News Thread

Thirteen British clubs feature in the top 50 highest attendances in the world during the 2023/24 season, with Manchester United remaining the best supported club in the United Kingdom. West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur join the Manchester club in the top ten with two German clubs leading the way this season. Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena and Borussia Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park have both been at full capacity, with Dortmund claiming top spot with 81,365 fans.

When Pep Guardiola first came to England, many questioned whether the Spaniard could recreate his dominance in Spain or Germany in a more competitive Premier League, and whether his “tiki-taka” style of play was suited to have the same commanding effect on English shores. That noise slightly raised in volume, after his first season in charge saw Manchester City finish third and trophyless, and face a crushing 4-0 defeat to Everton. Now that noise is silence, and Guardiola is affirmed as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, to ever manage in the game. He now controls a squad with a world high market value of €1.26 billion.

Celtic crashed out of the Champions League after defeat to Lazio on Tuesday night as they exited European football all together on another dismal night in the competition. Celtic have dominated Scottish football across the last decade but they’ve been unable to transfer those results onto the European stage and they’ve remarkably not recorded a Champions League victory in six years, since a 3-0 triumph over Anderlecht.

The Scottish Premiership has been an attractive market for top European clubs to find bargain transfers across the last decade. Virgil van Djik epitomises this pathway with Southampton acquiring the Netherlands international for €15.7 million from Celtic in 2015 before selling him to Liverpool for €84.65m just 30 months later. Van Djik developed into one of the best defenders in the world while John McGinn, Andy Robertson and Odsonne Eduoard have all been successful signings for English clubs. Talented Scottish youngsters have also become more desirable for English Premier League sides due to restrictions imposed by Brexit, preventing the signings of under-18 year olds from overseas.  

Trent Alexander-Arnold scored a crucial late goal for Liverpool for the second week running against Fulham, as he got the Reds’ winner in the dying minutes. Once one of the most feared attacking full-backs, but perhaps one of the most preyed on defensive ones, Alexander-Arnold is changing his game, and Jürgen Klopp may have found the best formula to get the most out of his no.66’s undoubted talent. And it’s got Trent flourishing for Gareth Southgate’s England too.

The winter transfer window is rapidly approaching with clubs finalising their strategies to improve their squads, but some deals could be sealed before then. While major permanent transfers aren’t as frequent in January as the summer window, some big players could still switch clubs with the loan market a popular avenue. Chelsea were extremely active last January, spending big money on Mykhaylo Mudryk and Enzo Fernandez. Virgil Van Dijk famously swapped Southampton for Liverpool in January 2018 with the Merseyside club recouping €135m for Philippe Coutinho from Barcelona during the same window. But clubs could add new signings before the January window opens with a number of high-profile players still without a club.

Manchester United’s dismal season was dealt another devastating blow as they were knocked out of the Champions League after a 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich. The English giants’ fate was outwith their control following a shock defeat in matchday five against Galatasaray with Copenhagen progressing to the knockout stages after beating the Turkish side in the decider in Denmark.

The race for the two extra Champions League places based on European performance this season has become clearer after the culmination of the group stages. As it stands, Germany and Italy are leading the race but England and Spain are in strong contention ahead of the knockout stages in 2024. 

The Premier League is the next of the top five leagues to get new market values before Christmas, and the world’s most expensive football market has two midfielders, who already broke the €100 million mark in the last update, making further progress – worldwide, there are now only six players with a higher market value than the pair. While the biggest losers of the update, Manchester United, drop clearly behind Liverpool, while rivals Manchester City boast the biggest plus of the update and reach their highest squad value since April 2020. With only a marginal loss, the most valuable league continues to maintain a total value of €11 billion.

With just one defeat from their first 17 Premier League games and no extended Champions League campaign to worry about, Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool side have surprised many through the manner in which they’ve raced towards the top half of the league table and involved themselves in this season’s title race. That, undoubtedly, is due to a number of new signings and star players stepping up a gear and performing for the Anfield side. Which is clear for all to see when we take a look at the market value changes in Liverpool’s squad in the latest Transfermarkt market value update of the Premier League.