Now that Ole Gunnar Solskjær has the Manchester United job under lock and key, he can stop pretending that he cares about promoting youth. Give Ole the moolah! The Norwegian’s already drawn up an expensive shopping list, with Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho, Crystal Palace’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka, West Ham’s Declan Rice, Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly and Real Madrid’s Raphael Varane prominent in his thoughts. Ed Woodward had better have the chequebook ready.
However, United will have to be careful when they give Real Madrid a call about Varane, as the struggling Spaniards might respond by asking how much they want for Paul Pogba. Madrid are said to be planning a £125m bid for Pogba and have already made themselves more attractive to the Frenchman by not appointing José Mourinho as their new manager.
If Pogba proves out of reach, however, Zinedine Zidane will settle for nabbing Adrien Rabiot from Paris-Saint Germain for nothing. Zidane could also try to lure Kylian Mbappé away from PSG while he’s at it, even though any move for the striker would probably wipe out most of his €500m summer budget, and the Madrid manager is also interested in signing Eden Hazard from Chelsea.
Elsewhere in Spain Antoine Griezmann is mulling over taking a £6m pay cut to leave Atlético Madrid for Barcelona, who are prepared to trigger the striker’s £100m buyout clause. Barça could finance that deal by selling Samuel Umtiti to Arsenal. Meanwhile, they have been told to forget about taking Phil Foden off Manchester City.
Chelsea plan to convince Callum Hudson-Odoi to stay at Stamford Bridge by offering the winger a contract worth £100,000 a week. It would probably be cheaper just to give him a few games, you know.
Juventus are considering triggering Toby Alderweireld’s £25m buyout clause and Wolves are on the verge of completing a £30m deal for Raúl Jiménez, who will score two goals next season.
