is finally out of the relegation zone after being last for most of the season (More) / in Portuguese

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scottish Championship: Partick Thistle has published a positive finance update for supporters (More)

THE WEEK AHEAD

Carabao Cup second-round tonight and Wednesday. The third-round draw - where Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Man City and Man Utd enter the mix - will take place on Wednesday after the last second-round match, Nottingham Forest vs Newcastle. The new draw format means that no Champions League clubs can face Europa League sides in the 32-team draw, due to calendar conflicts with the respective tournaments. More details on the draw here.

Champions League qualifiers conclude tonight and Wednesday. There have already been 29 teams that have confirmed their place in the league phase, and the remaining seven qualifiers will be confirmed in the play-off round tonight and Wednesday. The winner of each game will go through to the expanded 36-team ‘league phase’ - which is new to the tournament. Once the playoffs conclude, the league phase draw will take place on Thursday - and fixtures will be selected by a computer for the first time ever. More details on the draw here.

Transfer window closes on Friday at 11:00 PM BST. In previous years, the transfer window closed at the same time across Europe’s ‘top five’ leagues. This time round, they will close at different times - the Serie A window closes at 19:00 BST, La Liga's at 23:00 BST, Bundesliga's at 17:00 BST and Ligue 1's at 22:00 BST. More details on the transfer window, including the options for unsold players, here.

ROUTER’S VOICE

Yesterday, we asked you: Do you think football clubs should get rid of gambling sponsors from their shirts?

🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🎉 Absolutely, get them gone. (83.7%)

🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ 👕 No, they provide important revenue for clubs. (16.3%)

Your punditry takes:

• 🎉 P.B: “I would also ban radio and TV companies for carrying betting ads during games. If betting is that attractive, then why do they need to advertise? They are looking for people to become addicted.”

• 🎉 K.S: “It’s not appropriate for a sport with gambling problems.”

• 👕 J.C: “No, they provide important revenue for clubs.”

EXTRA TIME

Neal Maupay confronts angry Everton fans at Euston station.

Jude Bellingham’s first signature boot leaked.

Troy Deeney’s BBC Team of the Week for MW2.

Are these players world-class?

Reviewing VAR decisions - Ouattara’s disallowed 92nd-winner analysed.

The best players to never win the Ballon d’Or.

EA FC 25 player ranking leaked ahead of the game’s release.

Where does Madueke’s hat-trick rank among the fastest ever?

Podcast: Gary Neville and Ian Wright reveal who they would have wanted to sign for.

GAME FACE ON

Question: Christian Pulisic has scored 45 goals in the top five European leagues, making him the third-highest American goalscorer in Europe. Can you name the former U.S. international with the most goals scored in European leagues?

Bonus: Can you guess the second highest?

Scroll below for the answer.

ON TODAY

Carabao Cup - 2nd Round

• Full fixture list can be found here.

Champions League - Play-offs

• Galatasaray vs Young Boys (Agg 2-3) (20:00 BST)

• Salzburg vs Dynamo Kyiv (Agg 2-0) (20:00 BST)

• Spart vs Malmö (Agg 2-0) (20:00 BST)

La Liga

• Mallorca vs Sevilla (18:00 BST)

• Vallecano vs Barcelona (20:30 BST)

German DFB Pokal - 1st Round

• Münster vs Stuttgart (19:45 BST)

*EST -5. PST -8. CET +1. CST +8. JST +9.

Answer

Clint Dempsey has scored 57 career goals in the top 5 European leagues. 

Bonus: Roy Wegerle has scored 55 career goals in the top 5 European leagues. He played between 1984 and 1998, with spells at Chelsea, Swindon Town, Luton Town, Queens Park Rangers, Blackburn Rovers and Coventry City.