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Edinson Cavani
Manchester City fans are asking of Edinson Cavani: 'Tell me the truth, is it love or just Paris?' Photograph: Roberto Salomone/AFP/Getty Images
Manchester City fans are asking of Edinson Cavani: 'Tell me the truth, is it love or just Paris?' Photograph: Roberto Salomone/AFP/Getty Images

Football transfer rumours: Radamel Falcao and Joleon Lescott to Manchester United?

This article is more than 10 years old
Today's rumours is in the casino at 5.46am

Sir Alex Ferguson has two golden rules when it comes to transfers: if you fail to win the league, buy a player or players good enough to make sure you do the next year; if you do win the league, buy a player or players good enough to make sure you do the next year. And so it is that this morning's papers are full of stories about United, with a few games of the season remaining, planning what could be topically termed a JLS with their title‑winning squad – breaking them up after a farewell tour.

The Mirror have details of a planned £50m summer spending spree, while The Sun give details of a £120m squad overhaul. Turns out the latter have massaged their numbers by counting money made from outgoing transfers in their tally. Anyway, Nani and Anderson are out, Paul Scholes is having another bash at retirement, Javier Hernández might follow them through the exit in search of regular first-team football, and Wayne Rooney continues to be linked with a move to Paris St-Germain. In come Borussia Dortmund's Robert Lewandowski, Everton's Leighton Baines, Sporting Lisbon's £2m-rated winger Bruma, PSV Eindhoven midfielder Kevin Strootman, Stoke's £15m Asmir Begovic, Atlético Madrid's Radamel Falcao and, in an eyebrow‑raising development, Manchester City reject Joleon Lescott.

The possibility of Lescott starting next season at Old Trafford might not worry many in the blue half of Manchester, but another development certainly has: we're told City have been "left reeling" by news that their top target, Napoli's Edinson Cavani, wants to join Paris St-Germain instead. In what's set to be the year's biggest move, the French club will meet Napoli's £60m asking price and make the Uruguayan wealthy beyond his probably already quite lavish dreams.

Fortunately, as The Telegraph explains, City have prepared for just such an eventuality by drawing up an extensive list of 44 players they might sign, consisting of four full teams of varying degrees of excellence ranging from young rising stars (the D team) to established global superstars (the A team). Their next step is clear, after all if they have a problem, if no one else can help, if they can find them, and if Paris St-Germain have already bought the one they really wanted, maybe they can hire the B-team. Oh, and Sergio Agüero is going to Real Madrid.

Back to Cavani, though, and The Mail report that before arranging his switch to PSG Cavani's "people" offered him to Chelsea, who refused. The Blues will instead sign Falcao, the very same one widely linked today and previously with United. As part of the deal Thibaut Courtois will spend a second season on loan in the Spanish capital. In other dealings between London clubs and others in Madrid, Real have proposed a £45m deal for Gareth Bale, but given Tottenham the opportunity to take less money and either Gonzalo Higuaín or Angel Di María. No matter, Tottenham want £100m and have told them where to stick it. Not only do Real want Tottenham's best player, they also want their manager. As a result Rafa Benítez is stalling on an offer to take over at Monaco, because he'd rather work at White Hart Lane.

Back, then, to Old Trafford and revelations from Manchester United's post-title-success party, which started in the dressing room in the moments after the final whistle of Monday's victory over Aston Villa, and ended some time after 6am the following morning, when Chris Smalling and Phil Jones led the survivors to a casino to keep drinking. Many of the intervening hours were spent at The Living Room, which almost sounds as if they spent the night playing Monopoly at Tom Cleverley's mum's house, until you read further details. "In jeans and T-shirts they mingled with fans, singing 'championes' as they drank beer and Jägerbombs," we're told.

A few hours later: "By 5.45am Phil Jones, Tom Cleverley, Shinji Kagawa and Chris Smalling were dancing in the street." Several papers carry a photograph of an unconscious woman slumped in the street outside the trendy nightspot. The Sun claims that Rooney and Patrice Evra did a barman impersonation that "had the lads in stitches", while The Star has pictures of several players in the company of a rapper called Chip.

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