Having noted the surprising success teams such as Leicester City and West Ham United have enjoyed this season on the back of the kind of excellent scouting and leg-work that has helped them unearth foreign gems such as Dimitri Payet, Riyad Mahrez and N’Golo Kanté at bargain prices, you could be forgiven for assuming that traditionally bigger and more successful clubs would seek to emulate the process that has made household names of these bargain imports in a bid to strengthen their own sides.
Not a bit of it. That would take time, effort and no little amount of luck, so it’s no great surprise that, with their usual stunning lack of imagination, traditional football establishment powerhouses would prefer the easier option of hosing their supposedly “lesser” rivals with cash in the hope of persuading them to part with the talent that has enabled them to scale such dizzy heights this season. In the case of Mahrez, Manchester United, Tottenham and Barcelona are all being mentioned as potential suitors for the industrious midfielder Leicester imported from the French second division. Elsewhere Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea and Juventus are reported to be interested in Kanté, an apparently tireless midfield machine so incredibly energetic and full of running that he could probably sign for all four clubs simultaneously and not let any of them down. Meanwhile in Spain, Valencia are understood to have identified West Ham revelation Payet as the man around whom they’d like to plan their summer rebuild after a season to forget.
Since Antonio Conte was installed as their new manager on Monday, Chelsea have been linked with no end of players and Arturo Vidal is the latest to be added to a very long list. The Bayern Munich midfielder played under Conte for three years at Juventus and the Mail reports that he has made no secret of the fact that he’d be open to a reunion with his former general at Stamford Bridge. Upon being told that Conte said Vidal is the kind of man he’d like alongside him in the trenches during wartime, the Chilean mohican said: “I have also said if I go to war I would take Conte with me. We will see what happens.”
The departure of the Belgian striker Christian Benteke from Anfield this summer would appear to be a foregone conclusion, with his next port of call the only remaining source of debate. The big man has already attracted plenty of interest from Italy, but now Atlético Madrid are believed to have set the wheels of a potential £37m transfer in motion.
The injury-hit teenage midfielder Jordan Rossiter could also be on his way out of Anfield, if fairly implausible talk linking him with a move to Udinese is to be believed. With his contract due to expire this summer, the 19-year-old is free to sign a pre-contract agreement with any interested foreign parties and Udinese are believed to have made an approach. That distant clamour you can hear is somebody in the Liverpool HR department rushing to draw up a four-year deal to push under the midfielder’s nose before handing him a pen.
The Rumour Mill didn’t get where it is today “chasing Aston Villa teenager Andre Green”, but the Mirror reports that Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City and Spurs are all doing exactly that in their efforts to offer the 17-year-old a Premier League lifeline. In news that is unlikely to appease already underwhelmed Everton supporters, the name of the Fenerbahce winger and one-time Manchester United Michael Jackson impersonator Nani is being mentioned in conjunction with a summer transfer to Goodison Park. Meanwhile at Old Trafford, Manchester United are hoping to lure diminutive Portuguese playmaker Bernardo Silva away from Monaco, but will face competition from Juventus in the battle to secure the €20m-rated midfielder’s signature.
And finally, one of many unexpected contenders for this season’s Best Player award, Eric Dier is rumoured to have got antennae twitching at Bayern Munich with his consistently excellent performances for Tottenham.
