Why did Chelsea not move for Kelleher? Transfer window Q&A
BBC Sport senior football correspondent Sami Mokbel has been answering your questions on the summer transfer window.Will asked: Working out the sanity of Chelsea's transfer policy is impossible, but can anyone explain why when a goalkeeper like Kelleher is available for as little as £18m (less than Sanchez cost) Chelsea refuse to upgrade an area they are clearly crying out for?Sami said: It's a good question. Chelsea have made it clear that a new goalkeeper isn't viewed as a priority for them this summer which flies in the face of some of the difficulties they have faced in that position last season.Chelsea have another big summer ahead. They want a striker, a winger and a centre-back. That won't come cheaply. So they will have to prioritise their spending. However, if towards the end of the window a market opportunity arises to sign a goalkeeper who is a marked improvement on the options they already have, I wouldn't be shocked if they engaged.Follow the Q&A and the rest of the day's football news here
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
29 minutes ago
- The Guardian
US-China trade talks: ‘framework' deal amid dispute over rare earths
Officials from the US and China have agreed on a 'framework' to move forward on trade after two days of talks in London stemming from their confrontation over tariffs. The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, expressed optimism on Tuesday that concerns about critical or 'rare earth' minerals and magnets 'will be resolved' as the deal is implemented. Lutnick told reporters that the framework puts 'meat on the bones' of a deal reached last month in Geneva to ease retaliatory tariffs. Its implementation had faltered over China's curbs on critical mineral exports. The deal also would remove some US export restrictions that were recently put in place, Lutnick said. 'We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents,' Lutnick said. 'The idea is we're going to go back and speak to President Trump and make sure he approves it. They're going to go back and speak to President Xi and make sure he approves it, and if that is approved, we will then implement the framework.' In a separate briefing, China's vice commerce minister Li Chenggang said a trade framework had been reached that would be taken back to US and Chinese leaders. 'The two sides have, in principle, reached a framework for implementing the consensus reached by the two heads of state during the phone call on June 5th and the consensus reached at the Geneva meeting,' Li told reporters. Lutnick said China's restrictions on exports of critical minerals and magnets to the US would be resolved as a 'fundamental' part of the framework agreement. 'Also, there were a number of measures the United States of America put on when those rare earths were not coming,' Lutnick said. 'You should expect those to come off, sort of as President Trump said, in a balanced way.' Li said: 'Our communication has been very professional, rational, in-depth and candid.' All eyes were on the outcomes of negotiations as both sides were at an impasse over export restrictions, with US officials earlier accusing Beijing of slow-walking approvals for shipments of critical minerals. The world's two biggest economies were also seeking a longer-lasting truce in their escalating tariffs war, with levies reduced temporarily. 'We're moving as quickly as we can,' US trade representative Jamieson Greer told reporters. 'We feel positive about engaging with the Chinese.' With Reuters and Agence France-Presse
Finextra
an hour ago
- Finextra
Barclays opens London innovation hub with Microsoft and Nvidia onboard
Barclays has opened a new innovation hub in London, working with a range of partners from across the tech industry – including Microsoft and Nvidia. 0 The new Hub will be dedicated to aiding the commercial growth of startups in AI, Deep tech, and the innovation economy by connecting founders, industry experts and investors. To achieve this, it will provide collaborative workspaces for 150 cutting edge tech businesses in the heart of Shoreditch and will offer access to a network of events, workshops, growth programmes and ecosystem connectivity. Businesses working within the Innovation Hub will also be able to network and build relationships with the core partners behind the concept, including Microsoft, NVIDIA, Conception X, Databricks, Innovate Finance and Twin Path Ventures - and will have direct access to members of Barclays innovation banking team who will be based on-site. Hannah Bernard, head of business banking, Barclays, says: 'The UK's innovation ecosystem is one of the best in the world, but we can't afford to rest on our laurels. Key players from across the industry need to come together to help nurture and develop the next wave of tech entrepreneurs - this new Innovation Hub will play an important role in facilitating that as part of our wider offering to tech businesses. Our innovation banking specialists will be on hand to provide tailored support to founders, helping them raise capital, develop business skills and accelerate their growth.' The move comes after Barclays in January shut down its decade-old fintech accelerator programme, Rise, arguing that fintechs have evolvd from niche startups to the mainstream with numerous opportunities to work with the FS sector.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
ALEX BRUMMER: If this is a fixed economy, I'd hate to see a broken one
Nearly half a century has passed since Margaret Thatcher skewered the incumbent PM James Callaghan at the 1979 election with her famous ' Labour Isn't Working' poster, which showed dole queues stretching across the horizon. We are not quite there yet. But after years of low unemployment in Britain, Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer have brought chaos – in just 11 months – to what was one of the strongest labour markets in Europe. Last October's Budget and its central and perhaps most hated policy – an increase in employers' National Insurance to 15 per cent – added no less than £23 billion to bosses' wage bills. And for all this Government's promise not to raise taxes on 'working people', it's now clear that this misguided and self-defeating pledge is having a vicious impact on jobs. Companies are proving reluctant to take on new workers, are deliberately not replacing colleagues who move on and are taking the opportunity to cut costs by making people redundant. The only silver lining is slowing wage increases, at least in the private sector, should make it possible for the Bank of England to lower interest rates by a further 0.25 per cent this summer to 4 per cent – making mortgages and borrowing cheaper. The public sector is another matter, of course, and has enjoyed lavish raises at the expense of the productive part of the economy – to say nothing of its far more generous gold-plated pensions, paid out of direct taxation. But overall the picture is dire. The National Insurance increase, along with a hugely generous rise in the minimum wage – now one of the highest on the planet – surging fuel costs and rising business rates, have shattered business confidence. Companies are shedding jobs at an alarming rate. Figures collected by HMRC show that 55,000 jobs were lost in April alone and numbers 'were notably weaker' than expected, according to bankers Goldman Sachs. Vacancies are tumbling, too – these stood at 736,000 in the three months to April, down from 760,000 in the previous period, and were at 1.4 million as recently as 2022. The unemployment rate, which was 3.6 per cent of the workforce prior to the pandemic, has now zipped up to 4.6 per cent. And the worst part? There's more to come. Businesses are steeling themselves for socialist firebrand Angela Rayner's beloved Employment Rights Bill, currently grinding its way through Parliament, which will make hiring new workers even more expensive. To peals of outrage (and a front-page Daily Mail headline: 'Deluded'), this week Sir Keir claimed to have 'fixed' our public finances, thus making possible his Government's U-turn on snatching the winter fuel allowance from millions of pensioners. Well, if this is what 'fixed' looks like, Sir Keir, I'd hate to see the economy 'broken'. Rising unemployment is a menace. It inevitably raises the cost of Britain's already gargantuan welfare bill – and it simultaneously reduces Government revenues due to lower income tax and National Insurance receipts. In 1979, unemployment stood at 5.3 per cent – and, despite the Iron Lady's famous poster, it rose to a staggering 11.9 per cent by 1984 on her watch. We are a long way from those days. Yet as I have said before, Ms Reeves – with last year's £40 billion tax-raising Budget, locked Britain into a doom loop of plummeting business confidence, rising unemployment and reduced job choices. Yesterday's multi-year public-spending review will splash the cash on investments in nuclear power, science and technology, roads and railways. As helpful as all that may be, it will mean more Government borrowing and debt that will take years to pay off. Expect unemployment to keep on rising until the Government changes course.
