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Morning Mix: Premier League transfer window madness begins, ex-Man United star shines a light on fraud

To celebrate the start of July, we’ve brought ‘Morning Mix’ out of hibernation for what may (or may not) be a one-off summer special.

Our weekly football column with a sprinkling of music was a regular Monday feature last season, so we’re running this one on Saturday (no idea why!).

We look at some of the top talking points from the past seven days and point you in the direction of some of the best football stories elsewhere on the internet.

We also offer a top tune recommendation to get you in the mood for the next week and what to watch out for over the coming days. Let’s get this bonus column underway.

Premier League transfer window madness begins

Summer is well and truly underway, which means the Premier League transfer window is open. In other words, crazy rumours abound.

We’ve already had a ‘pundit’ claiming one club made an offer for a player to help another club accelerate their own pursuit of the same player.

In the spirit of ‘you really couldn’t make this stuff up’, we will offer some thoughts on that nonsensical opinion a little later.

Ex-Man United star shines a light on financial fraud

Journalist Andy Mitten’s excellent article about a relatively unknown financial scandal in football should send alarm bells ringing around the industry.

Ex-Manchester United star Andrew Cole is among a group of players attempting to highlight the high levels of investment fraud in professional football.

With football finances increasing at a rapid rate, football must ensure adequate safeguarding measures are put in place to address the issue.

Fire-sale at Sevilla raises plenty of questions

According to Marca, La Liga club Sevilla ‘has a debt that is very difficult to resolve’. On closer inspection, it appears the debt is €90 million.

This seemingly means that every Sevilla player is up for sale. However, given Marca have failed to explain why the debt is such a major issue, we’re not sure why.

Plenty of Premier League clubs are carrying levels of debt that make the €90m figure look like chicken feed. So what are we missing? Answers to Morning Mix on a postcard, please.

Match-going fans are an afterthought – get used to it

The Premier League are set to offer live television coverage of every Sunday match from 2024/25. Some games could kick off at 7.00 pm. Isn’t that nice?

If ever you needed evidence that match-going fans are largely irrelevant to the EPL’s decision-makers, this move highlights it to perfection.

Resistance is futile, folks – it’s all about the money.

England U21s face a date with destiny

Many segments of the English media are renowned for working themselves into a lather about the national team set-up.

Young players are quickly talked up as being the ‘next big thing’, placing unnecessary pressure on their shoulders at an early age.

With that in mind, the hyperbole will likely be off the scale if England emerge victorious at the ongoing U21 European Championship in Romania and Georgia.

The week that was

Are you looking for the best football stories from the past week? Check these out:

Today’s top tune

If you are a regular reader of Morning Mix you will have noticed we’ve become emotionally attached to Wrexham indie band The Royston Club.

Your intrepid columnist took things to another level last month by joining a rather youthful crowd at an intimate record store gig in Manchester.

After queuing in the sweltering heat for what seemed like an eternity (not good for a dodgy Achilles), I dragged my long-suffering partner up to meet the band.

They got her seal of approval afterwards – ‘nice lads’ was the verdict. She wants this one at the Sheffield and Wrexham gigs, fellas. Please and thank you.

What to watch this week

The U21 European Championship has been a decent watch up to this point. England vs Portugal tomorrow afternoon should be a cracker.

A final Morning Mix thought

It is fair to say that ex-women’s footballer Eni Aluko has had better weeks as she strives to establish herself on the punditry circuit.

Her ridiculous take on the Declan Rice transfer saga on talkSPORT was brutally unpicked by Simon Jordan, who pointed out that her comments effectively amounted to commercial fraud.

The social media pile-on was less nuanced in some quarters, sparking an angry reaction from Aluko about sexism, racism and misogyny.

However, many people who attempted to debate the issue with Aluko on social media undoubtedly stayed on the right side of the line.

On that basis, her posting of xenophobic and racist comments before deleting her Twitter account was not a good look for Aluko.

Ultimately, Aluko’s experiences as a sporting director in women’s football bear little relation to how Premier League transfers are conducted.

As a pundit, she has repeatedly shown she is completely out of her depth. It is neither sexist, racist or misogynistic to hold this view.

Despite her experience in women’s football, Aluko lacks the journalistic and media skills to cut the mustard as a pundit. The word ‘clueless’ springs to mind.

She would be well-advised to address those issues rather than continually placing herself in the spotlight with bizarre and hugely ill-informed opinions.

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