3 Shocking transfers this summer
The summer transfer window is up and running and although the deadline day for all the Premier League teams is 9 August, the rest of the major European Leagues can carry on their proceedings till the 31st of August.
Although there haven't been any record-breaking signings, this summer has seen its fair share of shocking transfers which came out of the blue.
Even though the transfer window has always been unpredictable, some of the transfers were not in the pipeline even though the transfer window had proceeded for a considerable period of time. So without any further ado, here are the 3 summer signings of 2018, which shocked the world.
#3 Malcom
In one of the weirdest possible ways, Barcelona hijacked the Brazilian winger Malcom from Malcom and AS Roma would probably have felt hard done by the fact that the player was snatched from their grasp after they officially announced his arrival.
The 21-year-old former Bordeaux was all set to join the capital when suddenly out of nowhere, Barcelona came calling and it was too difficult for the player as well as the club to resist the temptation.
All the preparations required were completed by AS Roma and Malcom was about to fly to Rome to undergo the medical test when all of a sudden, Barcelona lured Bordeaux into submission when the Catalans offered €41m (£36.5m) to the French club for the winger, which was roughly £6.5m more than the amount Roma was supposed to pay(excluding add-ons).
Roma's sporting director, Monchi, commented on their failed move for Malcom in a video on the club’s official Twitter feed – and appeared to lay the blame with Bordeaux. He even claimed that Bordeaux also refused to let the player fly to Rome after Barcelona submitted the higher bid.
In the end, the Italian side was forced to exit the negotiations and were left gutted at the loss of a quality player, which would have been a cheaper option in an otherwise exorbitant transfer market.