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Every summer brings its share of transfer sagas, but these five are beginning to feel a bit exhausting as the transfer window edges towards its close…

This summer featured a rush of business completed early before the World Cup, while some other moves emerged completely out of nowhere, which is usually the most entertaining kind of transfer.

Some other possible deals, though, are now dragging on. These five, in particular…

Yan Diomande looked destined to become one of the summer’s big sagas in the early weeks before Real Madrid moved decisively in a way Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain were not prepared to. But once Diomande was no longer a realistic target for Liverpool, attention swiftly shifted fully to Bradley Barcola.

And yet, here we are, perhaps seven weeks or so since the Paris Saint-Germain winger became Liverpool’s main target and, from the outside, it seems there has been no real progress from where matters stood at the end of June.

That is purely because Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain remain far apart in their valuation of Barcola, and neither club can really be criticised for refusing to surrender to the other. Paris Saint-Germain, however, must take more of the blame for this dragging on because their asking price is, frankly, rather absurd.

Reports indicate they want £145million for the winger and they are fully within their rights to test the market, especially in current conditions. But really, enough is enough…

Liverpool must have received encouragement from somewhere to continue pushing, perhaps from Barcola himself, with personal terms already agreed, which should not have been especially difficult given his present wages would not place him among Liverpool’s top 10 earners.

But one side will need to give way, or both clubs will need to make major compromises, if this transfer is to be completed before the deadline. And we are not convinced that will happen.

With some transfer deals, you have to accept there may be something happening behind the scenes that is not obvious. Because in Savinho’s case, it is not entirely clear why Manchester City are resisting a big-money sale, or why Tottenham Hotspur are willing to keep waiting despite offering more than double what City paid for the Brazilian two years ago.

It is understandable that Enzo Maresca wants time to assess the squad he has inherited and, despite having a number of specialist wide players on the books – Savinho, Jeremy Doku, Antoine Semenyo, Jack Grealish and Jeremy Monga – City are only confident of being able to depend on two. But if anything, does that not make the need for urgency even greater, especially with the deadline approaching?

Savinho endured a very difficult campaign last season – which can happen to a young player in his second year – but just 14 starts in all competitions and seven goal involvements suggest Tottenham are being more than fair with a £60million offer.

In fact, reports suggest they have put significantly more than that on the table and still have not managed to get the deal over the line.

City may fear that Savinho could make them regret selling him by shining at Spurs, but that would only happen because he would receive the importance there that he is unlikely to get at the Etihad. If City cannot offer him that role and platform, they may as well cash in – especially with Spurs so keen to buy – and move quickly for a replacement.

Barcelona are so often exhausting in situations like this and we fully expected them to stretch out a deal for Marcus Rashford through much of the summer. But, for once, they made their intentions clear early by passing on the option they had to sign the Manchester United winger and instead spending almost three times that amount on Anthony Gordon.

No, the draining part of this particular saga is the idea that United and Rashford might somehow reconcile and live happily ever after.

At this point, that remains possible. But it would look very much like a marriage of convenience, forced by a shortage of interest from elsewhere.

Make no mistake: United would prefer to remove their highest earner from the wage bill; and Rashford would rather begin again elsewhere, having last played for his boyhood club 20 months ago.

We still expect that to be the eventual outcome, especially as United’s asking price for the winger is not unreasonable, particularly in the current market.

United may have to accept the risk of Rashford flourishing at a rival club, but that is the cost of finally putting an end to a miserable saga.

Perhaps Barcelona shelved their interest in Rashford early because they wanted to devote all their efforts to Julian Alvarez, given it was obvious even before the end of last season that this one would be especially draining.

Atletico Madrid had already run out of patience with the bulls*** by the end of May, when they posted images on social media of Lamine Yamal, Raphinha and Pedri wearing Atletico shirts, pointing to what they described as a smear campaign designed to unsettle Alvarez and reduce his price.

That was entertaining, and so too was Real Madrid joining in. One of the promises Florentino Perez made during his re-election campaign was to immediately submit a €150 million bid for a major star.

Before the vote, we had no idea that player was Alvarez and that the offer was never intended to succeed, only to interfere with Barcelona. Well played, old man.

But after that, the whole thing became rather tedious, with Alvarez left in an awkward position. He went to the World Cup hoping to return to Spain as a Barcelona player, but the Catalan club were never able to get close to the £130million valuation that Atletico still, quite reasonably, place on him.

Matters really escalated last week when Alvarez had to return to training with Atletico, which caused some sections of the Spanish media to completely lose their heads.

With no sign of Barcelona finding a way to deliver, Alvarez has now reached the repentance stage, reportedly apologising to his team-mates for publicly expressing his wish to move to the Nou Camp. That was not the foolish part. Alvarez’s biggest error was trusting Barcelona to do what was so clearly required.

Another tiresome part of the whole farce has been Arsenal hovering in the background. The Gunners, like Barcelona, admire Alvarez, but neither club have been serious enough to put an offer in front of Atletico that is actually worth considering.

The World Cup and a managerial change at both Fernandez’s current club and the club he would like to join – provided Real Madrid are not interested, which they are not – have meant this saga has only really heated up over the last fortnight or so.

But anyone who saw Fernandez stare down furious Chelsea supporters at Brighton knew the Argentina midfielder was always likely to at least try to force his way out, even if the mood at Stamford Bridge is looking much brighter after the appointment of Xabi Alonso.

Fernandez’s former manager, Enzo Maresca, has now taken charge at Manchester City and, as usually happens, the new boss has been linked with several of his previous players. Fernandez is the standout name among them.

There is clearly some substance to those links, although we have always doubted City’s willingness to hand Chelsea even a modest profit on the £107million they paid for Fernandez.

Chelsea, too, have tried to gain some clarity on City’s seriousness by setting a deadline for the Mancunians to meet their demands. As expected, that deadline passed without anything material happening.

At least this one still has the potential to become lively if Fernandez tries to force the move, with the two clubs not all that far apart in terms of a fee they could both accept.