Top Summer Transfer Window Storylines

Here are the top summer transfer window storylines across Europe. 

€100 million For Tottenham Hotspur's Gareth Bale

Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez's lukewarm behaviour following the club's €100 million offer for Bale suggests Pérez has gotten cold feet. 

"I do not want to talk about players out of respect to the player himself (Bale), the club (Spurs) and the chairman (Daniel Levy) who is a friend of mine," Pérez said, via ESPN.co.uk. "€100 million seems a lot to me."

The Spanish banks which have bailed Real out need bailing themselves, according to Ben Edwards at The Wall Street Journal:

"

Spanish banks have been among the worst hit by the euro-zone debt crisis.

A burst housing bubble in 2008 left them saddled with mountains of souring mortgage loans.

[This forced] the European Union last year to set up a €100-billion ($131.03 billion) credit line to save the country’s financial system from collapse. 

Seven Spanish banks have seen the ratings of their covered bond programs downgraded so far in July by Moody's. 

Three were even dumped into junk territory.

"

Real can pay the €100 million but if it's split into installments over five-nine years, then you can understand why Levy would say, "No deal!"

Another implication you can draw from Pérez's statement is him listening to Madridistas, with 86.3 percent of Marca respondents voting against the potential €100 million transfer of Bale.

Pérez has already signed Asier Illarramendi and Isco, both at exorbitant fees, as the future of a Spanish Real Madrid. 

Opting not to sign Bale will benefit another one of the Los Blancos La Roja contingent, Jesé, who was the Euro U-19 top-scorer and the FIFA U-20 World Cup bronze shoe recipient.

Monaco Giving Michel Platini The Finger

€147 million spent on players including Falcao, James Rodríguez, João Moutinho, Jérémy Toulalan, etc. at a club that was in Ligue 2 last season and only has an 18,523 stadium capacity. 

If they pass the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations, Platini may as well bin the FFP which hasn't deterred Manchester City, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain from constructing dream teams. 

Barcelona's Neymar Fiasco 

Barça lose 7-0 on aggregate to Bayern Munich and the Blaugranas' first major signing of the summer isn't a world-class centre-back but Neymar. 

€57 million now or wait one year and sign Neymar on a free transfer. 

Logical people choose the second option, Barcelona management chose the first option. 

It's such a flagrantly bad deal from an economic efficiency perspective.  

Bayern's Mario Götze is €20 million cheaper than Neymar, who is €44 million more expensive than Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Borussia Dortmund. 

Luis Suárez's Contractual Quandary at Liverpool

Do you know how much weight Suárez's £40 million-plus-a-pound contractual clause holds? None.

"It quite clearly states £40 million is a minimum offer for discussions but I can't say it is a cast-iron buyout clause," said Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Gordon Taylor, from the Press Association via ESPN FC.

The point of the clause is to allow Suárez and his agent Pere Guardiola to discuss personal terms with clubs that bid £40 million+ without being in violation of tapping up laws.

Liverpool are not legally bound to sell him should the clause be triggered. 

"I stayed on the understanding that if we failed to qualify for the Champions League the following season I'd be allowed to go," Suárez told Sid Lowe at The Guardian. "All I want is for Liverpool to honour our agreement."

If Suárez was serious about his UEFA Champions League claims, he would have instructed Guardiola to negotiate the prerequisite of Champions League football into the contract last August.

After all, his agent is Guardiola, who masterminded Thiago's transfer to Bayern Munich. 

Guardiola maneuvered around Thiago's €90 million buyout clause with a secondary clause addressing the youngster's fear—not being an integral part of Barcelona, via Sports Illustrated:

"

Thiago's contract with Barcelona had a buyout clause of €90 million, but it included the stipulation that if he played in less than 60 percent of the games in a season the buyout price would be lowered to just €18 million.

Barcelona said that Bayern had agreed to pay the Spanish club €25 million for Thiago.

The deal also included an agreement to play a friendly match between the two clubs in the next four years.

"

Suárez, you signed the extension, now honour it.

Atlético Madrid's €5.1 million Bargain: David Villa

According to Marca, Barça negotiated a back-loaded contract with Villa when he signed, so his €7.5 million salary was set to increase to €11 million as a bench-warmer. 

This is the reason why Barcelona offloaded him ASAP allowing Atléti to swoop in. 

Christian Vieri (1997-98), Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (1999-2000), Fernando Torres (2000-07), Sergio Agüero (2006-11), Diego Forlán (2007-11), Falcao (2011-13) and now Villa—trust Atlético to identify prolific goal-scorers. 

Chelsea Don't Need Wayne Rooney

André Schürrle, Eden Hazard, Demba Ba, Fernando Torres, Juan Mata, Kevin De Bruyne, Oscar, Romelu Lukaku and Victor Moses are reasons why Wayne Rooney isn't a necessity for Chelsea.

£30 million (h/t Sky Sports)? No way, José. 

Money, Money, Money 

Newly-promoted Cardiff City breaking their transfer fee record three times this summer (Andreas Cornelius, Steven Caulker and Gary Medel), it shows you how filthy rich the Premier League is.

This is the by-product of the Premier League being a commercial juggernaut.

Whereas bottom-tier or mid-tier Bundesliga, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A,  Ligue 1 clubs, et al. are forced to practice financial frugality.

A trend is emerging that their best players are being lured to Premier League teams that are making up the numbers. 

Swansea City signing Wilfried Bony, who scored 37 times in 36 games for Vitesse last season, for £12 million is a prominent example of a bottom-tier or mid-tier club having some financial muscle.

That said, the demise of Queens Park Rangers and Portsmouth serves as a cautionary tale of sacrificing stability in a bid for instant success. 

Speaking of money, the inability of Arsène Wenger and David Moyes to sign world-class players this summer with the deadline day looming puts Arsenal and Manchester United at a disadvantage.

Tottenham Hotspur, a team with an overloaded midfield (Paulinho, Étienne Capoue, Sandro and Mousa Dembélé), a world-class goal-poacher in Roberto Soldado with Bale (presuming he stays) are an outside chance to win the Premier League.

Miscellaneous News

+allanjiang

Statistics courtesy of WhoScored.com and Squawka.com