Manchester United embarrassed themselves in defeat on Monday nightwith the smallness of their thinking but Stamford Bridge could soon be visited by representatives of a club that often embarrasses itself in victory. Barcelona are said to be ready to send a delegation to London with orders to dive and mewl until they get an agreement for the purchase of CésarAzpilicueta. But fresh from shouting down José Mourinho, icy-eyed berzerker Antonio Conte is confident of standing up to the Catalans better than most referees do.
And once he’s chased away Barça, Conte will turn his attentions to wooing Bayern Munich’s wünder-winger Kingsley Coman, with whom he previously worked at parent club Juventus. But another of Coman’s former bosses is also keen on rekindling an old relationship, as Pep Guardiola wants the young Frenchman atManchester City. Bidding will start at £52m and who knows where it will end.
Before they leave London, Barcelona will hurl themselves over to the Emirates, then get up and surround and jostle Arsène Wenger, throwing the folks from Arsenal Fan TV out the way if necessary. They won’t stop until they’re givenHéctor Bellerín. Wenger, meanwhile, is pondering a move for Idrissa Gueye, whom Everton bought for £7m last summer while Wenger was splurging five times that amount on Granit Xhaka. But Wenger has earned the right to make mistakes like that, apparently.
Jack Wilshere may return to Arsenal next season for all Bournemouth care. The Cherries are no longer particularly keen to buy the midfielder, who can no longer get into their team.
Norwich are on the search for a manager who can help a squad with a lot of exciting young talent to fulfil its potential. Naturally, then, they are being linked with Roy Hodgson, who did so much to help an inexperienced Iceland team reach unprecedented heights.
West Ham’s woeful transfer dealings last summer have not put them off trying again, and Slaven Bilic reckons the answer to his team’s striking problems is his fellow Croat Mario Mandzukic.
Gareth Bale has been casting admiring glances at Dele Alli’s innovative handshake skills and wants Real Madrid to make a move for the Tottenham Hotspur youngster. Madrid would have to start the bidding at £70m. But Tottenham have yet to put a price on the handshake rights. Once they come up with a figure, we could be looking at the first ever £1bn transfer.
The Spaniards will want to make sure they don’t splurge all their cash on Alli, however, because they’re also keeping an eye on Eden Hazard as a potential replacement for either James Rodríguez or Isco. Bloody foreigners, coming over here, swanning off with the Premier League’s best players.
Chelsea will get over selling Hazard by signing Monaco’s Tiemoué Bakayoko andFranck Kessie of Atalanta, but the Mill is outraged and it will not be placated by the pity move of Madrid letting Manchester City have Isco. Pep Guardiola has had a good look at his squad, identified the main areas of weakness and decided that he could do with another creative midfielder. You can’t have too many. Joe Hart, meanwhile, would be content to join Torino permanently in the summer, having come to love the excellent hair products on offer in Italy.
Barcelona’s search for a new right-back has taken them to the south coast. Taking a leaf out of Liverpool’s playbook, they’re after Southampton’s Cédric Soares, who’s valued at £25m. Liverpool will also put in a bid, simply out of habit.
Leicester City are in the market for a new centre-back. Hull’s Harry Maguire looks the part.
Leighton Baines loves books and music, which makes him by far the most captivating footballer who ever lived, but will his cultural interests be enough to keep the younger generation at bay? Ryan Sessegnon probably knows about Julian Bieber, dabbing and selfies, which is presumably why Everton are so impressed with the young Fulham left-back.
The potential transfer claxon is sounding at the Etihad this morning afterJoshua Kimmich, versatile German ace and former Pep Guardiola protégé, declared of his current situation at Bayern Munich that “I’m not satisfied with it and I want to change it”. The 22-year-old has completed 90 minutes of league action only once since the start of December, starting seven of the 11 games he has been fit for on the bench and remaining on it three times. Manchester City are now, the Mirror declares, “on red alert” and preparing a summer splurge. Meanwhile Bayern could steal a midfielder away from England, and Arsenal in particular, with the former Bavaria bench-warmer Ottmar Hitzfeld declaring the German giants “certainly have Granit Xhaka on their radar” because he is “always a topic for current top clubs”, presumably because he is currently stranded at a former top club.
Chelsea want to take another step – it would only be their second, to be fair, but still – towards having a team populated entirely by people called Costa by splashing £20m on the Wolves winger Helder Costa, who only completed a permanent move to the Midlands in January but is now being regularly scouted not only by the champions-in-waiting but also by Arsenal. Antonio Conte’s merry men also plan to pad out their youth team by signing 15-year-old Rangers wonderkid Billy Gilmour – “rated as the best talent Scotland have produced for 20 years”, according to the Mirror (so even better than Chris Iwelumo) but also good enough to attract scouts from Barcelona, Bayern Munich and both sides of Manchester – as well as Ajax’s 16-year-old prodigy Daishawn Redan, whose other suitors include RB Leipzig and that Manchester duo.
Talking of which, Manchester United are also keen on another teenager, in the shape of Lyon midfielder, “Little Deschamps” and former European Under-19 Championship-winning captain Lucas Tousart, only 19 and potentially available for just £5m. Lyon’s Under-19 coach, Joël Fréchet, says he “embodies the values we want to pass on at this club, namely humility and enthusiasm”, which could lead to some personality clashes with the permanently-exasperated walking ego José Mourinho.
David Moyes spent his Friday night at Tannadice Park, scouting not one nor even two but three players who he is might soon sign for Sunderland. Of the three on the field as Hibernian beat Dundee United, the 21-year-old striker Jason Cummings became Jason Goings after getting sent off for punching the ball into the net with 15 minutes to play – though he did score the only goal of the game – while 28-year-old Nigerian defender Efe Ambrose, who failed to get a work permit when Blackburn tried to sign him on loan in January, and 22-year-old midfielder John McGinn both completed the match.
QPR are readying a summer swoop for Ryan Inniss, the Crystal Palace defender who is spending the season on loan at Southend, where he has started only five league games, having spent the first week of the season in HMP Belmarsh after being convicted of assault. On the plus side, he’ll be out of contract and totally free. And in managerial news, Gary Rowett remains favourite for the newly-vacated Derby County hotseat, but worryingly Alan Pardew is “hoping his CV could get him the job”.
sources; https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/
0 comments:
Post a Comment