Manchester United still want Sofyan Amrabat but the Mason Greenwood situation has created quite the obstacle, while Arsenal have a £100m transfer ‘hope’....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
Another day, another instance of unfortunately having to talk about Mason Greenwood. Cristiano Ronaldo has supposedly blocked one path out of Manchester United for the 21-year-old, whose uncertain future continues to impact the club’s immediate plans.
After initially factoring Greenwood into their first-team plans – which should not be forgotten despite the subsequent U-turn – the decision to help him find employment elsewhere has had far-reaching consequences at Old Trafford. Sofyan Amrabat remains a £34m target but now Erik ten Hag wants a striker.
That, according to Neil Custis of The Sun, is the Dutchman’s ‘main transfer target’. And when that apparent desperation to replace a forward who has not played since five months before Ten Hag was appointed is combined with a need to fall on the right side of the FFP line following another summer of heavy investment, it spells bad news for Amrabat and his hopes of leaving Fiorentina.
Manchester City had a busy Wednesday evening briefing friendly journalists, as can be inferred from the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and The Times all running stories about the club’s interest in Eberechi Eze and Matheus Nunes.
Two things appear to be driving the speculation: the injury to Kevin de Bruyne; and the breakdown of a move for Lucas Paqueta. Manchester City still want midfield reinforcements and the Premier League experience of both likely appeals.
Jack Gaughan in the Mail says £70m-rated Eze’s ‘control of games’ has impressed scouts over the past six months, with Pep Guardiola a long-term admirer of Nunes since before he joined Wolves.
James Ducker of the Telegraph suggests both players are ‘among a small pool of candidates’ being looked at, but ‘it could require very substantial offers to convince’ the selling clubs.
And The Times’ Paul Hirst says Guardiola ‘would be happy with either Nunes or Eze,’ which is good of him. He really is the master of making do with what little he’s got.
With nine days of the summer 2023 transfer window remaining for European clubs – but not those pesky Saudis and their ludicrous transfers – there has been a slight uptick in stories pretending things must be done NOW lest clubs RISK something truly DREADFUL happening.
The latest in that spot are Arsenal, who the Daily Mail say are ‘racing’ against time to raise £100m in player sales.
The exit of Folarin Balogun would certainly help cover about half of that, with the Gunners expecting a fresh Monaco bid soon; the forward definitely won’t be going to Chelsea. Then ‘there remains a small chance’ Gabriel Magalhaes could leave, but only if Arsenal find an improvement on the centre-half. Simple.
Kieran Tierney (Aston Villa, Newcastle and Real Socieidad), Albert Sambi Lokonga (Brighton and Burnley), Rob Holding (Besiktas), Cedric Soares (Benfica, Porto, Sporting and Villarreal), Nuno Tavares (Nottingham Forest) and Nicolas Pepe (Saudi) have also been made available by Mikel Arteta, with the ‘hope’ of raising at least £100m. For what reason is not made particularly clear….READFULL
