Arsene Wenger thinks current transfer market is ‘scary’

It’s no secret that the modern transfer is seeing fees steadily increase as the years go on. You could even go so far as to say that transfer fees are skyrocketing, especially seeing players who would have been sold for £15 million two years ago go for £25 million or more this summer. That’s partly thanks to greatly improved revenues among big clubs, but not every big club is enjoying the change -- Arsenal and Arsene Wenger are apparently quite terrified of it.

While many like to mock Wenger and Arsenal for being cheap, he’s actually got a point. The amount of money being thrown around in the EPL these days is quite intimidating, and should the seemingly bottomless well of TV revenue suddenly dry up, it would leave a lot of teams in a bad place financially.

Some savagery from Mino Raiola on the supposedly finished Paul Pogba transfer.

New Juventus striker Gonzalo Higuain really, really doesn’t like Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis. (Football Italia)

Bastian Schweinsteiger has announced his retirement from the German national team. (Guardian)

USMNT goalkeeper Brad Guzan has left Aston Villa and signed with Middlesbrough. (ESPN FC)

Bafatimbi Gomis won’t be with Swansea City this year after completing a season-long loan move to Olympique Marseille. (Sky Sports)

Liverpool have unveiled their third kits for this season, and they’re ... bright. (Liverpool Offside)

The Argentina men’s Olympic soccer team won a warmup friendly against Mexico in Puebla, but their hotel rooms were robbed while they were at the stadium. (AS)

A Norwich City player has been charged by the FA for betting on soccer matches. (BBC)

You hear a lot of players described as “Peter Pan-like” by commentators, but Janine Anthony tries to figure out who soccer’s real Peter Pan is. (Unusual Efforts)

Jeff Carlisle goes looking for positives for MLS after their All-Star team lost to Arsenal on Thursday. (ESPN FC)

Simon Burnton and Jim Powell look back 50 years at England’s “Golden Summer” when they won the World Cup on home soil. (Guardian)

Please don’t take anything in this section too seriously, for your own sanity.

Barcelona are scouring the globe for a “super sub” striker to bring major impact off the bench. (Marca)

Real Madrid are considering several midfielders to bring in if they can’t sign Paul Pogba, including Marco Verratti and Blaise Matuidi (AS)

Pep Guardiola wants to bring John Stones to Manchester City. (BBC)

Liga MX: Club Tijuana vs. Chivas de Guadalaja (Friday, 10 p.m.): It’s still early in the Apertura season in Liga MX, but with both of these clubs wanting to improve on how they performed last season, this could be a surprisingly intense match.

ICC: Barcelona vs. Celtic (Saturday, 1 p.m.): Celtic have gotten off to a rough start under Brendan Rodgers, and that likely won’t get any better against Barcelona, even if a lot of their best players are still on a post-Euro 2016 vacation.

Friendly: Manchester United vs. Galatasaray (Saturday, 1:30 p.m.): Manchester United are still adapting to life under Jose Mourinho, and they face a tough opponent in Galatasaray for this friendly in Sweden. The Turkish club will be a good test to see how far they’ve come -- and oh yeah, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is expected to play. You should watch just for that.

MLS: New York City FC vs. Colorado Rapids (Saturday, 3 p.m.): The best team in the Eastern Conference hosts the second-best from the West. Coming into the season, that’s probably not how you thought these two teams would be described at the end of July, but here we are.

ICC: Real Madrid vs. Chelsea (Saturday, 3 p.m.): Chelsea may have fallen in stature a bit, but they’re still a talented team and this should be a fun match.

ICC: Inter Milan vs. Bayern Munich (Saturday, 5 p.m.): Even with a lot of their squad absent, Bayern are a force to be reckoned with. If Inter can get something against them, that would be an impressive sign as to their development this summer.

ICC: Liverpool vs. AC Milan (Saturday, 10 p.m.): The two teams from the hallowed 2005 Champions League final may not be what they were back then, but they should still put on a pretty dang fun match.

ICC: Paris Saint-Germain vs. Leicester City (Saturday, 11:30 p.m.): The defending French champions against the defending English champions? Yes please.

MLS: Sporting KC vs. Portland Timbers (Sunday, 2 p.m.): Neither of these Western Conference teams are performing to the standards they or their fans expect, and will hope to start turning that around on Sunday.

MLS: Seattle Sounders vs. LA Galaxy (Sunday, 4 p.m.): The first match of the post-Sigi Schmid era in Seattle is against the team he struggled the most to try to beat. It will be a telling sign as to how much of the problems the Sounders suffered this season were down to Schmid if they immediately play much better than they have lately.