Are you still interested in transfer stuff? Quite a big one happened yesterday, so we’d understand if you couldn’t be bothered. But the demand for this sort of guff seems insatiable, so maybe you do want more. If so, read on.
So Barcelona need a new willowy, skilful forward, ideally one that plays from the left of a three-man attack and is good enough to replace that chap with the hair that split town on Thursday. Well, according to the Daily Star, the man they have in mind is Eden Hazard, who has told Barça that he’d be delighted to move there, issuing a SNUB to Real Madrid in the process. Meanwhile, Diego Costa is supposedly calling in the lawyers in order to force through a move to Atlético Madrid, which seems a bit much. Chelsea will console themselves after these two blows by trying to gazump Liverpool for Virgil van Dijk.
With one saga over, another begins. According to our pals in Spain, Zinedine Zidane reckons that Real Madrid will have to sell Gareth Bale if they want to sign Kylian Mbappé. That’s not necessarily to raise the dough, although that’s clearly a factor, but more that Zidane doesn’t think the young colt can fit with Bale, Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, so one of them has to go. Obviously, Manchester United’s collective ears have pricked up at that talk, and are supposedly prepping a £90m bid for Gaz.
In other saga news, there’s chat doing the rounds that Monaco are the latest club in for Alexis Sánchez. They’ll offer £45m for the Arsenal forward, it says here, the cheeky little rascals. Everton are back in for Olivier Giroud as well, which we suspect will be rather less of a crushing blow. Across town, Tottenham are sending last season’s deadline day mistake Moussa Sissoko on loan to Trabzonspor in order to make way for whatever error they’re going to make this time, while they’re also sniffing around Giovanni ‘Son of Diego’ Simeone, currently a forward at Genoa.
Other stuff: Frank de Boer wants Manchester United kid Tim Fosu-Mensah; Bournemouth have had a £20m bid for Demarai Gray rejected; Watford want Alberto Moreno and Aaron Lennon; West Ham and Besiktas have been on the phone to Sunderland because they want Lamine Koné and Jeremain Lens respectively; and in ‘What Could Possibly Go Wrong?’ news, Sunderland are also supposedly keen on Ross McCormack.