Chelsea’s financial shrug and Liverpool leaking players – what you may have missed
After the eye-watering excess of the Geopolitics World Cup, we can return to the modest, measured land of the domestic game. While our attention has been elsewhere, Manchester City have splashed £116m on Elliot Anderson. Chelsea, not to be outshone, have...
Chelsea’s summer spending and Liverpool’s player movement featured among the football developments highlighted in a Guardian Football roundup of what may have slipped past attention during a busy news cycle.
The piece noted that Manchester City have reportedly spent £116m on Elliot Anderson, while Chelsea have committed £117m on Morgan Rogers. Tottenham were also described as having spent £230m to reshape what the roundup called a “mildly traumatised” squad. Manchester United, by contrast, were presented as taking a more restrained approach, with the report saying they had added Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans for the same £85m Tottenham directed toward West Ham’s Mateus Fernandes.
The roundup also pointed to activity away from the major transfer headlines. It mentioned a difficult evening for British, Irish and British Overseas Territory clubs in Bigger Cup qualifying, saying Hearts, Larne, Shamrock Rovers and Lincoln Red Imps all lost their second-round first-leg ties and failed to score between them. Hearts, in particular, were said to have been beaten 4-0 by Sturm Graz, while Larne were defeated by Red Star Belgrade.
Elsewhere, the report quoted Hearts’ new head coach Wouter Vrancken striking an optimistic note despite that heavy loss, saying he had been pleased with a number of things from the match and stressing the importance of efficiency at this level. The roundup also carried the view that football “just rolls on and on,” capturing the sense of relentless momentum as club competition returns after the Geopolitics World Cup.
In another managerial note, the Guardian piece said Alessio Dionisi has taken charge at Watford, framing the appointment as another familiar managerial reset for the club. The comment suggested there is a predictable cycle of optimism, change and pressure around such arrivals, especially when results or performances have already started to frustrate supporters.
The article was published as part of a monitored public feed and reflects a selection of the football items the Guardian chose to spotlight for readers catching up on the day’s developments.
Source: The Guardian Football - https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jul/22/football-daily-email-liverpool-chelsea-manchester-city-what-you-may-have-missed
