Manchester United really, really want to sign Álvaro Morata, because he’s dead good. At a mere £50m he’s also – and this is important, because after all United have debt to service – cheaper than their other potential line-leading frontman recruits, Everton’s £100m-rated (by Everton) Romelu Lukaku and Torino’s Andrea Belotti (who has just scored more than 20 goals in a season for the first time, so that’ll be £87m please), though Alexandre Lacazette could emerge as an alternative. Real Madrid’s Spanish bench-warmer could end up England-bound as part of a complicated player/cash/other-stuff exchange deal also involving gifted gloveman David de Gea, though Morata himself says he’s perfectly happy in Madrid for the time being. As for Lacazette, he yesterday issued perhaps the football world’s most feeble come-and-get-me plea to English clubs: “The Premier League is interesting,” he enthused. “That does not mean I will go, and that does not mean I will refuse to go.”
While a Morata-De Gea swaperoo remains a possibility United have to identify potential replacements for their current goalkeeper. According to the Mail, “they have the likes of Manchester City’s Joe Hart on a list of names that also includes some from abroad with Gianluigi Donnarumma of Milan and Inter’s Samir Handanovic also discussed”. The same newspaper believes that United are interested in Renato Sanches, who doesn’t appear to be as good as Bayern Munich thought he was going to be but about whom José Mourinho enthusiastically gushed last summer, while his fellow Allianz Arena flop Douglas Costa is a £30m target for Tottenham and Juventus.
Morata might be happier to flee the Bernabéu should Real complete a mooted record-smashing €135m deal for another striker, Monaco’s Kylian Mbappé, which would effectively relegate him to third choice behind the young Frenchman and the older Frenchman Karim Benzema and would also frustrate Arsenal, who were just about ready to demonstrate their financial might with a meaty €100m bid. Arsène Wenger and Ivan Gazidis, Arsenal’s chief executive, set tongues a-wagging when they were spotted at Nice airport – just an hour’s drive away from Monaco, and that’s if you take the scenic coastal route – on Monday.
Virgil van Dijk’s future dominates today’s papers, with the Sun reporting that “Jürgen Klopp is convinced he will beat Manchester City and Chelsea” to the Dutchman, the Mirror announcing that it was the German’s “charisma and enthusiasm” that ensured “Liverpool have won their heavyweight scrap”, and even this newspaper joining in, declaring the Reds have been “informed by the Southampton defender that Anfield is his preferred destination”. Now all Liverpool need to do is actually table a bid for him, and for it to be accepted. Which given that Southampton aren’t terribly keen on selling would appear to be a significant obstacle, though the offer of Mamadou Sakho in part-exchange might help. According to the Independent, Van Dijk and the Roma winger Mohamed Salah will be the first two bricks in a large transfer wall for Liverpool, who by the time they’re finished hope to have signed seven new players. Happily the report contains the word “bumper”.
Celtic may say that Moussa Dembélé is not for sale, or at least not yet, but Milan want to test their resolve. According to the Daily Record, “Milan bosses held an informal meeting with Dembélé’s representatives a month ago, but are now looking to arrange a follow-up discussion.” Should that meeting go well, all the Italian giants would then have to do is actually table a bid for him, and for it to be accepted, though the same paper believes Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund are the Frenchman’s most likely destinations.
Talking of Chelsea, Eden Hazard’s ankle injury might convince them to seek another creative attacking genius, even though the Belgian won’t be out all that long and would have been on holiday for much of that time anyway. Real’s James Rodríguez, almost certain to move somewhere this summer, is apparently an option, while Ángel Di María’s name might also crop up.
On his way out of Stamford Bridge meanwhile is the juvenile goal machine Tammy Abraham, who seems set to take his shooting boots to Newcastle, after Rafael Benítez convinced both the player and his parent club that they could look after him better than rival bidders Brighton. Benítez, says the Telegraph, will now turn his attention to sorting out the opposite end of his team, with a move for the recently-released Manchester City shot-stopper Willy Caballero looking likely.