Wednesday Morning Hot Links
The first Transfer Window of the summer has come and gone, the USMNT are an absolute disgrace, and still we plod on waiting for next season.
Leeds United
Leeds United target Habib Diarra scored in a shock 3-1 win over England on Tuesday night. And to that point, Strasbourg are reportedly looking for a bit more than the £22 million Leeds have offered for Diarra, who sees himself as being a better player than “Survival in the Premier League is Goal #1 this season.”
But there’s more hope for Jaka Bilol joining Leeds! Word out of Udine, Italy is that Udinese are already planning on replacing Bilol.
Leeds are reportedly one of four teams after one of Chelsea’s 58 goalkeepers (approximately): Djordje Petrovic.
Yorkshire Evening Post’s Joe Donnahue highlights what Leeds could get out of a move for Newcastle’s Sean Longstaff.
Elsewhere
After getting Brickhoused by Switzerland 4-0 in Nashville, the USMNT got booed off the field, and rightly so. Not even Christian Pulisic would have prevented that thumping. So much for Switzerland’s “neutrality” jeez. The USMNT have now lost four matches in a row for the first time since 2007. ESPN: The World Cup? The USMNT doesn’t even look ready for the Gold Cup.
The Guardian: How much of this disaster is on Mauricio Pochettino?
Liverpool finally have their man in Florian Wirtz after Bayer Leverkusen agreed to a £127 million fee including add-ons. The defending Premier League Champions are in a bit of a pickle after Darwin Nunez decided not to go to Saudi Arabia this summer, though.
Manchester United are contemplating using Joshua Zirkzee as part of a package for Victor Osimhen.
Paris-St. Germain goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma doesn’t want to leave Paris for Manchester or Milan.
Sporting Lisbon’s Victor Gyokeres is willing to go on strike in order to force a move this summer, with Manchester United (Ruben Amorim was his manager at Sporting prior to November) and Arsenal lurking.
Serie B side Pisa’s (same as the, you know, Leaning Tower and whatnot) Francesco Coppola has twice turned down offers from Totenham Hotspur, showing what a genius chairman Daniel Levy is.
Brazil booked their ticket to the 2026 World Cup in Carlo Ancelotti’s home debut.
The Daily Mail has a crazy story about former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and how the sale of the club was forced through.
The 2025-26 Premier League schedule is released next week. Here’s how they do it.
What To Watch: Wednesday
2pm (Central). Real Gs will have no problem watching 2nd-Tier Spanish Soccer as Real Oviedo host Almeria on ESPN+.
In honor of the passing of Sly Stone, I’m planning on watching Sly Lives (again). Hulu.