The Transfer Flow

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During the last World Cup, Kylian Mbappe firmly established himself as the next big star of global football with his sensational performance in the final, despite his team’s defeat. In the 4 years since, he’s mostly lived up to the hype. But last season was a bit of a disaster for Real Madrid, and his numbers fell off along with the rest of his team. After scoring 24 non-penalty goals in La Liga during his debut campaign for Los Blancos, he managed just 17 last season.

I hope you guys have been enjoying the World Cup notebooks. There was no game yesterday, so we’re back to normal operations at least for one day with a transfer rumour roundup. If you’re a recent subscriber to the newsletter, welcome! You’ll be seeing more transfer rumour analysis as the World Cup winds down and the transfer market starts to dominate football conversation again. Today’s lead story is about Newcastle United, who look like they’re about to have an extremely active window.

Hey, Kim here. Egypt and Colombia were 2 of my favorite teams to watch at the World Cup, and I was really looking forward to rooting for them in the quarterfinals. I’m having a bad time. Readers of the World Cup notebook will know that despite only scoring five goals in their four matches, I was high on Colombia heading into the round of 16. They displayed a patient yet fun style of play, full of fluid interchanges and the ability to play controlled chaos ball when needed.

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The haters said Cristiano Ronaldo and the USMNT couldn’t do it, and they were exactly right. Great call from the haters. To this point, there have been two figures who’ve dominated Portugal’s run in the 2026 World Cup: Cristiano Ronaldo and Roberto Martinez. Ronaldo’s celebrity had been placated by Martinez ever since he got the coaching position over three years ago.

Lots of things about this World Cup have sucked. There’s been quite a bit of blatant corruption and unequal sporting conditions. Iran got screwed, Cristiano Ronaldo was allowed to play through a suspension for some reason, Folarin Balogun is about to get away with the same thing, and there are a half-dozen alleged criminals playing while awaiting delayed trials. And yet, they still can’t make the World Cup suck.

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I’m very sorry that we have to discuss VAR at all, but a thing happened. Pre-tournament favourites Spain entered the knockouts on the back of a somewhat unconvincing group stage. They had comfortably finished first without even conceding a goal, but the shock draw with Cabo Verde and narrow win over Uruguay raised some doubts about their ability to go the distance in the knockouts.

We had three superior sides threaten to absolutely choke against big underdogs on Wednesday. Two of the stronger sides, the USA and England, prevailed in the end. Senegal, on the other hand… oof. England’s 2026 World Cup campaign has been a mixed bag to say the least. After showing a lot of attacking verve in their 4-2 victory over Croatia, things became a lot more stunted in their 0-0 draw to Ghana and 2-0 victory versus Panama.