Sunderland win the Fofana battle

Sunderland get their man

Malick Fofana's move to Sunderland was confirmed on a £30m deal running five years, according to the BBC, closing out a saga that had been rumbling for weeks. Crystal Palace were pushing hard for the Lyon winger right up until deadline day, with ESPN reporting Sunderland moved to beat the Eagles to his signature. Arsenal had also been linked with Fofana earlier in the window, per ESPN sources, which makes Sunderland's ability to land him even more of a statement than the fee suggests.

A 21-year-old with genuine end product from the flanks doesn't usually end up choosing Sunderland over a Premier League rival with European football to offer. Whatever convinced him to pick the Stadium of Light, it wasn't lack of competition for his signature.

De Zerbi doubles up on Chelsea

While Sunderland were sorting out Fofana, Tottenham were busy taking two players off Chelsea in the same window. ESPN reports Spurs have agreed a deal for both Mykhailo Mudryk and Tosin Adarabioyo, with GiveMeSport confirming the pair as a joint deadline-day swoop. Neither the structure nor the fees for either deal have been detailed across the reporting so far, but the direction of the move says plenty: De Zerbi is not tinkering, he is rebuilding.

Mudryk arrives at a club that needs him to be closer to the version that first turned heads at Shakhtar than the one who has struggled for consistency at Stamford Bridge. Adarabioyo gives De Zerbi a ready-made Premier League defender rather than a project, which fits a summer that GiveMeSport frames as Tottenham's squad finally taking proper shape under the Italian.

The one that isn't done yet

GiveMeSport also reports Tottenham are chasing Neco Williams as a possible tenth signing of the window, a pursuit that appears separate from the Mudryk and Tosin business and, as it stands, unresolved. If it goes through, it caps a window that started with Iliman Ndiaye and ended with Spurs picking off two players from a direct rival on the same afternoon.

Sunderland, meanwhile, get to spend deadline day explaining to two other clubs why Fofana chose them. That is a good problem to have.