Brendan Rodgers believes his Leicester players have “special things on the horizon”. The thing is that it might not be these particular Leicester players, because Brendan has money burning a hole in his pocket and, my word, does he intend to spend it. He’ll apparently have £200m at his disposal to mould a team in his image and first in, if he gets his way, will be the quicksilver Bournemouth striker Callum Wilson. The Mill smells a Jamie Vardy replacement – although smelling salts may be required to cope with a fee north of £40m. West Ham and Chelsea might have their own ideas, too.
Could Brendan also take his relationship with Celtic’s fans to the next level by returning for a few of their favourites? Kieran Tierney, Callum McGregor and James Forrest are believed to be among those for whom treble winning might spark less of a thrill than the Battle For Seventh.
That’s the biggest wad of cash on the table; it’s as if there was the inconvenience of some actual football during this midweek. But Real Madrid never quite sleep, now even while they’re banging them in at the Nou Camp. They’re dreaming and scheming about signing a new left-back now that Marcelo, not entirely in favour these days, seems to have been lined up for a summer move to Juventus. They have their beady little eyes on Ajax’s Nicolás Tagliafico, who thought he had scored against them in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 until VAR pen-pushery got in the way.
Ajax are already losing Frenkie de Jong to Barça and you’d suspect that is only the beginning. The Spanish champions might even be back for more — they like the look of André Onana, the Eredivisie club’s prodigious Cameroonian goalkeeper, but Tottenham, Arsenal and West Ham are ready to join them in the chase.
Somebody will sign a very good striker in RB Leipzig’s Bundesliga hotshot Timo Werner this summer. If only there were a club in that division that specialised in mopping up its rivals’ biggest stars … oh hi, Bayern Munich, who have reportedly beaten the likes of Liverpool, PSG, Barcelona and Real Madrid to ensure Werner spearheads a slightly labouring attack from next season onwards.
Twitter: follow us at @guardian_sport
Facebook: like our football and sport pages
Instagram: our favourite photos, films and stories
Another German-based striking sensation, Eintracht Frankfurt’s 21-year-old Luka Jović, is currently the top-flight’s leading scorer and will almost certainly move on come the season’s end. Barcelona and Chelsea have both been linked but Manchester City are the latest big hitters to show an interest in the Serbia international.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer might have another hot young prospect to deal with at Manchester United. They’ve taken Zito Luvumbo, a 17-year-old winger who impressed for Angola at the Cosafa youth tournaments last year, on trial. The New Manucho, as they aren’t yet calling him throughout the Stretford End, also has admirers in the dapper forms of Watford, Porto and Sporting Lisbon.
