When you’ve already got the shimmering palace, the gold Ferraris and the vast collection of paintings you didn’t paint, there’s really only one thing you can buy to make yourself feel bigger: an English football club.
Which is perhaps why Sheikh Khalifa, president of the United Arab Emirates and half-brother of Manchester City’s Sheikh Mansour, is said to be interested in becoming the owner of Liverpool FC, a club famed for triumphing against the odds and cultivating a powerful community spirit, things with which anyone born into an oil-rich royal family can immediately identify.
Yes, Liverpool – club of legends, bastion of folk heroes, asset of a large American sports investment company – could soon be taken over by a man who, thanks to a keen entrepreneurial instinct and sheer endeavour, has worked his way up from being the son of a billionaire to being an adult billionaire. And with someone said to be worth £30bn in charge at Anfield, just think of the size of the new contract Jürgen Klopp could afford to give Simon Mignolet! Although reports today suggest Klopp is targeting a different Belgian, with Napoli’s Dries Mertens high on his summer shopping list.
Arsenal’s recruitment could be even more interesting this summer. After luring one of Leicester’s scouts earlier this season, the London-based leisure company are expected to spend the summer unearthing hidden talents to turn themselves into sensational title challengers. It will be fascinating to see who they come up with. Already the club are thought to be plotting a move for a player whom even Arsène Wenger admitted to not being aware of until recently: some chap called Riyad Mahrez, a tricky Algerian winger with an eye for goal, apparently.
Wenger will also spend some of the summer trying to convince Alexis Sánchez and Mesut Özil they would not be wasting their time signing new contracts at the Emirates. Young Gedion Zelalem, however, is reportedly open to turning his loan move at Rangers into a permanent one, trophies being his main aim.
Claudio Ranieri, undeterred by the Gökhan Inler flop, is said to be keen on bringing Francesco Totti to Leicester but the slightly younger of those two Italians thinks he is now more suited to the MLS, so New York Cosmos is where he’ll head.
Barcelona want to take Marco Verratti from Paris Saint-Germain and are prepared to pay up to £50m to do it. Edinson Cavani, meanwhile, will leave PSG for Juventus, if the Italians have their way. The French club will try to rebuild, or just bling up, by adding Cristiano Ronaldo to their stable.
PSG’s European conquerors, Manchester City, will try to bolster their ranks by signing Ilkay Gündogan from Borussia Dortmund.
Manchester United are mulling over an offer for Bologna’s 18-year-old midfielder Amadou Diawara, whom Louis van Gaal reckons could double as a rapid left-back or a gangly target man.
Andreas Christensen is currently at Borussia Mönchengladbach and that is where he’ll stay if the Germans persuade Chelsea to let them keep him.
