Football transfer rumours: Angeliño to Brighton? Jamie Vardy to Chelsea?

Having joined Manchester City as a teenager only to spend several years being bounced around on loan at New York City, Girona, Mallorca and NAC Breda, Angeliño must have relished the chance to make a fresh start when he signed for PSV Eindhoven in 2018. That fresh start lasted precisely one season, before City re-signed him and then largely let him twiddle his thumbs on the bench. Now, having escaped to RB Leipzig, it seems he is being dragged back into the club’s orbit once more. With City and Chelsea vying to sign Marc Cucurella, Brighton are now considering Angeliño as his replacement.

If Cucurella ends up at the Etihad – and Chelsea seem to be doing their utmost to make sure that doesn’t happen – City will feel vindicated in moving on Angeliño, then a 24-year-old Spanish left-back, only to sign a 24-year-old Spanish left-back a year down the line. Transfer strategists call that playing the long game. Superficial comparisons, intended humorously, between two different players aside, Angeliño is not the only player struggling to disembark City’s transfer merry-go-round. With their hopes of signing Cucurella hanging in the balance, they have opened talks with Anderlecht over – you guessed it! – Spanish left-back Sergio Gómez.

Gómez is only 21, in fairness, making him a sound long-term investment. The same cannot be said of Jamie Vardy, now 35, who has been speculatively linked with Manchester United and Chelsea, both of whom are looking for reinforcements up front. Is he the future of either side’s forward line? No, he is not. Would it be extremely good fun? Undeniably, yes.

Elsewhere, as clubs rush to loan out their spare centre-backs, it appears that Chelsea’s Malang Sarr would prefer a move to Monaco over Fulham.