José Mourinho’s Fenerbahce pain is splashed across today’s back pages, following his Manchester United side’s failure to prosper on the Bosporus. The Portuguese tore into his players in the wake of their 2-1 defeat, questioning their commitment on an evening when the only thing to go in their favour was an injury to Paul Pogba and a late, unexpected thunderbolt by Wayne Rooney that, impressive as it was, was still only the third best strike of the night.
Despite having been offered a tentative welcome back into something vaguely resembling “the fold” this week, Bastian Schweinsteiger was uninvolved in the debacle and is likely to have spent the evening tittering up his sleeve at the latest misfortune to befall a manager whose first action upon arriving at Old Trafford was to cast the German into the football wilderness. Reports this morning suggest Manchester United are ready to offer the German a golden handshake by paying him £10m to go quietly in January. It’s good work if you can get it and the Manchester Evening News has previously reported the former German international may take the money and play out his dotage in MLS, although there’s probably no shortage of Chinese clubs who’d be willing to pay a man of his high profile top dollar. United are also being linked with a summer move for the Sporting winger Gelson Martins, but will have to fend off interest from Milan and Real Madrid for the 21-year-old from Cape Verde whose contract contains a £52m buy-out clause.
The Mirror reports that Yaya Touré has asked his agent Dimitri Seluk to offer the apology Pep Guardiola has demanded as a condition of considering the out-of-favour Ivorian for first-team selection. Pep announced in September that Manchester City’s former captain will remain persona non grata at City until Seluk says sorry for accusing the Spaniard of “humiliating” his client, a decree that was met by spluttering outrage from the Ukrainian. Now, however, he appears to have changed his tune. “I have spoken to Yaya in the last few days and he has asked me to make the peace with Pep,” Seluk is reported to have said. “I agreed with him that I had to do what I could to make the situation better, because Yaya and Manchester City have been caught in the crossfire. I am genuine in what I say.” We can only hope his act of contrition is captured on camera and posted on YouTube.
Simone Zaza’s loan move from Juventus to West Ham has gone about as smoothly as his new club’s permanent one from the Boleyn Ground to the London Stadium, with the Italian striker having scored the sum total of no goals whatsoever in his nine appearances for the Hammers to date. Depending on who you believe, West Ham are obliged to make the deal permanent after the 25-year-old’s 10th or 15th appearance in their colours, a state of affairs that is highly unlikely to materialise. Napoli may end his misery, although Milan are also reported to have expressed an interest in bringing winner of the award for Euro 2016’s Most Comical Penalty Miss back to Italy.
Those suspicious looking characters hiding in the bushes surrounding PSV Eindhoven’s training ground are Arsenal scouts keeping tabs on Matthias Verreth. The versatile 18-year-old Belgian winger can, apparently, play anywhere along the front three and is believed to have a fan in Arsène Wenger, who has been monitoring his progress in the Dutch side’s youth set-up.
In managerial news, Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink’s time in charge of QPR could be nearing an end, with assorted media outlets suggesting he’ll be replaced by old-school Football Man Tim Sherwood if his side fail to beat similarly beleaguered Nottingham Forest on Saturday. Meanwhile in Italy, Guus Hiddink has been mooted as a possible replacement for Frank De Boer, who was sacked by Inter a couple of days before the Serie A side’s Europa League humbling at the hands of Southampton.
