The biggest Premier League transfer sagas coming this summer - involving Man Utd, Newcastle and Arsenal

In days of yore, the Vikings used sagas to recount the great deed of their mythical forebears – great battles, vicious monsters defeated, immense acts of bravery and strength at arms recorded and passed down to younger generations to inspire them.

Now we use mainly use the word “saga” when we mean a discussion over which club extremely wealthy professional footballers will go to next. Or when we talk about a cruise full of pensioners, we suppose. Either way, it’s hard to imagine the ferocious Norsemen of old are especially impressed – although there probably are quite a few similarities between life on a longboat and a ship full of geriatrics pottering about the Mediterranean. The catering, for one.

Anyway, the transfer saga may not involve many feats of derring-do but is a fixture of the summer transfer window, and there seems to be a particular abundance of them about the place this time around. So we’re looking at ten of the most epic, sprawling and, by the time they’re finally resolved, probably most exhausting sagas we’ll be enjoying (or often enduring) this summer, and letting you know where the land lies with each of them.

10. James Ward-Prowse

Southampton may have sunk like a stone into the choppy waters of the Championship, but one player likely to be thrown a lifeline is England international Ward-Prowse who was, if we’re honest, a bit too good to be going down in quite such a supine manner.

West Ham United seem to be the frontrunners for his signature and chatter over David Moyes’ interest has ticked up a notch in the past few days, but the Hammers will likely face stiff competition, with Aston Villa also supposedly keen. We wouldn’t be surprised to see a few more names thrown into the ring before long, which could push the asking price up into the region of £30m. Decent cash if you need to start a rebuild in the second tier, to be fair.

9. Kai Havertz

After yet another frustrating season for Chelsea’s makeshift centre forward, you would expected the young German – still just 23 years of age – to ask his agent to see if he can’t find a club more suited to his talents.

You would not, however, expect Real Madrid to be so keen on a player who only managed nine goals in 47 matches while playing up front – but apparently they’re trying to do a reverse Eden Hazard and sign a player who’s rubbish for Chelsea but good for them, rather than the other way around. The sticking point is currently the fee – Chelsea want to recoup most of the £75m they splashed out back in 2020, which Real have understandably balked at. With Todd Boehly desperately needing to raise a few quid to keep the squad refresh rolling, however, expect to hear more about this one down the line.

8. David Raya

The Brentford goalie has drummed up some serious interest with his performances over the past couple of seasons, and with two of the Premier League’s more pecunious clubs - Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – looking for a new face between the sticks this summer, there’s likely to be something of a bidding war.

Apparently Spurs have opened negotiations with a rather optimistic £20m – which has been inevitably rebuffed – but we can expect the final fee to get closer to double that than anything else. Another team keeping close tabs will be Blackburn Rovers, who have a sell-on fee for the Spaniard and a transfer budget of exactly zero pounds until they raise some funds.

7. Victor Osimhen

One of the most in-form and in-demand forwards in world football, the list of clubs interested in securing his signature is basically a list of every club with a large amount of money in their bank account. Top quality number nines are as rare as rocking horse excreta, and as such Napoli are reportedly holding out for a fee of up to €150m.

That sky-high asking price has seen the rumour mill cool down a little of late, with quite a few clubs looking to see if they can’t find someone a little cheaper first – but with 31 goals to his name in the 2022/23 season, don’t be surprised if this story goes nuclear somewhere down the line. Paris Saint-Germain, who can definitely afford it and have a Lionel Messi-shaped hole to fill, seem the most likely destination for the Nigerian as it stands.

6. Harry Maguire

It seems that half of the Premier League want to get their hands on the slabbily-proportioned centre-half this summer – but also that none of them want to pay a penny for the privilege of owning a player who we know is capable of playing really well, but so seldom seems to actually do it.

Villa, Spurs, Everton, Sheffield United and West Ham United have all been linked with the former Leicester City man, but are all waiting to see if the rumour that United will fork out £10m just to clear Maguire from the books is true or not. Should he hit the free transfer market, expect a feeding frenzy to develop as everyone queues up to ‘fix’ him like he’s an incorrigible bad boy in an Eighties teen movie.

5. Mason Mount

The juiciest rat fleeing the sinking Stamford Bridge ship, Mount had all the hallmarks of a lifelong true blue right up until the point that meant missing out on Champions League football. The versatile attacking midfielder seems increasingly unlikely to sign a new contract with Chelsea, and that’s alerted a couple of England’s top clubs to the unexpected chance to sign a first-rate player they all assumed would be off the market forever.

Liverpool seem increasingly unlikely given their signing of Alexis Mac Allister, Newcastle were discussed but don’t seem to have made a solid offer, and all of that means that Manchester United look to be in the clear for a £55m swoop. He may still end up signing a new contract, but the smart money is on his living in Salford next season.

4. James Maddison

It remains a mystery quite how a team packed with so many talented players as Leicester were went down, and the result is clubs circling their most prized assets like sharks around a seal coated in tuna paste.

Maddison is the most in-demand of the lot, allegedly wanted by Newcastle, Spurs, Villa and probably quite a few others. Exactly where he’ll end up is still very much up in the air, as is the price tag – but this one will rumble and rumble until we get some resolution, probably miles down the line. Wherever he goes, he’ll bring a boost to both the squad and local sales of haircare products.

3. Moisés Caicedo

The Brighton midfielder has drawn quite the crowd of admirers this past season, and despite signing a new contract in January it sounds like the Seagulls won’t stand in his way as he seeks pastures new. The combative Ecuadorian is on the shopping list of Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea at the very least.

There’s a lot of dominoes that need to fall before any move gets made, and the likely fee of something like £80m will keep things moving slowly – but all signs point to someone splashing out sooner or later.

2. Declan Rice

West Ham can more or less name their price for the England midfielder at this point – quite a few big-money clubs are keen and Rice is clearly interested in taking the next step in his career. One Europa Conference League probably isn’t going to change that, sadly for the Hammers.

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Happily for the east London club, we’re talking at least £90m here – with Arsenal, Chelsea and Bayern Munich all very much in the running. Chelsea seem the least likely destination – missing out on European football tends to have the consequence of putting good players off joining you – but with so much money at stake, this one will likely bubble on long enough for a few twists and turns along the way.

1. Harry Kane

We’re already exhausted by this one, partly because repeat viewings are never as fun as the first time. First he was going to Manchester United, then Chelsea stuck their oar in, PSG have been mentioned, Bayern were in, then out, and are now in again, Real Madrid have suddenly started a massive internal argument over whether they want to buy Kane or wait a year for Kylian Mbappé… and all the while, there’s a pretty solid chance that he just ends up signing a new deal anyway.

The hardball negotiating tactics of Daniel Levy, combined with a chunky £80-90m asking price – if Levy even has such a thing – and endless debates over how much he cares about breaking Alan Shearer’s Premier League goalscoring record have all combined to make this the rollercoaster ride of the transfer window. And unfortunately for everyone who just wants it done – such as, for the sake of argument, football journalists who just want to write about something else for once – this saga is likely to go on for much longer than anything the Vikings ever wrote.