It was conducted quietly, and for the quaint sum of just £10 million, but Manchester City were the subject of the summer's most modern transfer saga. The bidders were not rival clubs but two gargantuan online entertainment companies.
While Amazon won the rights to produce a behind-the-scenes documentary on Pep Guardiola and his billion-pound revolution, Netflix settled instead for an access-all-areas series with Juventus. Federico Palomba, the Serie A champions' co-chief revenue officer, announced the partnership with the immortal words: "Collaborations of this kind confirm our passion for innovation and being, in every sense, a Sport Entertainment brand.