According to some rumours, Manchester Utd are still putting in an effort to sign Atletico Madrid right-back Kieran Trippier in this transfer window. But Atletico Madrid clearly stated that they were not thinking of decreasing their £34m asking price. The 30-year-old player had a decent season last. He got 6 assists in 28 La Liga games in the last season. He was transferred by Atletico from Tottenham for €22m. Now he has a market value of €20m. So I think this shows that Atletico are not very willing to sell him to any club now. That's why they are demanding this much money from Manchester Utd. I don't think that he's worth more than €20m now.

It started seeming like Chelsea will let go Erling Haaland transfer. Or maybe they will start thinking about it again if they fail on signing an alternative top striker. Because Haaland is the most expensive player in their transfer list now. But he is the youngest one also. If they somehow manage to sign him before the end of the transfer window, it will be an investment directed the future too. Haaland is performing great already at this very young age (21). I can't even imagine how much better he will be in the future by continuing to improve himself quickly.

The rumours about a possible move to Chelsea for Romelu Lukaku have been increasing nowadays. But Inter chairman Steven Zhang wants to take his time before deciding whether to sell him or not. He has been a very beneficial player for the team so far. I was delighted with his performance in the last season. He got 30 goals and 10 assists in 44 games. It was really impressive to me. And as far as I remember, he was chosen for the best starting eleven of Euro 2020 also. These things helped him draw people's attention to himself. The 28-year-old is having his most productive years as a CF now. And Chelsea are having big problems on that position. They had big hopes about Timo Werner but he couldn't give the expected in the last season. So, I think that Chelsea will do everything they can to bring Lukaku or another top striker before the end of this transfer window.

https://www.transfermarkt.com/lionel-messi-will-leave-barcelona-laliga-structures-make-deal-impossible/view/news/390547

I was really surprised to hear that Lionel Messi wouldn't be able to play at Barcelona anymore. Until yesterday, everything seemed fine and Barcelona were getting close to signing Lionel Messi with a 50 percent wage cut. And he accepted even this terms. But still, La Liga structures didn't let them finalize this deal as they didn't have the financial freedom to sign him. It must be shocking news for the club and Messi both. Messi actually wanted to leave the club long time ago but he changed his mind after some time passed. But now, it looks like we are going to see Messi at a different club for the first time ever. And I've started wondering already about which one it is going to be. I've heard only two big clubs being interested in him so far. They've been Manchester City and PSG. I assume one of these clubs will sign him this summer.

Manchester City signed Jack Grealish for £100m. So, I don't know if they still are in a good financial condition to be able to meet all of Messi's demands. I assume that PSG are better financially now.

I was one of the people who thought that Slovenia would win against France with the big help of Luka Doncic. And they were really close to doing it also. Luka Doncic had a very impressive performance including 16 points, 10 rebounds and 18 assists. But still, France managed to defeat them by only 1 point (90-89). This must be really devastating for Slovenia. They had a huge win streak before this game and they were so close to maintaining it. I still appreciate their performance very much. They can achieve better with Luka Doncic in the future.

USA defeated Australia without having too much problem just as I expected. Durant was the most scorer again of course.    Now in the final game, USA are going to play against their hardest opponent, France. As you can remember, France defeated USA in a group match, 83-76. This proves that they are capable of doing it again in the final game also. USA should play the game being aware of that.

a)  No
b)  40
c)  160

a)  Yes
b)  3
c)  6'

It is a big day tomorrow. Because we are going to watch the semi-final games.

My favorite team in the game between USA and Australia are USA of course. It is quite obvious that they are extremely dominant here. I think that they (especially Durant) will crush Australia and qualify for the final round. And it wouldn't be surprising even a little to see them getting the gold medal also.

In the other game between France and Slovenia, I'm going to support Slovenia. Because they have a player who I have a big sympathy for, Luka Doncic.    And they have been performing really great so far. They haven't lost even a game for a very long time. This morale could help them defeat France also. But their job will be very hard.

I've heard that Cristiano Ronaldo still wants to leave. And he really wants to go back to his old club, Real Madrid. But it seems like this transfer can happen on one condition. Real Madrid are still making a big effort to be able to sign PSG centre-forward Kylian Mbappe. If this transfer happens, then Ronaldo should forget about it. If not, then we might see Ronaldo back at Bernabeu again this summer.

Aston Villa are hoping to end two deals soon. These are Tammy Abraham (23) and Axel Tuanzebe (23). These players both had a role on Aston Villa's promotion to the Premier League in the 18/19 season. They were loaned to Aston Villa back then. Now Aston Villa want them both permanently. These are both talented young players and would do really good job there. It looks like Aston Villa are trying to create a younger squad. They are also on the brink of selling Jack Grealish to Manchester City. If it happens, then they will lose a great deal of power. But they will have a lot of money to spend also.

I thought like that because many sources were claiming so. To me, it's not very logical thing to do for Dortmund. Because it is very obvious that they won't be able to win the league title even having Haaland. We witnessed it in the last season. Haaland was just great. He got 41 goals and 12 assists in 41 games. This was absolutely an insane performance from him. But the team were still not able to win anything.

So, I would really like to see Haaland playing at a much better team that can win something. And Chelsea are one of these teams for example.

https://www.marca.com/futbol/villarreal/2021/08/02/61081a3146163f32578b45f0.html

According to Marca, Liverpool and some unnamed clubs are trying to sign Bournemouth's young left winger Arnaut Danjuma who is 24 years old now. And it is said that Villarreal have already made an offer around £21.5m. In the last season, he got 17 goals and 8 assists in 37 games. This is really good statistics for a young winger. And I know him from Football Manager game too. He was developing really fast and being very productive. 

There have been some rumours about Mauro Icardi that he would leave PSG this summer and return to the Serie A. The reason why has been that Ronaldo has been rumoured to be going to PSG in this transfer window. But it doesn't seem like it will happen. And Icardi refuted the speculations about him. He expects to stay at PSG for at least one more year.

The 28-year-old player got 13 goals and 6 assists in 28 Ligue 1 games in the last season.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/15744530/arsenal-everton-transfer-schalke-matthew-hoppe/

According to the source, Everton and Arsenal are monitoring Schalke's young forward Matthew Hoppe (20) now. I feel like Hoppe really has a good potential. He got 6 goals in 22 games in the Bundesliga in the last season. As long as he continues to improve himself, I believe that he will be much more deadly on finishing. Arsenal and Everton both would make a good use of a promising CF.

Juventus are one of the teams that are trying to sign Manuel Locatelli. But it seems like they are struggling to meet Sassuolo's asking price which is £34m. But still, they have joined the race for him like Liverpool and Arsenal. After his really good performance in the Euro 2020, some big clubs are putting in a great effort to sign him. But Sassuolo wouldn't like to sell him for an amount which is less than they would like.

Yeah, an offer around 42 million pounds would be quite enough for Saul Niguez. His market value is now €40m.

And I haven't heard much about Yangel Herrera. I did some research about him and saw these. He is 23 years old now. He was loaned to Granada for 2 seasons. He got 8 goals and 2 assists in 46 games in the last season. Now, he's returned to Manchester City. But it looks like Manchester City aren't thinking of giving a place to him in the starting eleven. So I guess they also would like to sell him for a reasonable amount of money.

Today, we had 2 important group games.

The first one was between Argentina and Japan. It was a really important game for Argentina as they had a chance to be one of the best third-placed teams and qualify for the next round. They had to defeat Japan to make it. And they did it with a 97-77 score. And they have moved up to the 1st place among the third-placed teams. It was really unfortunate for Czech Republic to be out of top 2 and be eliminated.

The second one was between Spain and Slovenia. This was an important game in terms of finishing at the 1st place. And Slovenia were the losing side until the end of the 3rd quarter but they made a really huge comeback and managed to win the game, 95-87. Now they are the opponent of Germany in the quarter finals. And I feel like Slovenia will manage to move them out of their way as well. By the way, Slovenia have a really great win streak now. This is also one of the factors that fire up the team. And I wouldn't like to overlook Doncic. He is the most valuable player for the team surely.

I'm not so sure about Haaland, to be honest. Yeah, Dortmund really don't want to sell him this summer. They want to keep him at the team at least for one more year. But if they get an offer which they wouldn't like to reject, then everything could change about their decision. Some sources were saying that Chelsea were preparing to make an offer around 175 million pounds. If this happens, I don't think that Dortmund would even think of keeping him at the team still.

What a race we got, man! It was incredible from the start to the end. The huge accident among many drivers in the first lap already was really shocking to see. Bottas, Leclerc, Stroll, Perez and Norris were out because of the incident. And Verstappen got a hit also unfortunately. He had a big damage on his car and it was not a reparable one in pit. So, he had to race like that if he didn't want to retire the car. And he did his best with this broken car but he was able to finish only as the 10th. At least, he got 1 point which could be really important in terms of the title race. Hamilton made a huge comeback and managed to be on the podium finishing as the 3rd. But Alonso was definitely the driver of the day. He defended Hamilton for many laps incredibly well. Thanks to him, Ocon and Vettel were able to keep their places and Ocon made it! His best placement was being the 2nd before this one and now he won a race! But to be honest, I would like to see Vettel winning this race.  

I've heard that Harry Kane is going to tell Tottenham that he wants to join Manchester City this summer. So he is holding talks with Tottenham for now. He doesn't want a new contract. He just wants to leave the team as soon as possible. So, there is no meaning for the chairman Levy to object to his decision. Tottenham should have a good understanding about why he wants to leave. He is one of the greatest strikers now and he doesn't want to get stuck here winning nothing.