0935 – Chelsea new boy Palmer, who has signed an initial seven-year deal, said: “I’m excited to get started and it feels great to sign
“I’ve joined Chelsea because the project here sounds good and because of the platform I will have to try to showcase my talents. It is a young and hungry squad and, hopefully, we can do something special here.”
0930 – DONE DEAL Chelsea sign Cole Palmer from Manchester City.
The 21-year-old former has left the treble winners to their Premier League rivals. That move will raise more than a few eyebrows.
The PA news agency understands Chelsea will pay an initial £40million for the City academy graduate with an additional £2.5m in possible add-ons.
0901 – DONE DEAL Things are starting to get going now after a slow start to transfer deadline day, with Southampton announcing the signing of England Under-21 captain Taylor Harwood-Bellis on a year-long loan from Manchester City.
0900 – Bayındır, who costs a reported £4.3million, will become the first Turkish player to represent United and his signing comes after Dean Henderson left Old Trafford for Crystal Palace on Thursday.
0900 – DONE DEAL Manchester United have kicked things off by announcing the signing of Turkey goalkeeper Altay Bayındır on an initial deal until 2027. The 25-year-old has joined from Fenerbahce, subject to international clearance.
0840 – While big-money moves are likely to dominate today’s transfer talk, it is worth remembering that some big-name players also remain available as free agents – among them former Premier League favourites Eden Hazard and David de Gea.
0800 – As of Wednesday, these were the six biggest-spending clubs in the world for 2023-24. How different will that list look come close of play tonight?
0735 – Amid all the transfer speculation, reports and conjecture, two deals that have already been agreed and are expected to be completed today are that of Matheus Nunes to Manchester City and Ryan Gravenberch to Liverpool.
0730 – Chelsea are no strangers to the transfer market and they could take their spending past the £1billion mark since Todd Boehly’s takeover with Cole Palmer of Manchester City a reported £40million target.
0725 – Manchester United are looking to bolster their injury-hit squad with the likes of Sergio Reguilon, Marc Cucurella and Sofyan Amrabat among the players reportedly in their sights.
0715 – Mohamed Salah’s future is set to be one of the biggest talking points of transfer deadline day. Liverpool are hoping to keep hold of the 31-year-old Egypt international but speculation of big-money interest from Al-Ittihad persists.
0700
Welcome to the PA news agency’s live transfer deadline day blog .
The 2023 summer transfer window closes this evening at 11pm for Premier League and EFL clubs while it is midnight for teams in Scotland.
In the major European leagues there are various different deadlines today, from 1700 BST in Germany to 2300 BST in Spain, while the big-spending Saudi Pro League can continue buying players until September 7.
The likes of Karim Benzema, Neymar, Riyad Mahrez, Sadio Mane and Aymeric Laporte have already swapped Europe for the Middle East this summer and it remains to be seen if they will be joined by any other big names in the coming week.
Clubs in the Women’s Super League, which does not kick-off until October, still have a few more weeks until their transfer window closes.
Kane gunning for Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record
Harry Kane has his eyes set on Robert Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record after scoring twice in Bayern Munich's 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, though he knows he needs "to get a move on".
Kane scored in both halves on Saturday to take his tally to 42 goals this season across all competitions, also reaching the 400-goal mark at senior level for clubs and country.
The striker scored 280 of those goals for Tottenham, holding the honour of being the club's all-time leading scorer, while he is also the most prolific player in England history with 62 goals for the Three Lions.
With 35 goals in 31 Bundesliga appearances this season, Kane now has his eyes set on another piece of history.
Former Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski holds the record for the most goals scored in a single Bundesliga campaign, netting 41 times in 2020-21.
Asked about the possibility of breaking that record with just three games remaining in Bayern's league campaign, Kane said: "It's possible, but obviously I have to get a move on!
"I've got to maybe score a few goals next week. It's there, it's in touching distance.
"It depends on the last few games of course, but it was nice to add to it today and score a couple of goals to help the team."
Bayern next host Real Madrid in the first leg of a Champions League semi-final tie on Tuesday, before travelling to face Stuttgart on Saturday.
Pochettino says VAR 'damaging' English football as Chelsea denied Villa win
Mauricio Pochettino claimed VAR is "damaging" English football after Chelsea saw a potential winning goal chalked off at the end of their 2-2 Premier League draw with Aston Villa.
Despite a bright performance, Chelsea found themselves 2-0 down at half-time on Saturday with Marc Cucurella putting through his own net before Morgan Rogers added Villa's second.
Goals from Noni Madueke and Conor Gallagher dragged Chelsea level as they penned Villa back after the break, but the Blues were enraged in stoppage time when Axel Disasi saw a potential winner ruled out.
Disasi headed home in the fifth minute of stoppage time to spark wild celebrations among the visiting Chelsea fans, only for referee Craig Pawson to disallow the goal following a pitchside VAR review, ruling Benoit Badiashile pushed Diego Carlos in the build-up.
With that incident coming just one week after Chelsea were denied a penalty in their FA Cup semi-final loss to Manchester City despite Jack Grealish appearing to handle Cole Palmer's free-kick, Pochettino has had enough.
"Everyone that was watching the game will feel disappointed. The referee said it was a foul and disallowed the goal after going to the VAR to confirm," he told TNT Sports.
"The referee is unbelievable and it's ridiculous. It is difficult to accept these types of things. In the semi-final it was handball and it was no penalty, the referee didn't check it.
"It is painful as it has damaged English football and I think Villa players and their fans didn't understand why the goal was disallowed.
"They said it was a foul and if you see the challenge… if we go into every single challenge like this and it is going to be a foul, we wouldn't finish the game with 11 players.
"We can talk about the performance or the decision – it is damaging the game."
Pochettino had no complaints about Chelsea's performance, though, as they avoided defeat for just the fourth time in 51 Premier League games when trailing by two or more goals at half-time.
The Blues previously achieved that feat in a 3-3 draw with Sheffield Wednesday in 1992, a memorable 2-2 draw with Tottenham in 2016 and another 3-3 draw with West Brom in 2020.
Chelsea racked up 21 shots to Villa's nine and put up 1.57 expected goals (xG) to the hosts' 1.1, with Nicolas Jackson and Palmer spurning glorious chances in either half.
"The performance was very good," Pochettino said. "We played really well and it is true in the first half we conceded too easily.
"To play Villa, who are fighting for the top four, I am pleased with the team. Now, we have to move on and the headlines will be about the disallowed goal."
New England Revolution 1-4 Inter Miami: Messi at the double as Herons run riot
Lionel Messi scored twice and laid on a goal for Luis Suarez as Inter Miami retained their three-point lead at the Eastern Conference summit with a 4-1 win over the New England Revolution.
A franchise-record crowd of 65,612 people witnessed a flying start from the Revs as they took the lead within just 37 seconds at Gillette Stadium. Carles Gil pounced on some sloppy play from Miami to tee up Tomas Chancalay, who lobbed Drake Callender for the opener.
However, Miami roared back with Messi leading from the front. They had a deserved equaliser just after the half-hour mark, Messi slotting home after latching onto Robert Taylor's throughball.
Messi had his second after 67 minutes, producing another composed finish after former Barcelona team-mate Sergio Busquets split the New England backline.
Messi was involved in another two goals as Miami added some gloss to the scoreline late on; his first-time shot was saved by Henrich Ravas but Benjamin Cremaschi was on hand to score on the rebound after 83 minutes, then the Argentine teed up Suarez for a curled finish five minutes later.
Miami stay three points clear of Supporters' Shield holders FC Cincinnati at the top of the East, with the Orange and Blue keeping pace by beating the Colorado Rapids 2-1 on Saturday.
Data Debrief: Messi rolls back the years
Ahead of Saturday's game, some feared Miami boss Gerardo Martino would opt to rest Messi after speaking of the risks of fielding the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner on New England's artificial pitch.
However, Messi came through 90 minutes with another mesmerising performance. He has now recorded a goal involvement in 10 straight club matches for the seventh time in his glittering career, last doing so for Barcelona between September and December in 2018.
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