Manchester United are neck-deep in talks with Benfica over their Swedish defender Victor Lindelof, who the Portuguese club apparently values at a cool £42m. The Sun report that the player’s agent is currently in England for discussions with the United hierarchy, while the Mail expand this to declare the arrival of “a delegation from the Portuguese club” and O Jogo announce that Benfica president Luís Filipe Vieira is in town, but the former paper warns that he “may have to drop [his] asking price as United’s need is no longer so great”, given the form of Phil Jones and the fact that Marcus Rojo has miraculously managed to avoid long-term suspension for a number of games now. Clubs whose need is no longer so great should probably avoid talking terms with £42m-rated defenders, you’d have thought.
Anyway, United are planning to sell a few players to rustle up some transfer funds. One of them is Memphis Depay, on whom the Red Devils are ready to take a £13m hit, having decided to accept as little as £12m for the Dutchman, who cost – and maths fans might already have figured this out – £25m when he arrived from PSV Eindhoven in June last year. Everton, Lazio, Southampton and Sevilla are among the clubs rumoured to be interested, with a loan deal also possible. Marouane Fellaini meanwhile was spotted in Milan on Monday with his uncannily-coiffed twin brother Mansour, leading the Mail to suggest he could head to either of the city’s giant clubs in January. Also on their way out if buyers can be found are Bastian Schweinsteiger and Morgan Schneiderlin.
Marseille may be only sixth in Ligue 1, fully 16 points away from the summit, but having recently been taken over by an American billionaire they’re not an unattractive destination for footballers – as their former star Dimitri Payet proved when asked if he could be tempted to return. “Marseille have a new project which seems interesting,” he said. “They know how attached I am to the club. I am not closing the door to anything.” But some players are happy to swap the south coast of France for the dark clouds but bright future offered in England, with Southampton hoping to wrap up a deal for the Nice midfielder Wylan Cyprien. In other Anglo-Franco news, Hull are tempted by Saint-Etienne’s £4m-rated Moroccan winger Oussama Tannane.
Chelsea want to sign Genoa’s Diego Laxalt, according to Diego Laxalt’s agent. Less than five months after he negotiated the Uruguayan wideman’s first permanent contract at Genoa, Vincenzo d’Ippolito is eyeing another bumper payday. “Genoa believe in him, but they are always open to selling their players for the right offer,” he trilled. “Conte scouted Laxalt when he was in Italy and he’d love him at Chelsea now.” He’d also love James Rodríguez, and is apparently ready to splash €90m to make sure Chelsea beat Internazionale, Juventus, Manchester United and Paris St-Germain to his signature.
Rudy Gestede, who has scored one league goal in the last three months and can’t even get in the Aston Villa team, has another top-flight suitor in the shape of West Bromwich Albion, having already been linked with a January move to either Middlesbrough or Crystal Palace. Villa have already identified a replacement in the shape of Brentford’s Scott Hogan, who failed to score against them in September but does seem to have scored against most other people this season.
Bournemouth have come up with a cunning ruse to stop Chelsea exercising the January recall clause on Nathan Aké’s loan deal: buying him for £10m. The Cherries are however prepared to let Max Gradel depart, with Burnley and West Ham both keen on taking the 29-year-old Ivorian on loan in the new year, so long as he doesn’t insist on representing his country at the African Cup of Nations.
