Transfer wrap: Chelsea land keeper in world record bid, Spurs denied

Tottenham Hotspur's late attempt to sign Jack Grealish will come down to whether the player himself can persuade Aston Villa's new billionaire owners to let him go after the rejection of Tuesday night's £25 million ($43.3m AUD) bid left any potential deal on the rocks.

The failure of the two sides to reach agreement has been a grave disappointment to Grealish, who feels that he has given the club good service since their relegation two years ago and wants to move up a division to a Champions League club.

Saying put, for now: Aston Villa star Jack Grealish.

Saying put, for now: Aston Villa star Jack Grealish.

He strongly wants to leave, although his club's new owners, the Egyptian businessman Nassef Sawiris and his American counterpart Wes Edens, are understandably reluctant to let him do so at the current price.

It has been made clear to Spurs chairman Daniel Levy thus far that the England Under-21 international is not for sale at £25 million and it seems Spurs will have to go above £30 million ($52m) at the very least to have any chance of negotiating a sale – although even that might not be enough.

Levy goes into the final day of a summer transfer window still yet to make a new signing having been told publicly by Mauricio Pochettino at the end of last season that the club had to be "bold" to move forward.

Spurs were also one of the key driving forces in pushing through the new rules to make the transfer window shorter than it had been in previous years, finishing before the new season started, which has caused problems for many clubs.

Grealish believed that he had an informal agreement that he could leave Villa with the former owner Tony Xia, who retains a stake in the club but is not now making the major decisions. Villa made the signing of 23-year-old Scotland international John McGinn from Hibernian for a fee thought to be around £3 million ($5.2m).

One deal which Spurs might be able to proceed with is a loan move for left-back Danny Rose to Schalke. The two clubs are understood to be in talks.

Record signing: Athletic Bilbao's Kepa will join Chelsea.

Record signing: Athletic Bilbao’s Kepa will join Chelsea.

With more to come, overall spending in the window has reached £1.09 billion ($1.89b) according to the Telegraph Sport transfer tracker, short of the £1.41 billion ($2.44b) spent last summer. The shortfall is perhaps a consequence of the latest round of domestic television rights for 2019-22 fetching a lower price than those for 2016-19. While the eventual completion of the league's international rights sale is expected to take the total beyond the 2016-19 benchmark of £8.3 billion ($14.3b), clubs are still cautious about the future.

Chelsea will break their transfer record for the goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga from Athletic Bilbao, paying his buyout of £72 million ($124.8m) and also signing the Real Madrid midfielder Mateo Kovacic on loan. The sale of Thibaut Courtois to Real Madrid will earn around £35 million ($60.7m). Otherwise the club are contemplating a huge clearout now and in the coming weeks before the close of the European transfer window on August 31. Kurt Zouma, Danny Drinkwater, Michy Batshuayi, Tammy Abraham and Tiemoue Bakayoko are among those who could leave on loans or permanent deals.

Everton are still looking at the possibility of signing one or both of the Barcelona pair of defender Yerry Mina and midfielder Andre Gomes with Zouma also a possibility. Everton have signed the Brazilian winger Bernard from Shakhtar Donetsk. They too are hopeful of making some sales, with Yannick Bolasie to Middlesbrough a potential departure.

The newly-promoted Wolverhampton Wanderers could take their summer spending to around £85 million ($147.4m) with deals worth around £28 million ($48.5m) for Manchester City's Ukrainian wing-back Oleksandr Zinchenko and Anderlecht's Belgium World Cup midfielder Leander Deodonker.

Manchester United are unlikely to bring in the new centre-back that Jose Mourinho wanted, or any of the other positions still not strengthened unless Jerome Boateng agrees to a loan deal. The club are reluctant to pay Bayern Munich's £40 million ($69.3m) asking price for the 29-year-old. Any move for Harry Maguire is not being entertained by Leicester City.

Watford have indicated that, contrary to reports in France, they are not interested in the Paris St-Germain Portuguese forward Goncalo Guedes, who was valued at £54 million ($93.6m) and would have been a club record signing.

James Ward-Prowse, of Southampton, was also of interest but Southampton are unwilling to let the midfielder leave.

Newcastle United may need cover for Florian Lejeune their defender who has had an operation on his anterior cruciate ligament and is likely to miss the season. They have looked at Marlon Santos a 22-year-old Brazilian defender at Barcelona who spent last season on loan at Nice. For England internationals Danny Welbeck at Arsenal, and Danny Ings at Liverpool there has not yet been a resolution. Both are available at the right price.

The Telegraph, London

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