29 July 2026

Liverpool already smashed the British transfer record twice last summer, for Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak. Now they are chasing Bradley Barcola, and PSG want about £145m for him, a third nine-figure attacker in 12 months. Barcola is good. He is not worth breaking the record a third time when Isak is already the number 9 and the money should be going on the spine. If Liverpool pay anything near £145m for a third forward, that is the signing they regret by winter.

Red Bull's biggest signing this month is not a driver. It is Gwen Lagrue, the Mercedes scout who spotted Kimi Antonelli karting at 11 and grew him into the teenager now leading the championship. After 11 years he is off to Red Bull to run their juniors and fill Helmut Marko's old chair. Sit with what that admits. Red Bull cannot build the next Max, so they are buying the man who built mine. Their next champion arrives on a cheque, not out of that academy.

Clay Holmes is the deadline name everyone wants, and I would slow down. He is on the 45-62 Mets, a walk-year rental, and he has not thrown a big-league pitch since fracturing his leg in May. Whoever trades real prospects for him is buying a Triple-A rehab line and a groundball rate, not a proven arm for October. That deal ages badly, and the team that makes it regrets it by September.

Everyone wants the Padres to buy big at the deadline, and I love this team, but pump the brakes. They're 54-53 and they've been outscored by 20 runs on the year. That's not a contender a bat away, that's a sub-.500 club sitting a game over on borrowed luck. Trade the farm for this and you're buying a wild card that isn't real. They play under .500 from here and watch October from home.