With Diego Costa gradually seizing up at Chelsea, Antonio Conte is looking high and low for another striker. No corner has been left unscouted, no well-connected chum unconsulted and no old copy of Football Manager unplayed. The Italian has looked absolutely everywhere – except, of course, in the Stamford Bridge cloakroom, where Michy Batshuayi sits alongside an old Autoglass-sponsored yellow away shirt and a tracksuit top left behind by Robert Fleck, all of them waiting obediently for a time to shine again, however fleetingly.
So far the most attractive option Conte has spotted is, of course, in Italy, where Andrea Belotti is scoring so freely it’s as if every side in Serie A is managed by Pep Guardiola. The problem for Chelsea is that Torino do not wish to sell, at least not for the piffling sum of £51m, which is what Chelsea have offered. Torino’s reasoning seems to be that that amount equates to one and half Batshuayis, which is nowhere near enough for a striker that Chelsea actually intend using.
Torino could do with a cash injection too, because they want to take Joe Hart on loan for another season, whereas Manchester City want to sell the goalkeeper rather than rent him out again.
City are planning a spree themselves, of course, and one of their intended acquisitions is Mahamadou Dembélé, a 17-year-old centre-back nearing the end of his contract with Paris Saint-Germain. Liverpool are on that case, too, Jürgen Klopp having had such success with central defenders reared in PSG’s academy.
Speaking of which, Southampton are plotting to beat Crystal Palace to the summer signing of Mamadou Sakho once the Frenchman’s finishes his loan stint at Selhurst Park. Saints may be awash with lolly from the sale of Virgil van Dijk, who is Merseyside-bound. Liverpool want him but the newly-flush Everton are preparing to offer around £55m, a fee Liverpool do not feel like matching when James Milner could easily fill in as a centre-back-cum-left-back in an avant-garde make-do formation.
José Mourinho’s charm offensive continues apace at Old Trafford, where David de Gea is believed to be so impressed by the manager’s people skills that he wants to move to another country. Pricking up, that’s what Real Madrid’s ears are doing. But word is that Mourinho will only allow De Gea to be sold to Real if he gets Toni Kroos in return. The risk, of course, is that could trigger tit-for-tat demands, with Real insisting that they also get Marouane Fellaini. Mourinho would be loth to part with his captain and playmaker.
Meanwhile, Zlatan Ibrahimovich has told “his closest mates”, who in turn have confided to the Daily Mirror, that he will leave United if they do not win the Europa League this season because playing in the tournament again next season with the likes of Tractor Borisov and Arsenal would be a humiliation too far.
Arsène Wenger is believed to have recognised, at last, that Arsenal have become a complete and utter shambles with no chance of winning a trophy or salvaging their dignity. What they need, then, is a man of experience and high-brow detachment to guide them blithely through these choppy waters, all the way to the bottom of the sea. Wenger is reported to have told his underlings on the Arsenal board that he will remain at the helm for at least another two years.
Finally, Galatasaray fancy bringing Wilfried Bony to Turkey and no one from Manchester City or Stoke will attempt to persuade them that that’s a bad idea.
