Life is an unpredictable thing. You’re minding your own business and suddenly one day everyone goes round the bend, voting for all sorts of strange things and throwing the world into a chaos you simply weren’t prepared for. Cats and dogs live together, there’s rioting in the streets and a bloke who might have been the chancellor of the exchequer in another, not entirely unrealistic reality is now dressing up as the Mask for the purposes of light entertainment.
With that in mind, it’s nice that there are still come comforting, familiar things left. Like, for example, PSG getting out their wallets and trying to buy everything that moves. In this case, Neymar. Word on the street is that they are planning a move worth something like €222m (which is – and we haven’t exactly checked the exchange rates today but this is a reasonable guess – about £222m) for the Brazilian, really wanting to make a splash despite having been knocked back in a similar pursuit last summer. Neymar’s release fee will apparently jump to €250m come 2018, so PSG are looking to get a wriggle on, but they have a trump card in their pocket, which is Barcelona’s need to pay for their new ground. The renovations to theCamp Nou will apparently cost something like €600m, meaning they might have to sell anything that isn’t nailed down in order to fund the masonry work.
Arsenal eye Llorente! Before you panic Gooners, your boys haven’t spotted how well striker Fernando Llorente is doing at Swansea, with his juicy one goal in six starts record, but rather his namesake. Marcos Llorente is doing rather well at Alavés on loan from Real Madrid, so much so that Arsenal have decided they’re keen on tucking him under their arm and taking him back to London. Quite what Real will have to say about this is currently unknown.
Speaking of Real midfielders currently struggling to get in their first team, Isco has been talking. “If I’ve still only made a few appearances by the end of the season, I’ll look elsewhere,” he parped. “At 24 years of age I have to better myself.” Quite so, Iscy lad, quite so. And if you believe what you hear, the place he’ll be bettering himself is Manchester United.
Now to players who haven’t yet had the chance to become disillusioned and cynical about their chances in the first team. Manchester City’s social media team have obviously been keeping their ears firmly to the ground, because after spotting that viral video of the 13-year-old playing for Celtic’s youth team, City have decided they want him. Karamoko Dembélé is his name, and he is very much on City’s list.
As for other gossip … it’s thin gruel, alas. Tim Fosu-Mensah is close to bagging a new contract at Manchester United. United are also hanging their noses over Valencia youngster Fran Villalba. Hull are trying to fend off interest in Abel Hernández by giving him a fresh deal. Leicester were keen on Napoli striker Manolo Gabbiadini in the summer but nothing doing there. Chelsea aren’t up for selling Andreas Christensen despite interest from Barcelona. And that’s about it.
