AHEAD OF THE GAME: Leicester hold key to summer window as Chelsea and Man City chase Ben Chilwell

Leicester City’s negotiating tactics will dictate much of the transfer business conducted in the Premier League this summer, just as it did 12 months ago, when the club’s determination to extract the highest possible fee from Manchester United for Harry Maguire held up a number of other related deals.

United eventually agreed to pay £80million for the England centre back following a lengthy saga, which is likely to be repeated this year with Leicester currently demanding a similar figure for Ben Chilwell, who is wanted by Chelsea and Manchester City.

Southampton’s Ryan Bertrand and Kieran Tierney of Arsenal will be among those hoping that Leicester can reach a swift agreement over Chilwell as they have both been earmarked as potential replacements.

Leicester City’s negotiating over players such as Ben Chilwell will define the transfer window

To complicate matters further the transfer window is expected to be open for three months from August to the end of October, which will leave managers with some difficult decisions to make regarding the selection or otherwise of unsettled players.

Toffee’s pip Villa to Cazoo

Everton secured the first Premier League win of Project Restart before a ball has been kicked by beating Aston Villa to secure a shirt sponsorship deal with Cazoo last week.

Villa also held discussions with the online car retailer, who opted to go with Everton in a deal worth £29m over three years.

Everton have had a profitable lockdown, having already agreed a £9m-a-year kit deal with Hummel last month, with their ability to secure increases on existing deals a significant achievement given the challenging state of the sponsorship market.

Villa are one of four Premier League clubs still searching for new shirt sponsorship contracts for next season, which is proving particularly difficult as interest from Asian bookmakers has lessened post-coronavirus.

Newcastle and Watford both need a new kit deal too.

Everton were able to secure shirt sponsor Cazoo for next season, beating Aston Villa

Snoop squad in the lobby

The Premier League’s eight Covid-19 officers have been doubling up as hotel inspectors ahead of the resumption of matches next week.

Having initially focused on visiting training grounds, to ensure clubs were complying with the return to training protocols, the so-called snoop squad have now switched their attention to checking that all the hotels to be used by clubs over the next seven weeks are Covid-secure.

The Premier League are urging clubs to avoid overnight stays where possible, but have also provided a list of approved hotels, where they will be given exclusive use.

Surman’s unwanted freedom

Bournemouth midfielder Andrew Surman is one of the first Premier League victims of the inevitable cost-cutting that will take place as a result of the economic impact of the pandemic.

The 33-year-old had been hopeful of getting a new contract at a club he has represented in every division from League One upwards, but has been told that a new deal will not be forthcoming.

Many clubs are expected to release players aged 30 and above who have no residual transfer value this summer, which will lead to the market being flooded with free agents.

Andrew Surman is an early victim of the coronavirus cost-cutting with no deal in sight

Agents hit by coronavirus too

Agents will also suffer financially if EFL clubs agree to bring in a salary cap as planned this summer, as the proposed limits will include all wage-related costs including tax, national insurance and fees paid to intermediaries.

As a result clubs will find themselves with even less room for manoeuvre than indicated by the headline figure, with the proposed £18m salary cap in the Championship for example translating to a playing budget of about £14m.

Too much football for Sky

Sky Sports are in the unusual position of not really wanting the extra 33 Premier League matches they have been licensed to broadcast live over the rest of the season.

Under the terms of the league’s agreement with Government which has facilitated the return of sport those additional TV games must be shown free-to-air, which has the potential to undermine Sky’s business plan as the glut of live games will make it harder to attract subscribers.

Equally galling for Sky is the fact that rivals BBC and Amazon Prime have also been given four games each to broadcast free-to-air, which goes someway to explaining how they managed to secure a £330m rebate from the Premier League after being given additional content.