Gossip: Chelsea and Tottenham 'battle' for midfielder and Pogba's 'secret meeting' with Barcelona
Anyone who enjoyed Chelsea and Tottenham’s protracted battle to sign young English creative midfielder Ross Barkley will be particularly excited about the sequel to this transfer epic.
It’s Chelsea v Tottenham For Young English Creative Midfielder II: The Jack Grealish Story (working title)
The Sun reports that the Blues are attempting to hijack their London rivals’ attempts to sign the Aston Villa starlet, which would serve Spurs chairman Daniel Levy right after he spent the last few weeks trying to profit from Villa’s financial woes by getting Grealish on the cheap.
But Villa’s recent takeover – and consequent easing of financial woes – has changed the complexion of the transfer, and Chelsea are now allegedly willing to pay £20m to bring the 22-year-old Brummie to Stamford Bridge.
The move apparently has the “seal of approval” from Blues legend John Terry, who was “impressed” with Grealish when they played together at Villa Park last season.
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And hopefully the climax of this blockbuster will be more interesting than the Ross Barkley one, which involved the former Everton man choosing Chelsea and subsequently not playing any football ever.
Tottenham move for Lewis Cook
Chelsea’s pursuit of Grealish could explain the Star’s story about Tottenham swooping for another young, creative English midfielder: man like Lewis Cook of Bournemouth.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino is apparently “eyeing a £30m raid” for the 21-year-old, who the Cherries signed from Leeds for £7m two years ago.
Pochettino has yet to make a summer signing, and the Star says he could face competition from Liverpool for Cook, once again reducing chairman Levy’s haggling opportunities.
Yerry Mina or Marcos Rojo? That is the question Manchester United and Everton have been asking themselves, and they have both come up with a different answer.
The Mirror says the Red Devils are set to sell Rojo to fund a move for Barcelona defender Mina, with transfer guru Ed Woodward travelling to Catalonia to tie up a £35m deal for the 23-year-old Colombian centre-back.
The Toffees, however, are not willing to meet Barca’s valuation and will instead move for United defender Rojo (Goal). The Argentine does allegedly have a £30m price tag too though, so he is not exactly a bargain.
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Meanwhile, Barca’s technical director Eric Abidal has denied claims made in Italian media that he held a “secret meeting” with Man Utd midfielder Paul Pogba about a potential transfer to the Nou Camp (Mundo Deportivo). But then if it was a secret meeting, he would say that wouldn’t he?
Elsewhere, Chelsea are “not giving up” on signing striker Gonzalo Higuain from Juventus despite reports that the Argentine’s loan move to AC Milan is almost complete (Mirror), Bayer Leverkusen have made contact with Tottenham about signing their 19-year-old English midfielder Marcus Edwards (Sun) and Real Madrid and Croatia midfielder Mateo Kovacic will reject a move to Man Utd because he does not want to play under Reds boss Jose Mourinho (Marca). He’s much nicer in person Mateo, honest.
