GM football fans. It’s Monday, Feb. 03 - transfer window deadline, Argentina football’s major vote, and everything else you need to know. Forwarded this email? Sign up here.
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FIXTURES
Premier League: Chelsea FC vs West Ham United, 20:00 / 15:00. West Ham have lost on their last four visits to Stamford Bridge—and when you stretch that out to the last 18 meetings at the venue, the Hammers have won just once, with four draws and 13 defeats. See the remaining Premier League MW24 fixtures here.
Results…
Premier League: Arsenal 5-1 Man City | Man Utd 0-2 Palace | Brentford 0-2 Spurs (League Table)
La Liga: Barcelona 1-0 Alaves | Atletico 2-0 Mallorca | Espanyol 1-0 Real Madrid (League Table)
Serie A: Juventus 4-1 Empoli | Fiorentina 2-1 Genoa | AC Milan 1-1 Inter Milan | Roma 1-1 Napoli (League Table)
WSL: Man City 3-4 Arsenal | Brighton 1-1 Palace | Everton 4-1 Leciester | Liverpool 1-0 West Ham | Villa 0-1 Chelsea | Spurs 0-1 Man Utd (League Table)
TOP TALKING POINTS
Transfer Window Deadline
The winter transfer window for most European leagues closes on Monday (Feb. 03). The windows in Serie A and the Primeira Liga close on 4 February, and in Turkey, it’s a week later, on 11 February. See all the deals from Europe’s top five leagues here.
At the time of writing, Manchester City have spent €158m on transfers, the most of any club in the winter window. Al-Nassr and Paris Saint-Germain are the second and third-biggest spenders—with Jhon Duran's €77m move and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s €70m move contributing to the bulk of their spending, respectively.
Aston Villa had the best net balance of the window, pocketing €78.7m. However, the club’s reported €48m loan fee for Marcus Rashford means that Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt currently has the best net balance in this window with €52.5m. Ligue 1 club RC Lens follow closely behind with €51.2m.
See the latest transfer rumours here throughout Deadline Day.
La Liga Gap Closes
Real Madrid’s shock 1-0 defeat to Espanyol has closed the gap at the top of Spain’s top flight. Manager Carlo Ancelotti branded the decision not to send off Espanyol’s Carlos Romero–who scored the winner–as “inexplicable” after his challenge on Kylian Mbappe.
Atletico Madrid are now just one point behind the league leaders. Diego Simeone celebrated his 500th La Liga match with a 2-0 victory over seventh-place Mallorca, taking his side to 48 points for this campaign. Robert Lewandowski scored a second-half winner as Barcelona beat Alaves 1-0 to move within four points of Real Madrid and three behind Atletico. The Catalan side have now won back-to-back league games following their four-game winless streak.
Having both automatically qualified for the Champions League round of 16, Atletico and Barcelona have a less congested fixture schedule than Real Madrid–who have drawn Manchester City in a two-legged play-off round that begins on February 11.
Argentina’s Major Vote
Estudiantes, a fast-rising team in Argentina’s top league, is preparing to hold a vote by some of its 56,000 members next month on whether to accept private investment. If the members vote in favour of the development, the club will form a joint partnership with US businessman Foster Gillett, son of Liverpool FC’s former owner. The deal will be worth $150m.
This is a major step for Argentina’s Primera Division, whose clubs are all owned by their members. Argentina president Javier Milei, who took charge in December 2023, has pushed for clubs to accept private capital.
While some critics say the non-profit system preserves the social role of clubs, others believe it has stunted teams’ development. Argentina’s Football Association (AFA) is firmly against the proposal–and, according to the Financial Times, several surveys suggest a majority of Argentine football fans are also against for-profit clubs.
In 2021, Brazil allowed clubs to transform into limited companies and attract private investment. Although it’s still too early to say whether the impact has been positive or negative, Brazil’s Serie A has attracted a wave of investment, with several clubs now foreign-owned.
POLL
Do you think that Marcus Rashford can revive his career at Aston Villa?
ON THE BALL
Europe
> Aston Villa have completed the loan signing of Marcus Rashford and are close to signing Marco Asensio on loan from PSG (More) | Manchester United have signed Danish left-back Patrick Dorgu from Leece on a five-and-a-half-year deal worth £25m (Learn about Dorgu here) | West Ham agree to sign Brighton striker Evan Ferguson on loan until the end of the season (More)
> Harry Kane scored his 55th goal for Bayern Munich in their 4-3 win over Holstein Kiel; he becomes the first player to score 55 goals in 50 games in the league’s history (More)
> Heerenveen boss Robin van Persie left frustrated after match officials mistakenly allowed Fortuna Sittard to field 12 players (More)
> Celtic’s Callum McGregor made his 500th appearance as Celtic go ten points clear, with a game in hand, of the Scottish Premiership with a 3-1 win over Motherwell (More)
> Barcelona women lost to Levante in the league, ending the team’s 46 Liga F unbeaten run (More) | Chelsea Women go ten points clear of the Women’s Super League with a 1-0 win over Aston Villa (More)
Americas
> Leagues Cup will have a new format in 2025 with fewer teams and MLS clubs facing each other before the quarterfinals, while Liga MX clubs do the same (More)
> U.S. national team veteran Crystal Dunn has signed with Paris Saint-Germain through the 2027 season (More)
> Former Chicago Fire FC striker Jhon Duran becomes the MLS-record outbound transfer after his move to Al-Nassr from Aston Villa means that his move from Chicago is worth a total of $30.7m (More)
Rest of the World
> The Democratic Republic of Congo’s foreign minister has urged clubs Arsenal, Bayern Munich and PSG to end their sponsorship agreements with ‘Visit Rwanda’, citing a worsening humanitarian crisis (More)
> Asian Champions League holders Al-Ain will face Qatar’s Al-Rayyan on Monday (Feb. 03) in the league phase (More)
ROUTERS’ VOICE
Friday’s Poll: What do you think about Jhon Duran's choice to move to Saudi Arabia at this point in his career?
🟨 🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ 👏 Great move... (12%)
🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🙅 Bad move... (83%)
🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ✍️ Other (write in!)... (4%)
Your punditry takes:
🙅 L.R: “I believe that Jhon Duran is WAYYYYY too young to move to the Saudi League now... He won't be able to participate in events such as the Champions or Europa League. Instead, he'll be in the Asian Champions League, which is fine, but he won't be facing big clubs from Europe, maybe only in the Club World Cup or friendlies. All in all, I think he's too young and talented to move to the Saudi league.”
🙅 N.T: “Everyone that has gone to UAE, apart from Ronaldo, seems to want out. Especially players and managers from Europe.”
✍️ K.G: “As a Villa supporter, I'm disappointed that he's leaving the club as he's obviously an unbelievable talent. Selfishly, I'm glad if he had to leave (and let's be real—it was only a matter of time before he did) that at least he's going to Saudi, where I don't have to watch him play for someone else, week in and week out. Also, he can't hurt the Villa there, so good luck to him.”
EXTRA TIME
Haaland’s father bites back at Arsenal on X.
Florian Wirtz features in German Sports Photo of the Year 2024.
Jordan Henderson clashes with Dutch reporter. (via X)
Champions League knockout phase play-off draw.
When Teves and Mascherano ‘accidentally’ signed for West Ham on deadline day. (video)
Adidas release Club World Cup ball.
Bayern Munich’s 2025 125-year anniversary kit leaked.
A day in the life of a Premier League manager. (video)
Lamine Yamal incredible solo run against Alaves. (via X)
Ranking every Premier League club's most important player so far this season.
GAME FACE ON
Question: On Saturday, Abdoulaye Doucoure scored one of the fastest Premier League goals at 10.18 seconds for Everton against Leicester. But who holds the record for the fastest-ever Premier League goal?
Bonus: How many seconds was it?
Scroll below for the answer.
ON TODAY
Premier League
Chelsea vs West Ham (20:00)
La Liga
Girona vs Las Palmas (20:00)
Serie A
Cagliari vs Lazio (19:45)
Primeira Liga
Moreirense vs Braga (18:45)
Rio Ave vs Porto (20:45)
EFL Championship
Middlesbrough vs Sunderland (20:00)
*All time in UK. ET -5. CST -6. PST -8. MST -7. CET +1.
Answer
Shane Long for Southampton at Watford in the 2018-19 season. See the goal here.
Bonus: 7.69 seconds.
I still have something to conquer in my career, it's my last mission. I'll do whatever it takes to be there.
