Transfer Deadline Day: Live updates— Did Chelsea waste nine figures?; Arsenal chasing Douglas Luiz down to the wire; Depay to stay at Barcelona; and more!

Bayern Munich may be having a quiet deadline day — the German transfer window has already closed — but the action is hot and heavy around Europe as Bayern’s Champions League rivals in England and Spain scramble to finalize their rosters for the season. We’re here to bring you a smattering of the more interesting updates from the last day of the summer window.

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WTF (8:00PM)

I had to put this in...what ends could justify this at Chelsea FC? Will they win any trophies? Will Thomas Tuchel survive the season?

All of that to have no chance of catching Manchester City in the long run.

— C.Smith

That’s a wrap (6:00 PM EST)

It’s 11:00 PM in England and the Premier League’s transfer window is closed (Ligue 1 as well — these were the latest of the day among the top five). We’ll be back to pick up more leftover pieces and late-trickling news in tonight’s Daily Schmankerl. Stay tuned, and thanks for following!

Wooh! (5:45pm EST)

This one’s just for the name:

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Arsenal trying to close winger deal (5:35pm EST)

Arsenal FC might have only room to make one more signing this window, and it appears they’re targeting the attacking wings with Aston Villa’s Douglas Luiz. Fabrizio Romano previously reported that the Gunners “will try until the end” with the player himself also interested, but Villa aren’t keen to let him go.

This one looks like it’s going down to the wire.

Depay staying at Barça

Recently linked to Juventus, it looks like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s move to Chelsea has settled things for Depay at Barcelona.

Failed medical to keep Bamba Dieng in Marseille?

Another young attacking talent out of Ligue 1, Olympique Marseille’s Bamba Dieng looked poised to jump to Leeds United before fellow French club OGC Nice swooped in. However, an eleventh hour snag might awkwardly leave him out of all options:

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Espanyol snap up Martin Braithwaite (5:00pm EST)

Well, that was fast. The unwanted Barcelona forward saw his contract terminated but has secured a fast move within La Liga:

Justin Kluivert to Valencia on loan

AS Roma had a deal in place with Fulham in the Premier League for the 23-year-old winger, formerly of RB Leipzig — but work permit issues scuppered the deal, much to José Mourinho’s apparent annoyance. He’ll now get a chance to resurrect his once-promising career in La Liga.

Nottingham Forest continue their tear

It’s what, a couple weeks and several signings ago that Nottingham Forest were on something like new addition #17 for the 2022/23 season? Count three more on Deadline Day for the newly-promoted Premier League club:

In addition to Loïc Badé (from Rennes, the club who sold Mathys Tel to Bayern) and Michy Batshuayi, there’s also former Tottenham Hotspur right-back Serge Aurier, also per Fabrizio. Forest, of course, have been financially well-managed for years to achieve this — and have also saw their squad poached with over a dozen outgoings after they secured promotion. It’s an enormous amount of change all at once, but it’s a go-big-or-go-home play to stay in the English top flight.

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Julian Draxler officially joins Benfica (4:30pm EST)

Picking up some older pieces from around the continent now — the German national team winger/midfielder is finally, officially out of Paris.

Barça terminate Braithwaite contract

Per FC Barcelona’s website, the club “publicly expresses its gratitude” for Braithwaite’s “commitment and dedication” in freeing up funds for the Catalan club to use elsewhere. He’s one of a number of Barça departures in the final day to facilitate their latest batch of incomings. Braithwaite was signed a little over two seasons ago — outside of the transfer window, thanks to some Spanish rules that allowed Barça to poach from Leganés (since then relegated) to address their own injury emergency at the time.

Maxence Lacroix to stay at VfL Wolfsburg

The talented 22-year-old center-back is expected to be a hot commodity on the market soon, but the Niko Kovač’s club have managed to keep him in the Bundesliga for now — fending off a late push from English Premier League club Southampton, who have opted for Croatian center-back Duje Ćaleta-Car from Ligue 1’s Olympique Marseille instead:

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Chelsea swapping Marcos Alonso for Aubameyang (3:30pm EST)

Sky is reporting that Chelsea FC’s deal for FC Barcelona’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will include “in the region of £10m plus [left-back Marcos] Alonso.”

Meanwhile, current out-of-favor Barça left-back Jordi Alba reportedly feels cheated (Catalunya Radio, via BarcaUniversal) by his club’s attempts to push him out to Inter Milan and will instead insist to stay at the club.

And Barça might not be done offloading strikers, now that they’ve added Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski:

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Cristiano Ronaldo staying? (3:20pm EST)

Last we heard from Fabrizio Romano, Ronaldo was all set to stay at Manchester United:

Turkish Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe reportedly made a real effort to sign him — according to Turkish outlet Ajansspor:

Fenerbahçe is about to detonate the transfer bomb of the century, not the year. Fenerbahce mobilized all its means to tie Cristiano Ronaldo to its colors. According to the information we received, the two sides agreed in principle.

But as far as we can tell, this either isn’t actually true or didn’t materialize.

Liverpool loan Arthur Melo

The 26-year-old Brazilian midfielder was once a heralded talent, but wound up languishing at FC Barcelona and then Juventus. Liverpool were desperate for reinforcements in midfield and having missed out on prior targets found a last-minute stopgap.

Barça, Barça, Barça...

Having just pulled whatever maneuvers were necessary to register Joules Koundé and kick the financial can down the road a little bit more, Barcelona are already on the hunt for more signings. Per Fabrizio Romano, it looks like they’ve secured Arsenal’s right-back Hector Bellerín, but failed to get talented attacking midfielder Nabil Fekir from Real Betis.

Bellerín is being pushed out of Arsenal; hopefully he doesn’t meet the same fate at his new choice of club. From David Ornstein:

Arsenal have agreed to let Hector Bellerin join Barcelona. Free transfer - not a contract termination. 27yo awaiting permission to travel for medical after agreeing terms with #FCBarcelona. Taking a pay cut & waiving any payments #AFC owe

In terms of outgoings, Barça are pushing out striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Chelsea FC) and one-time Bayern target and USMNT right-back Sergiño Dest (AC Milan):

Aubameyang reunites with his former Dortmund coach, Thomas Tuchel, back in London.

Bayern’s window

For all the spending the club embarked upon, it’s a very respectable balance only a little over €30m in the red. That’s a lot of investment in the long term for low cost — typical of the well-organized Bavarians.