David Moyes is to play a part in sourcing his successor at Sunderland. It’s the sort of plan that worked so well a few years ago at Manchester United, isn’t it. Names on his list include Ryan Giggs, Nigel Pearson, David Wagner, Alan Pardew, Garry Monk, Aitor Karanka, Slavisa Jokanovic and Paul Lambert. Perhaps Moyes should also consider Sir Alex Ferguson for a job that’s guaranteed to be a world of pain for whoever stupidly agrees to take it, just to see how he likes it.
Meanwhile sprinting out of the Stadium of Light door, as though chasing a ball lumped straight down the middle because his team-mates have no other ideas left: Jermain Defoe. He’s making a break for it, in double-quick time, in the hope of getting as far away from the mess as possible. Bournemouth, 343 miles south, fits the bill perfectly.
More hot managerial news, and the blackboard with the wet sponge hanging beside it at Watford will soon have the words Roger Schmidt scratched lightly on to it. The erstwhile Bayer Leverkusen coach has nothing on for the next couple of months, so it’s all coming together nicely.
To celebrate the 18th anniversary of That Night In Barcelona, Manchester United are planning to do another number on Bayern Munich. This year’s FC Hollywood-baiting one-two is a double swoop for Renato Sanches and Douglas Costa. Meantime, to celebrate the 14th anniversary of Porto’s second European Cup win, José Mourinho is planning to riff on Monaco’s pain once again by making off with midfielder Bernardo Silva.
Everton “won’t release a statement today” on the future of Ross Barkley, according to reports. Perhaps that’s because the whispers surrounding a £25m deal for Swansea midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson are pretty much doing their job for them. The Toffees also want Málaga forward Sandro Ramírez, but Atlético Madrid might get there first.
Kyle Walker’s long-mooted move to Manchester City is in doubt. But only because Chelsea and Bayern Munich are sniffing around too. Chelsea are also interested in Monaco midfielder Tiemoué Bakayoko, Romelu Lukaku of Everton and Real Madrid’s Álvaro Morata. But they still want to keep popularity’s Diego Costa, who is now attracting interest from his former club Atlético as well as Chinese Super League spendthrifts Tianjin Quanjian.
Should the Walker deal fall through, Manchester City will cheer themselves up by splurging £50m on subtle body-language communicator / desperate Arsenal wantaway Alexis Sánchez. In turn, the Gunners will console themselves with 19-year-old KAS Eupen striker Henry Onyekuru, though Everton are also interested, and to be fair they can offer Europa League football as well.
And Philippe Coutinho has insisted he wants to remain at Liverpool: “Stay here and they will end up building a statue in your honour. Go somewhere else and you will be just another player. Here you can be something more.” Jürgen Klopp adds: “He really likes being here, it’s not like someone has to force him. His family really likes it too.” The chances of all this putting an end to those persistent links with Barcelona: about one in a million.
