Belgium right-back Thomas Meunier is getting itchy feet at Paris Saint-Germain, where he has started only six of the club’s 11 league matches and is yet to feature in the Champions League. Increasingly tired of playing second fiddle to Dani Alves, Meunier would be open to a move away from the French capital and speculation abounds that Manchester United are preparing a £30m offer for the 26-year-old, who is contracted to PSG until 2020. So famous that the club’s former director of football Patrick Kluivert failed to recognise him while travelling in the same car as the player on a pre-season tour shortly after he’d signed for the club, Meunier has since become well known enough to have attracted interest from Real Madrid and Juventus, as well as United. He could move in January.
Manchester United are also reported to be interested in bringing Real midfielder Casemiro to Old Trafford, where Michael Carrick has been restricted to only one Carabao Cup appearance for the club this season. The long-serving midfielder is suffering from a mysterious ailment that apparently left him feeling dizzy and nauseous back in September and has since resurfaced in training. Assuming United’s medical staff can get to the bottom of the problem, West Brom, Leicester and Aston Villa are interested in securing his services should he end up being surplus to requirements at Old Trafford.
André Gomes is no longer wanted by Barcelona, having failed to impress since moving to the club from Valencia. The 24-year-old is likely to have no shortage of suitors, with Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Juventus all understood to be circling. Depending on which contradictory reports from Spain you believe, Juventus have either cooled or ramped up their interest in the midfielder, a state of affairs that proves Hollywood screenwriter William Goldman’s theory that “nobody knows anything”.
The saga surrounding the future of Philippe Coutinho rumbles on and on, with TF1 saying PSG will do battle with Barcelona for his signature next summer if the Brazilian hasn’t already gone to the Camp Nou in the meantime. The French television station claims that PSG sporting director Alan Henrique has held talks with Coutinho’s agent, Kia Joorabchian, to discuss a potential move to Paris next summer, teeing up what could be the mother of all spite-fuelled bidding wars between two clubs whose relationship has soured since the French club’s audacious smash-and-grab for Neymar back in August. The most likely winners of what would be a very unseemly summer peeing contest? Joorabchian, Coutinho and Liverpool, of course.
Ipswich Town midfielder Tristan Nydam is wanted by Arsenal, who could sign the 17-year-old for £2m in January and immediately loan him back to the club he has represented 12 times already this season. In other Young Tyro news, the Gunners are also ready to offer their comparatively elderly striker Eddie Nketiah, 18, a new and improved five-year deal worth £15,000 per week as a reward for his Carabao Cup brace against Norwich City last week.
And finally, the managerial merry-go-round is spinning so fast it’s making the Rumour Mill dizzy – but it will slow down for long enough to let David Moyes alight to go manage Burnley should Sean Dyche take the vacant Everton manager’s job.