Lionel Messi has issued a go-and-get-him plea to his Barcelona-based paymasters, begging them to “end Ángel Di María’s Old Trafford hell”. Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain may all rival the treble-winners for the Manchester United man’s signature, the Sun reports. In the same paper, however, they scoop themselves by revealing that PSG have “ruled out a swoop for Di María”, and have instead bid £18m for Atlético Madrid’s Arda Turan. However, they scoop their scoop-busting scoop by revealing that the Parisians have no chance of actually signing the Turkish dynamo, who is infinitely more likely to end up at Chelsea, possibly with Filipe Luís heading the other way. “Arda intends to leave Spain this summer and his will is to play in the Premier League,” the bearded wonder’s agent, Ahmet Bulut, said. “That is where he wants to take his career at this time.”
If Turan does go to Chelsea it might not be the only player exchange deal between those two clubs this summer, with Antoine Griezmann potentially London-bound for a fee of £35m plus Mohamed Salah (though the Egyptian is also wanted – perhaps less temptingly – by West Ham), and José Mourinho is so excited by the whole swap thing he could let Oscar move to Turin as part of a deal to bring Juventus’s Paul Pogba to London. And to briefly return to the subject of Di María, “a United source” has told another tabloid that “he isn’t for sale and it doesn’t matter who might be interested in him”, but left the door delightfully ajar for suitors and rumourmongers by admitting “if he thinks otherwise, the situation might change”.
Back, though, to Chelsea, who have already identified a left-back to replace Filipe Luís, in the shape of Augsburg’s Ghanaian international Baba Rahman. They are ready to pay £10.7m for the 20-year-old, but his current employers value him closer to £15m. Also on Chelsea’s radar is the Partizan Belgrade winger Andrija Zivkovic, who has already captained his club at 18.
Real Madrid are busy shortlisting candidates to replace another apparently Manchester-bound player, Sergio Ramos – for whom they have now received a bid of either £30m or £35m, depending on who you ask – and Laurent Koscielny appears to be high on their list, with the Spaniards prepared to spend as much as £21m on the Arsenal centre-back. The Gunners might also soon be waving farewell to Yaya Sanogo, who is a loan target for Lille.
Liverpool are still shopping, despite the arrival of Roberto Firmino and much-reported increased offer for Nathaniel Clyne, with the Sevilla striker Carlos Bacca their latest target. The Colombian forward has a temptingly low release clause of around £21.5m and Liverpool are not the only ones to know about it, with Manchester United and Roma also interested. Zenit St Petersburg’s Salomon Rondon, who plays in Russia but is not originally from there, and Real Madrid’s Denis Cheryshev, who does not play in Russia but is originally from there, are also among Liverpool’s potential targets.
Xherdan Shaqiri’s San Siro hell is set to be ended, with Stoke riding to his rescue waving a first-class plane ticket and a cheque for £9m. The Swiss wing wonder only moved to Internazionale in January, but has already decided that it was all a terrible mistake and will take any reasonable offer that comes his way. Stoke could fund their bid by selling Steven Nzonzi to Leicester for £7m – Sevilla are also interested, and could offer the continental competition the player apparently desires, but the Spaniards have so far bid a miserly £3m and need to pull their fingers – and indeed their wallets – out if they are to get their man.
Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin not only wants to leave the club, but he apparently wants to complete his move in the next five days. The Mill is not sure what’s happening on Tuesday that’s so important. Spurs, Arsenal and Manchester United are all interested. Similarly Rotherham would like to sign Blackburn’s out-of-contract midfielder Chris Taylor, but want the deal done by the weekend.
Newcastle’s Papiss Cissé and Cheick Tioté are both being targeted by Turkish Super Lig outfit Trabzonspor, who are seriously pondering a £14m double swoop. While in perhaps the least surprising transfer rumour of the day, Watford are linked with some players based in Italy. Apparently £8m might be enough to get them Inter’s Serbian midfielder Zdravko Kuzmanovic and their former Newcastle full-back Davide Santon – who, like Shaqiri, only signed in January, when something must have gone very seriously wrong with their player-welcoming procedures. Meanwhile Etienne Capoue has apparently “told pals” that he’s heading for Hertfordshire.
Hull are ready and willing to sell Abel Hernández, but are a bit miffed that nobody seems to be interested in anything more than a loan signing. Genoa, Sampdoria and Chievo are all said to be interested on the four-goal coolshot, but Hull are demanding they shell out £6.5m – £3.5m less than the £10m they paid to sign him from Palermo last year – for a permanent deal.
West Brom are considering smashing their record transfer deal and offering the highest wages in their history in an effort to entice a big-name striker to head for the Hawthorns. Less encouragingly, the subject of their advances is 30-year-old former Chelsea irrelevance Demba Ba.
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