EPL TRANSFER GOSSIP
The only man we will ever trust when it comes to Manchester United transfer updates is Duncan Castles. Handily, he brings us news on Friday morning.
His claim in the Daily Record is that Manchester United will hope Paul Pogba can persuade Antoine Griezmann to join in the summer. The two are close friends from their time together in the national team, of course.
Pogba is claimed to be ‘talking to the boy almost every day to push him to go’, while Castles adds that United see Griezmann as the ‘natural successor to Wayne Rooney’. Bit harsh.
JURGEN WILL BE BUSY
James Milner has done a fine job at left-back for Liverpool this season, but he is no long-term option. It turns out that Jurgen Klopp wants an actual left-back to play at left-back, which is fair.
According to the Daily Mail, Riza Durmisi could be that man. The Real Betis defender has a £17million release clause, and the Reds have sent scouts to watch him recently. The 23-year-old only moved to La Liga from Brondby last summer, but has impressed recently.
At the bottom of the Mail’s Liverpool transfer update comes two more lines: They still want Bayer Leverkusen forward Julian Brandt, while Henry Onyekuru has been recommended. And we’ve all heard of him. And if you haven’t, he’s a 19-year-old striker who plays for Belgian club Eupen. Sure.
REUS RACE
The news from the Emirates Stadium is that Arsenal are already sourcing replacements for Alexis Sanchez, just in case his contract saga is not resolved.
Almost everyone is reporting it, but it was Italian journalist Emanuele Giulianelli who first claimed that the Gunners ‘will make a move’ for Reus if they lose Sanchez this summer.
The claim is that Arsenal have ‘opened negotiations’ with Borussia Dortmund over a potential deal, and they are willing to break their club-record transfer fee to get Reus. They will bid up to £50.9m, but only if Sanchez finds a new home.
Quite how Giulianelli knows that the German forward would sign a five-year deal worth £6.8m per year is beyond us, considering Arsenal have not even made a bid, never mind got anywhere near to discussing terms with the player himself. But there we go.
‘Liverpool would allow winger Lazar Markovic to join relegation-threatened Hull City on loan, a source has told ESPN FC,’ claims ESPN, oddly enough. It’s not going well for Markovic at Sporting, where he has started just two league games – the last of which came in October. Should Liverpool and Sporting come to an agreement, the loan could be cancelled and Markovic would be free to join Hull on loan.
According to the Liverpool Echo: ‘Hull boss Marco Silva is keen to secure the 22-year-old’s services on a temporary basis and Klopp is happy to sanction that move. Talks are ongoing between the clubs over a potential deal.’ They go on to claim that there is ‘no way back for him’ at Anfield.
GUEDES NOT JOINING MAN UNITED
There were very strong rumours emanating from Portugal on Sunday that Benfica winger Goncalo Guedes was on his way to Manchester United in a £26m deal. They predicted that he would be left out of Benfica’s line-up for their clash with Tondela; and so it came to pass.
But Benfica manager Rui Vitorio insisted: “The coach is here to make decisions. I decided this was not the game Gonçalo Guedes to play in. I have to make choices, there are more players at Benfica and I chose to play them. End of story. Guedes didn’t play because I choose to pick other players. I have no indication that he will leave.”
Well, we don’t believe you. But we do believe one man when it comes to what is in the mind of Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho…
Portuguese reports on Monday suggest that he may well join PSG instead. Or at least that’s what Benfica want us to think…
JOSE HAPPY TO SEE ROONEY MOVE TO CHINA
We bet he is. The Mirror claim that ‘Chinese champions Guangzhou Evergrande and Super League rivals Beijing Guoan are prepared to fork out a staggering £700,000-a-week to lure record-breaking Rooney away from Manchester United’ and the manager will not stand in his way.
“I don’t know, it’s up to him,” said Mourinho. “I don’t like to be critical of players who decide to go to China. It’s their life, it’s their organisation of their life, their organisation of their career. “The money is huge. The experience can also be interesting. I know some of my colleagues think they are more important than they are and think they can interfere in the lives of other people, but I’m not that sort of guy.”
AND THE REST
Everton are targeting Chelsea’s Serbia defender Branislav Ivanovic, 32, to replace their 34-year-old England centre-back Phil Jagielka…Manchester United will make a decision this week on whether to bring forward the £38m signing of Benfica defender Victor Lindelof…Everton’s 22-year-old Spanish winger Gerard Deulofeu will have a medical on Monday before joining Italian side AC Milan on loan…Watford will sign Fiorentina’s Argentine striker Mauro Zarate, 29, on loan for the rest of the season before completing a £2.4m deal in the summer for the former West Ham United player…Brentford striker Scott Hogan is expected to complete a move to West Ham this week…Barnsley midfielder Conor Hourihane has admitted his head has been turned by interest from Championship rivals Aston Villa.
CHELSEA MOVE FOR VIDAL FOR £56M
Chelsea will launch a bid to sign Arturo Vidal from Bayern Munich this summer, according to reports in Chile. And apparently they are willing to match Bayern Munich’s £56 million asking price for the player they paid £25.5m to sign from Juventus under two years ago. That is a f*** of a lot of money for a 29-year-old. That would beat the record transfer fee for a 29-year-old, which was £46.7m for Zinedine Zidane.
Vidal is in regular contact with his old Juventus boss, who has previously said: “He has extraordinary physical and technical attributes, if I get to coach him a little more it’d be fantastic. I want him in all my teams.”
CHELSEA BID £27M FOR ‘NEXT YAYA’
To be fair to the Daily Star’s Paul Brown, he does not mention Atalanta midfielder Franck Kessie being remotely like Yaya Toure until his final paragraph, but the headline seizes upon the comparison with a headline of ‘Chelsea make £27m bid for the next Yaya Toure’. He’s a midfielder, he’s black and he’s from the Ivory Coast, you see.
Anyway, the Star have pretty boldly said that Chelsea are not only interested, but have made an actual bid of £21m – rising to £27m – for the midfielder. The bid has apparently been turned down, with Atalanta eyeing a bidding war in the summer. Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal have all been linked with Kessie.
PAYET OFF TO NICE NOW?
If Marseille thought they could play silly beggars with West Ham over Dimitri Payet then they can think again – according to the Mirror, the plan is now to send the Frenchman to the south of France, but not to his old club Marseille but to Ligue Un leaders Nice on loan. This is considered a no-lose situation by West Ham, who lose his £125,000-a-week wages and his sulking mug around the training ground.
Oh but here’s Fissler with another exclusive in the Express: ‘PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN are ready to launch a rival bid to snatch West Ham United’s striking play maker Dimitri Payet from under the noses of Marseille.’ So here is a man with the ear of the big-wigs of both Real Madrid and PSG? Now that is impressive. You would think that with those sort of contacts, he could stop being the king of rugby gossip…
CHELSEA WILL SELL COSTA…FOR £130M
That’s the claim in the Sunday Times from our friend Duncan Castles. He writes that ‘Chelsea have put a price tag of £130m on Diego Costa and believe they can realise what would represent a global record transfer fee before the year is out’. And he claims that ‘instead of acting to improve the player’s financial terms, Chelsea are understood to have asked agents to find a Chinese club willing to pay €150m (£130m) or more for him’.
And then we get to the crux of the matter: ‘It is understood that (Jorge) Mendes’ advice to Costa has been to stay in European football and not consider a move to China until he is well into his thirties. The Portuguese agent also advised Chelsea not to sell mid-season.’ As Castles is the media voice of Jose Mourinho (whose agent is Jorge Mendes), we think we can guess from where this story has originated.
AND THE REST
Manchester United’s record goalscorer Wayne Rooney is expected to receive an offer of £1m a week to play in the Chinese Super League…Chelsea have joined Manchester United and Bayern Munich in pursuit of Benfica’s £34m-rated Portugal international right-back Nelson Semedo…Sunderland could bring in Robbie Keane and Joleon Lescott – who have a combined ages of 70…Tottenham have rejected an £8m offer from Crystal Palace for Wales international full-back Ben Davies…The Black Cats are monitoring former Arsenal and Manchester City midfielder Patrick Vieira, currently coaching New York City in the MLS, if David Moyes departs…Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United are considering bids for Inter Milan’s Croatian international midfielder Ivan Perisic…
…Juventus are considering a move for Liverpool’s Germany international midfielder Emre Can…New Swansea manager Paul Clement says he wants to hang on to in-form striker Fernando Llorente…Watford have agreed to sign former Birmingham City, West Ham United and Queens Park Rangers striker Mauro Zarate…West Ham transfer target Scott Hogan, 24, was left out of Brentford’s matchday squad against Wigan on Saturday, fuelling speculation that he will shortly be on his way out of Griffin Park…Ipswich manager Mick McCarthy says former Newcastle defender Steven Taylor could be joining the Suffolk club next week.
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