Summerville to the Beach?

Working ahead a bit this week, because I have a date with some horses while wearing a top hat.

On my head, not the horses’.

Though I am not sure horses are actually barred from wearing top hats, I would have concerns about the drag.

Assuming you open this on Tuesday when it hits your mailbox, I am literally wearing a top hat as you read this. Cheerio, my good men and ladies.

Un-American? Perhaps. Unabashedly some of the best people watching on the planet? Definitely.

If we get enough new subscribers this week, as recommended by you lovely people, I promise to include a picture of myself in a top hat in a future newsletter. The link to sign up is here, and if you want any historic posts, they are on the website.

People said lovely things about yesterday’s update, and such compliments do not go unnoticed. Thank you.

Rumours and News

• O Crysencio Summerville, with your name like a combination of a beautiful flower and formerly downmarket neighborhood of Boston… what is in store for your future? The Championship player of the season made The Leap™ last year in Leeds United’s near-miss campaign for promotion, and he’s allegedly the target of Brighton, with bigger clubs “monitoring.”
  
  I think he’s very good, but I also know that Leeds are desperate to get back into the Premier League next season and Summerville is a key part of that plan. He still has two years left on his deal, which to me means either Brighton will end up paying the sort of fees they usually charge other teams to extract their players from their competent clutches.
  
  Or Summerville is unlikely to go anywhere.
  
  We lean the latter.

• Romano suggests Spurs are in for Monaco’s right back Vanderson. He feels like a high activity defensive player, but I’m less certain of his impact in possession. It’s plausible, and a rumoured price of €40M feels in the neighborhood, but I’m not quite sure it’s an ideal fit for Postegoclu.

• Kvara’s agent says he wants to go.
  Napoli say Kvara (Kvicha Kvaratskhelia) is not for sale and has a contract until June 2027.
  Historically Napoli win this fight because Kvara has no leverage.
  
  He’s good, but the standoff is potentially saving someone like Manchester United from a big fee en route to a mistake. Pattern recognition means I don’t trust big fees for Serie A wide players with bad shot locations.

  

• “Manchester United are willing to offer Wan-Bissaka plus cash to Crystal Palace in return for Marc Guehi.” I feel like I am losing my mind over the number of swap deals already proposed this summer, and we’re not even into July. The content engine demands we analyse them, but logic dictates they almost never actually happen.

• “Adrien Rabiot is yet to accept Juventus’ contract offer. The Bianconeri are said to be annoyed with the situation.”
  
  A Tale As OId As Time begins playing in the background.

• Matthijs De Ligt is the subject of a €50M rumour between Manchester United and Bayern. We’ll have a new podcast out with Nikos Overheul on Wednesday, where Nikos covers the career trajectory of de Ligt, and why this one weirdly feels like it makes sense on the surface for both sides.
  
  While on this subject, I promise to provide analysis of a rumour United fans should actually be interested in on Wednesday.

• Reiss Nelson needs to play somewhere next season, and it’s almost certainly not going to be at Arsenal. Is he good? Is he not good? Dude’s 24 years old and we kinda, sorta still don’t know. I lean good enough for a Crystal Palace maybe, with the Bundesliga as a backstop should he not make the grade at his next PL stop.

• Manchester City are allegedly trying to hijack Real Madrid’s move for the 16yo from River Plate. This story is veering slightly too close to a child-trafficking auction for comfort here.

P.S. We have started to drop podcast episodes too! Check out episode 1 with football analytics pioneer Ravi Ramineni.