The UK's Biggest Transfer Saga Revealed

Which has been the biggest talked about transfer rumour?

Jack Grealish’s record-transfer to Manchester City may have been the biggest deal of the British transfer window, but it has not been the popular deal among fans.

The transfer window brings out the best and worst in fans every summer.

From demanding their clubs strengthen with daily bombardments of online messages on social media, to infectious enthusiasm at the prospect of a particularly exciting deal, fans go through the full range of emotions every year.

And from big-name signings to bargain hunting, we have seen plenty of action from the 20 Premier League teams, no more so than Grealish’s £100 million deal to move from Aston Villa to reigning champions Manchester City.

Harry Kane has been the topic of hot conversation over whether he will follow Grealish to the Etihad and leave behind his boyhood club - in this case Tottenham - as Pep Guardiola bids to finally end City’s European duck. Whilst this appeared to be a done deal at one stage, right now the betting sites have this move happening during the current transfer window at odds of 4/9 and not happening as short as 10/11.  

But which deals have made the biggest noise with the public?

OLBG's Transfer Tracker has gathered data between July 13th and August 9th. 

Through social media analysis and media story analysis, our ‘Transfer Tracker’ has rated the major British transfer rumours this summer to see which deals have set pulses racing and tongues wagging.

Raphael Varane emerged as a surprise target for Manchester United after the European Championships and given his pedigree with three league titles, four Champions Leagues and a World Cup, it is no surprise that his transfer is the highest ranked when taking social media and written media counts into consideration.

An incredible 57% of all tweets about Varane from the end of Euro 2020 to the start of the Premier League season were about Manchester United, making a total of 26,925 tweets about the topic in total.

The player with the most tweets linking them to another club was unsurprisingly Grealish, with 44,387 tweets about him and Manchester City - 32% of all tweets sent about him in the period - but the overall profile of the move means it is only the fourth most-talked about deal of the summer.

Jadon Sancho to Man Utd and Ben White to Arsenal are the next most-tweeted about deals, while the number of articles written about Sancho and general sentiment around the move mean it is the third most high profile move of the summer.

Not far behind Varane, as the biggest summer saga  is Romelu Lukaku’s £97.5 million move back to Chelsea, but that move received little fanfare on social media despite 48% of all tweets on the former Inter Milan striker revolving around his move. Whilst the rumours around a Haarland transfer move to Chelsea have for now gone quiet.