Manchester United always loved a glamorous European transfer chase. Back in the summer of 1962, Matt Busby only managed to secure the big-money signature of Denis Law after zigzagging back and forth across the continent, racing after Torino president Angelo Filippone, who was playing silly buggers just for the hell of it. Meetings in Amsterdam and Lausanne were mooted but not held. Another snap chat was called in Turin, requiring Busby to fly from a training camp in Mallorca to Geneva, then screech over the Alps at high speed in a sports car. You can almost smell the martinis and hear the John Barry Orchestra, can’t you.
Anyway, United eventually got their man. They’ll probably land at least a couple of glamour names this summer, too: Kylian Mbappé, James Rodríguez, Jan Oblak, Willian and Raphaël Varane have all been mentioned in Thursday’s dispatches. But these deals will be struck in boardrooms by agents and chief executives. We progress, but do we really go forward?
United have competition for Mbappé in Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester City and Arsenal, with the manager of the last of these, Arsène Wenger, being quite open about his interest. Plans for next season are now a very real prospect for him, having staved off YouTube-related bother by reaching the FA Cup final. It also helps that Massimiliano Allegri, heavily linked with his job, has agreed to stay at Juventus.
United, meanwhile, have bagged up Zlatan Ibrahimovic, with a view to putting him on Gumtree come the summer. Free, collection only. Bastian Schweinsteiger is happy to pop over from the States, pick up the pieces, and put them back together for the benefit of the MLS.
And concluding a super special on the Old Trafford spendthrifts, they’re very much in for their former defender Michael Keane. Tottenham Hotspur, Everton and Liverpool are also sniffing around. This rumour can, and will, be renosed in the future, in its entirety, for Virgil van Dijk.
Should Liverpool miss out on both those targets, they’ll settle for Fenerbahce’s Simon Kjaer instead, though they’ll need to do battle with Hull City first.
Kevin Stewart, third in the slow-moving-midfielder pecking order at Anfield behind Emre Can and Lucas, is a target for Brighton & Hove Albion. Meanwhile their out-of-contract keeper David Stockdale will head off to Leeds United for next year’s promotion push. (Hey, we want Leeds back, it’s been way too long, so we’re tempting fate.)
And Manchester City have denied any interest whatsoever in Dele Alli, so expect that one to run for the next four months.
