Tradition dictates that English top-flight managers, in tournament years, lazily do their summer scouting off the telly, idly mumbling “he looks good” from the back of a pub at the sight of a defender being able to pass the ball or a passage of purposeful attacking from someone or other. So it is that Chelsea are being linked not just with Leonardo Bonucci but with Antonio Candreva – and their manager should know a bit more about them than your average pub bore, as he already manages them. Yep, Antonio Conte is reportedly planning a £57m raid for the pair of them.
The question of where and how to play Paul Pogba may be vexing France at the moment, but Real Madrid have no such doubts. The European champions want him, and his agent Mino Raiola says talks have already happened.
In an interview given exclusively and, the Mill is sure, selflessly to Marca, Raiola says: “We are talking [with Real] but nothing is decided. [The manager Zinedine] Zidane’s wish is important and the club’s wish is important. We are in the initial phase, it’s not a negotiation.” Just passing the time of day then, as agents do.
Arsène Wenger may have sighed that Jamie Vardy will probably stay at Leicester City, though he may have been subtly trying to reverse-jinx things in order to facilitate just such a move. A tired and weary Mill can’t possibly hope to be on the same mental wavelength as the Professor, but what it can do is report that the Premier League champions continue to be linked with another striker, Troy Deeney. Watford have spurned two such advances but now Leicester have come back with a tasty £30m bid for the captain.
Talking of Leicester, where would the Mill be without a regular massive-club-targeting-N’Golo Kanté story? The latest suggested suitors of the France midfield marvel just happen to be Real Madrid.
In dug-out news, it would appear that Ryan Giggs is bored of life at an eccentrically run overseas-owned club who’ve won two European cups but have been stagnating and living off past glories in recent years, so is rumoured to be contemplating trading life as José Mourinho’s bag-carrier at Manchester United for the hot seat at Nottingham Forest. That’s what the Daily Mirror reckons anyway, though the Nottingham Post’s intelligence is that Forest want a foreign coach and are keen on the former Marseille boss Michel. Is Wales not foreign?
Andros Townsend may have missed out on the chance to be part of one of Roy Hodgson’s many different misfiring 2-2-8 formations in France this summer, but he’s still in the thoughts of Liverpool, who are sizing up the idea of triggering the winger’s £10.5m release clause.
Townsend is not the only Newcastle player being targeted by a Premier League club – West Brom have been linked with Moussa Sissoko.
Another Championship player being eyed up by Premier League vultures is the Reading midfielder Aaron Tshibola, who has attracted Crystal Palace’s interest. Aston Villa and Norwich are also keen if he doesn’t fancy the step up just yet.
