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London, United Kingdom | AFP | Ahead of Arsenal’s home game with Leicester City in the curtain-raiser to the new Premier League season on Friday, AFP Sport selects the 10 biggest transfers of the close season:
Romelu Lukaku
– Everton to Manchester United; £75 million ($97.5 million, 83 million euros) rising to £90 million*
After four increasingly prolific seasons at Everton, Belgium striker Lukaku has been given another shot at the big time with Manchester United.
Lukaku, 24, has been brought in to replace Zlatan Ibrahimovic and will hope to do a better job of impressing manager Jose Mourinho than he managed during their time together at Chelsea.
Alvaro Morata
– Real Madrid (ESP) to Chelsea; £58 million*
With Diego Costa having been very publicly frozen out by manager Antonio Conte, Chelsea broke their transfer record to sign 24-year-old Spain striker Morata.
He made an inauspicious start to his Chelsea career by squandering his spot-kick in a Community Shield penalty shootout loss to Arsenal.
Benjamin Mendy
– Monaco (FRA) to Manchester City; £52 million*
Saddled with an ageing group of full-backs, Pep Guardiola found it difficult to play the kind of thrusting football he loves in his maiden campaign as Manchester City manager.
He has taken remedial action during the close season, most notably forking out £52 million to make France left-back Mendy the game’s most expensive defender.
Alexandre Lacazette
– Lyon (FRA) to Arsenal; £46.5 million rising to £52.6 million*
France striker Lacazette had been poised to join Atletico Madrid, only for the Court of Arbitration for Sport to uphold a transfer ban against the Spanish club.
Arsenal stepped in, breaking their transfer record to sign the 26-year-old, who was the top-scoring Frenchman in Ligue 1 in each of the last three seasons.
Kyle Walker
– Tottenham Hotspur to Manchester City; £45 million rising to £50 million*
The second of Manchester City’s three new full-backs (the other being Brazilian Danilo), Walker arrived from Spurs after Dani Alves opted to join Paris Saint-Germain over rejoining forces with Guardiola.
Walker’s flying raids down the right flank for Tottenham have turned him into England’s first-choice number two.
