Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and more are set to be busy in the summer transfer window.
Arsenal are set to push on with their first signing of the summer with a bid for Bournemouth’s Ryan Fraser set to be lodged following this week’s Europa League final. A new centre-back is high on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s priority list at United with Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly and Leicester’s Harry Maguire both options. Crystal Palace’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka is another on the Norwegian’s radar.
It won’t just be incomings at Old Trafford, however, with Paul Pogba a high-profile target for Real Madrid and Alexis Sanchez on his way out with Inter Milan and Juventus fighting it out for his signature – if he drops his wage demands. And Liverpool could be active too as they look to go one better after failing to win the Premier League title by just a single point. Finally, Chelsea face an uncertain summer due to their current transfer ban, but one thing they know is that Eden Hazard will be heading for the exit after expressing his desire to join Real Madrid.
Good morning and welcome to today's Independent transfer live blog.
The summer window is upon us with the Premier League’s biggest clubs set to spend, spend, spend as the sales re-open.
We'll bring you all the latest news plus all the done deals and the juiciest gossip throughout the day right here so don't touch that dial.
We start this morning with the latest on Eden Hazard's future, so without further ado, off we go.
Eden Hazard has made it abundantly clear that he will be leaving Chelsea.
The Belgian was the star of the show as he scored twice in Chelsea's 4-1 demolition of Arsenal to win the Europa League, and afterwards he spoke openly and honestly of his desire for a new challenge away from the Blues.
After first confirming that he has informed the club of his preference to join Real Madrid - either this summer or next year when his contract expires - he revealed that all will be confirmed in the next few days.
Eden Hazard confirms when he will leave Chelsea
The IndependentThe Belgian inspired the Blues to European glory in Baku on Wednesday night and has been linked with a move to Real MadridAfter listening to Eden Hazard express his desire to leave, Chelsea teammate David Luiz paid tribute to his club colleague and friend and admitted that he deserves to move on after giving his all for the club.
Luiz also offered his thoughts on who Chelsea will replace Hazard with, and given they are facing a transfer ban through to next summer, he came up with a rather sensible option - only after hinting that it "can only be Messi or Ronaldo".
News in the north-west suggests that a transfer battle could be on between Manchester United and Liverpool as the race to sign Lille's Nicolas Pepe heats up.
The Ligue 1 club have already confirmed that Pepe is likely to leave the club this summer, and the Premier League has been touted as the destination of his choice.
The Ivory Coast international has attracted interest from United and Paris Saint-Germain, but the Daily Star reports that Liverpool are considering a £70m offer for the 23-year-old winger.
Just two years into his Paris Saint-Germain career, Neymar could be heading back to Barcelona.
Catalan outlet RAC1 is reporting that Barca have opened negotiations with PSG that also involve Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele, with either of them offered to the Ligue 1 side in a cash-plus-player deal to bring the Brazilian back to the Nou Camp.
Neymar joined PSG for a world-record €222m in 2017 and remains the most expensive footballer in history, and although the reports adds that talks are in their early stages, officials at Barcelona are increasingly confident of Neymar's return this summer.
Inter Milan have sacked Luciano Spalletti, paving the way for Antonio Conte to take over at the San Siro.
Inter have targeted Conte for a while, meaning they have had to be ruthless with Spalletti.
After consecutive seasons qualifying for the Champions League, it is considered a harsh move by the Nerazzurri.
But their ambition is to challenge Juventus and Conte may well give them their best chance.
The clearout at Manchester United is ready to get underway after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer met with the club's board to lay out his transfer window plans.
Solskjaer has made it apparent that he wants the players who are not part of his long-term plan sold by the summer of next year, according to the Manchester Evening News, and that will allow him to bring in the targets he's identified as key to rebuilding the United squad (more on that shortly).
However, it looks like it'll be more than just the fringe players who will be leaving Old Trafford...
That's because reports in Italy are strongly linking striker Romelu Lukaku with a move to Inter Milan, so much so that the Belgian is ready to take a pay-cut.
The 26-year-old is facing an uncertain future at United after losing his first-team place to Marcus Rashford under Solskjaer, and Gazzetta dello Sport claim that Lukaku is willing to accept less than the reported £200,000-a-week salary that he is currently on.
Inter are currently in the process of appointing Antonio Conte as their new manager, and once the former Chelsea boss is in place, it's expected that they will press on with their attempts to sign Lukaku.
Arsenal manager Unai Emery is keen on a reunion with Belgium full-back Thomas Meunier, but last night's Europa League defeat looks to have hurt their chances.
Emery worked with the 27-year-old while manager of Paris Saint-Germain and believes he may be the answer to solving Arsenal's weakness in defence.
PSG are understood to be open to negotiations as they look to strengthen their squad in an effort to address their poor Champions league form, and France Football are reporting that Arsenal were ready to move for Meunier this summer - but the failure to secure Champions League football has hurt their chances of landing him in the summer.
Matthijs de Ligt remains Manchester United's No 1 target this summer.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is set for a major revamp of his squad this summer with the 19-year-old a key part of it.
Barcelona remain seriously interested but United are said to have made a big money offer to try and turn his head.
De Ligt, for his part, says all the talk over his future should be taken with a "pinch of salt".
Paulo Dybala knows what he wants next year - and it's a stay at Juventus.
Manchester United have been linked with a move for the Argentine with the departure of Max Allegri as manager seen as potentially the trigger for an exit this summer.
But Dybala is keen to stick around.
“[Juventus director of sport Fabio] Paratici knows what I want to do next year – to keep playing here,” he said.
“Paratici knows that next year I want to continue here. Then it doesn’t depend on me.
“Juventus must make its choices with the coach that will come. But society knows it – next year I want to stay here.
“I have a lot of respect for this shirt and for these fans, and because of this I will only talk about Juventus, not about other teams, because that seems to me a lack of respect.”
With Petr Cech now retired, Arsenal are in the market for a new goalkeeper.
Could that goalkeeper be Gianluigi Donnarumma?
Well they've made initial contact at least, according to reports in Italy.
Still a long way to go before a deal is done, however, with the 20-year-old one of Milan's most-prized assets.
Both Manchester United and Manchester City are interested in England defender Harry Maguire.
The centre-back is viewed as the ideal replacement for Vincent Kompany at the Etighad Stadium, but United have a long-running interest in the Leicester City defender and hope that he would be the answer to their issues at the back.
With the 26-year-old currently on international duty with Gareth Southgate's side ahead of the Nations League finals, any development in his future is likely to be put on hold until the back-end of next month, and he has spoken this week of his happiness with wherehis career currently is that helps him to ignore the speculation over a move to the north-west.
There's plenty going on at Newcastle United
The club are currently subject of a takeover attempt, and as a result they could be unusually active in the transfer window this summer should a fresh injection of cash arrive.
One player who has emerged on their radar is the Benfica goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos, with Portuguese outlet O Jogo reporting that a £13.2m asking price has been set for the 25-year-old.
Could Sergio Ramos be on his way out of Real Madrid?
He has told the club that he wants out this summer and wants a free transfer to the Chinese Super League.
Florentino Perez, however, has told his captain that he's not leaving - or at least not leaving for free - under any circumstances.
This one could run and run.
Arsenal plan to firm up their interest in Bournemouth winger Ryan Fraser after the Europa League final against Chelsea, with the 25-year-old one of Unai Emery’s transfer targets this summer.
Fraser has enjoyed a fine campaign under Eddie Howe at Bournemouth, contributing 14 assists in the Premier League this season – behind only Chelsea forward Eden Hazard – and establishing himself in Scotland’s national team.
He is entering the final year of his contract after seven seasons at the Vitality Stadium, with Bournemouth eager for the player to put pen to paper on a new deal with the club.
But negotiations between the two parties have stalled and there is an acceptance at the south coast club that it would be better to sell Fraser than risk losing him on a free transfer next summer.
To the future of James Rodriguez, who could be on his way to the Premier League.
Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United are all interested in the Colombian international this summer, according to the Mirror.
James spent the last two seasons at Bayern Munich but opted not to stay with Real Madrid keen to now move him on.
Arsene Wenger is considering a return to management with Japanese side Vissel Kobe.
The wealthy J1 League club are desperate to recruit Wenger and club officials flew to Europe to meet him last week.
Wenger was offered a lucrative salary to take over at the club. He is now mulling over the decision, for what might be his last chance to manage again before he retires.
More from Jack Pitt-Brooke here:
Remember Kevin Strootman?
No it's not 2014. Everton, West Ham and Manchester United have all been offered the chance to sign the now-Marseille midfielder on loan.
That's according to Sky Sports.
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