Well, we're finally here. For many European countries the transfer window will close on Thursday evening, which sets us up for a frantic final day with plenty of big money moves still to be completed.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain looks set to spurn the advances of Chelsea in favour of a move to Liverpool, Manchester City are likely to test Arsenal's resolve to hold Alexis Sanchez to the final year of his contract one last time and it is hard to imagine Thomas Lemar not joining the mass exodus from Monaco to the Premier League, with Liverpool and Arsenal among his many suitors.
Everton's Ross Barkley is a young man in demand. The 23-year-old Everton midfielder, currently sidelined by injury and yet to feature this season, was the subject of a failed £25 million (Dh109m) bid from Premier League champions Chelsea on Wednesday. Antonio Conte has made it clear to the club's hierarchy he considers his squad too thin to try and retain their title and compete in the Uefa Champions League and may come back with an improved offer, with Everton valuing the England midfielder closer to the £45m they paid for Gylfi Sigurdsson this month. Tottenham Hotspur are also interested in Barkley.
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Danny Drinkwater and Riyad Mahrez, central pivots of Leicester City's charge to the 2016 Premier League title, look set for pastures new, with the former joining the latter in handing in a transfer request. Mahrez has been given permission to leave Algeria's training camp in Sidi Moussa, where he is preparing for a World Cup double-header with Zambia, to "formalise his transfer to his new club'', with Roma leading the chase for the £32m-rated winger.
Serge Aurier is primed to complete the formalities of his £23m move to Tottenham from Paris-Saint Germain after the 24-year old Ivory Coast right-back was granted a work permit by the UK's Home Office. The London club also announced the £8m signing of the 19-year-old Argentinian centre-back Juan Foyth from Estudiantes on a five-year contract.
Expect Manchester City to push one or two deals over the line, with manager Pep Guardiola said to be preparing one final bid for West Bromwich Albion's Northern Ireland centre-back Jonny Evans, having seen several offers rebuffed over the summer. The former Manchester United defender's arrival would almost certainly see Eliaquim Mangala head out on another season-long loan.
Liverpool are battening down the hatches, determined to resist the overtures of Barcelona for star playmaker Philippe Coutinho. Barcelona have already had three bids rejected for the Brazilian midfielder, the latest of which was reported to be worth €125m.
Jurgen Klopp is more amenable to letting defender Mamadou Sakho and striker Divock Origi leave, with the former potentially heading back to Crystal Palace, where the Frenchman enjoyed a successful loan spell last season, if Frank de Boer's side match the Anfield club's £30m valuation of the former PSG captain. It is thought Klopp will not countenance letting Belgian striker Origi join another Premier League club on loan, putting Germany's Wolfsburg in pole position.
One transfer that definitely came way out of left field on Wednesday was West Bromwich Albion pulling off something of a coup to land Grzegorz Krychowiak on a season-long loan from Paris Saint-Germain.
Krychowiak will join Tony Pulis' subject to international clearance and become the club's seventh signing of the summer.
📷 Some days are good, others are brilliant!
— West Bromwich Albion (@WBA) August 30, 2017
Plenty of happy Baggies tonight?#WBA pic.twitter.com/rpDNDWSy7I
He follows Kieran Gibbs, whose permanent transfer was announced earlier on Wednesday, to The Hawthorns as well as Oliver Burke, Gareth Barry, Ahmed Hegazi, Jay Rodriguez and Yuning Zhang. Zhang has since moved to Werder Bremen on loan.
Krychowiak, a Poland international, has won the Europa League twice with Sevilla and helped PSG lift the Coupe de la Ligue and Coupe de France last season.
"I had a lot of offers from Spain and Italy but this is a very ambitious club," Krychowiak told the club's official website. "There's a good atmosphere here."
If Krychowiak's move came as something as a shock then jaws are almost certain to hit the floor if Swansea City can go one better and pull off a shock move for Bayern Munich's ridiculously talented Portuguese midfielder Renato Sanches. Talks are said to be at an advanced stage for Sanches, who has failed to nail down a regular starting berth in his 12 months with the Bundesliga champions.
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Bayern chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said: "We wanted Renato Sanches to join a club where he can consistently play at a high level and where he has a coach who banks on him.
"Renato has to constantly win minutes for a year. That wasn't possible with our squad. He's aware he has to step on the gas now."
Paul Clement, the Swansea manager, worked briefly with the former Benfica player at the Allianz Arena before taking up his post in South Wales, and can no doubt assure Bayern that Sanches will get plenty of game time in the Premier League.
Joining him could be Wilfried Bony, who has been told he has no future at Manchester City. The Ivorian striker, who enjoyed a successful two-year spell at the Liberty Stadium from 2013, scoring 35 goals in 70 appearances, looks set to replace Fernando Llorente, with the giant Spanish striker wanted by his former Juventus manager Conte at Chelsea.
