Concentrate now, as the following paragraph will feature entirely contradictory stories concerning the future of Manchester United outcast Luke Shaw, and you’ll have to make your own mind up about who to believe. The Mirror scotches the long-rumoured January swaperama involving Shaw and Tottenham’s Danny Rose, because United might exchange Shaw for Southampton’s Ryan Bertrand instead. They are, essentially, working their way through Premier League clubs trying to successfully negotiate a left-back trade. Or perhaps not, as the Sun exclusively reveals that Manchester City want to buy Bertrand in January – “Bertrand is a player City have ran the rule over before,” says “a source”, “but his transfer fee could be an issue, it all depends on what they ask for” – and that United will indeed let Shaw leave them in January, but only on loan. He is, they say, “wanted by a number of Premier League sides” as well as “others across Europe”. One person United are not planning to let go, though, is Marouane Fellaini, to whom they will offer a shiny new two-year contract, which is one year longer than the deals they normally give to 30-somethings – a category the Belgian will join in a couple of weeks – but then, Fellaini isn’t going to be a normal 30-something. He’s going to be a very tall, sharp elbowed 30-something.
Real Madrid may have come away from this week’s visit to Tottenham with nothing but an unfamiliar feeling of inferiority, but they are hoping that they return from their next visit with considerably more – namely the manager and the two best players.
This is according to the Mail, whose back page is devoted to the story. “Mauricio Pochettino is Real’s No1 target to replace Zinedine Zidane if the French manager cannot turn around his side’s season,” they trumpet. “Harry Kane and Dele Alli are also on a list of summer targets as Madrid look to freshen up the squad.” The players may be more inclined to stay at Spurs right now, given the £2m bonus the squad has just been awarded as a result of their qualification for the Champions League knock-out round, which is exclusively revealed in the Times. They go on to say that if Tottenham win Europe’s premier pot, the players involved would divvy up a total of £7.5m for their troubles.
Emre Can’s Liverpool future is up in the air because he’s down in the dumps about the new contract he has been offered. Can’s agents are demanding a salary in the region of £160,000 a week, says the Mirror, while the club want to go no higher than £75,000 a week, leaving a massive £85,000-wide chasm in which a giant ticking clock quietly tocks. And ticks. Can’s current deal ends next summer, at which point the 23-year-old can swan out of Anfield and into the arms of long-term suitors Juventus for absolutely nothing.
Chelsea face losing another promising youth-system graduate, after Charly Musonda told them he wants to go somewhere else in January. So far this season the attacking midfielder, who turns 22 in a couple of weeks, has spent 514 Premier League minutes on the bench, 360 Premier League minutes out of the squad entirely, and just 26 feeble little Premier League minutes on the pitch, a tally which has apparently left him quite disgruntled. According to the Mirror his agents have sounded out and been knocked back by Arsenal, who “believe they have got enough emerging quality”, but continue to cast around for the Belgian’s next, and more youth-friendly, employer.