It may come as no surprise to regular readers of The Mill that Neymar is apparently bored with life in Paris. Once you’ve seen one bustling brasserie, you’ve seen them all. Barcelona and Real Madrid have been perennial possible landing grounds for the branded Brazilian but reports wafting out of France now suggest the PSG forward may be tempted into looking north instead. To Liverpool!
Yes, it says here that the club have been regularly sounding out Neymar’s agent over a potential transfer and have also been keeping in touch with Kylian Mbappé’s people to see whether he has any desire to to say au revoir to Paris and bonjour to the birthplace of the Beatles. Marca have reported that Mbappé is not interested in renewing his PSG contract, which expires in 2022, so if the club want to cash in they will need to consider selling him soon.
Chelsea and Manchester City are also said to be keeping a beady eye on Neymar’s situation but of more pressing concern for City is filling the Aymeric Laporte-shaped hole in their defence. L’Équipe reckon the Premier League champions will fling £46.2m the way of Barcelona to prise Samuel Umtiti away from them in January. It’s highly likely that Barça will tell them to jog on, in which case Eddie Howe might want to hide Nathan Aké in a Vitality Stadium closet, because City will come all guns blazing for the ball-playing Bournemouth centre-back instead.
Carlo Ancelotti’s sacking by Napoli has set alarm bells ringing at Everton. The club hope to beat Arsenal to the punch for the services of the three-time Champions League winning manager. But let’s be realistic, he’s no Big Dunc is he? If Ancelotti does arrive, he may be reunited with Zlatan Ibrahimovic who, rumour has it, might be offered a £4m-a-season deal to bring his well-honed hubris to Goodison Park.
Sean Dyche has admitted that he may struggle to keep jinking winger Dwight McNeil at the club for an extended length of time. This will be music to Manchester United’s ears, who will ready a £35m offer for a player who came through the youth ranks at United.
The influx of Italians in the stands at Chelsea may be scouts from Juventus and Inter. Willian is wanted by the Italian champions while Antonio Conte misses Marcos Alonso and would very much like to see him again, preferably in blue and black stripes, in January.
And you may have heard there’s a big vote coming up. Yes, West Ham’s board plan to ask the players whether they think Manuel Pellegrini should stay on as leader.
