Dejan Lovren is resigned to the fact that his hopes of getting regular game time at Liverpool are increasingly slim and Italian news outlet Corriere dello Sport say he’s ready to take a pay cut to secure a move to Roma. The Croatian defender didn’t make the bench for Liverpool’s win against Norwich on Friday night and will plead with his current employers to let him move to Italy with a minimum of fuss. Saturday’s Telegraph claimed Roma are also reported to have held talks with Manchester United about taking Alexis Sánchez on loan.
In other unsettled defender news, Serge Aurier has decided he wants to leave Tottenham Hotspur and is currently inching his way across radars at Milan and Paris Saint-Germain. Behind Kyle Walker-Peters and Juan Foyth in the Spurs pecking order, the Frenchman last played against Borussia Dortmund in March.
Unwanted by Everton, where he has failed to impress since returning from a cruciate injury sustained under the long-forgotten reign of Sam Allardyce, Yannick Bolasie is currently mulling over offers from Celtic, Besiktas and Rennes.
Neymar has made no secret of his desire to high-tail it out of PSG and a section of the club’s fans have reciprocated by making it clear they’d be absolutely delighted to see the back of the petulant diva. The Brazilian played no part in the French club’s Ligue 1 opener, a 3-0 win against Nimes at Parc des Princes, where chants of “son of a bitch” rang out as supporters held aloft a banner that read “NEYMAR CASSE TOI”(Neymar Go Away).
Having omitted the player in question from his matchday squad, PSG coach Thomas Tuchel said “I have no news on his future” but insisted he is trying to get him to stay. “But on the other hand, it’s a personal choice,” he said. “It’s between him and the club.” Barcelona remain the favourites to lure Neymar away from the French capital in a convoluted swap deal involving Philippe Coutinho, Nélson Semedo and a dumper-truck full of tenners. Also surplus to requirements at Barcelona, Neymar’s compatriot Rafinha is on the verge of signing for Valencia.
The Spanish side are also ready to end the Manchester City purgatory of Eliaquim Mangala, who last played a competitive game of football in February 2018 and who previously had a season-long loan spell at the Mestella Stadium.
Having failed to secure a move to Tottenham Hotspur or Manchester United due to unresolved legal wrangling over his image rights, Paulo Dybala has been warned to find himself a new club or suffer the indignity of being left out of Juventus’s Champions League squad. “Our situation is difficult, almost embarrassing, because we run the risk of leaving out players of a really high level,” said manager Maurizio Sarri. PSG are the latest club to be linked with the Argentinian striker.
