Gossip: Man Utd 'offer Martial for Perisic', Juventus 'make £15m Morata bid', Atletico 'target Aguero', everyone loves Jorginho
A lot of things have changed in the last year. Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un have turned from sworn enemies into best friends. Barry Manilow has become officially gay. Mark Noble has developed from nice bloke into Britain’s hardest man.
But one thing that hasn’t altered – not even a little bit – is that Manchester United are still trying to buy Ivan Perisic.
The Express – via Italian lads Calciomercato – reports that the Red Devils are set to renew their interest in the Inter Milan winger after spending all of last summer trying to sign him (and failing).
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But this time they have an ace up their sleeve, or more accurately an Ant in their pants – because United are set to offer Anthony Martial to the Italians in part-exchange.
The Frenchman has been an increasingly peripheral figure in Jose Mourinho’s side, but Inter are interested in taking him as a like-for-like (and significantly younger) replacement for Perisic.
Martial is initially tipped to move to the San Siro on loan, while Perisic’s switch to Manchester would be a permanent one. The Croatian apparently “doesn’t rule out” a move to Old Trafford, which doesn’t tell us much.
Top six chase Jorginho
Man Utd are also keen on Napoli midfielder Jorginho, but the problem is so are Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea.
The Times reports that the Premier League’s entire top six are in a “£53m race” to sign the Italian (who is actually Brazilian), with City “considered the front-runners”. Bet he signs for Burnley.
Juventus have made a £15m bid for Chelsea striker Alvaro Morata, which sounds like a ridiculous sum to offer until we learn that it is only to take him on loan, at which point it sounds like a ridiculous sum in a different way.
The Express says the perennial Serie A champions are extremely keen to re-sign the “troubled 25-year-old” and would give Chelsea another £40m on top of the initial £15m if all goes well in his loan spell.
Another team trying to sign one of their former attacking heros is Atletico Madrid, who the Mail says have launched a “sensational swoop” to buy Sergio Aguero from Man City.
Hindsight
The Europa League finalists are set to “test City’s resolve” to keep the Argentine, who they signed from Atletico for £38m in 2011. Quite a good signing in hindsight, that one.
Meanwhile, Liverpool have identified £40m-rated Bordeaux winger Malcom as a summer signing, says the Mail. The 21-year-old Brazilian winger was linked with Tottenham and Arsenal in January but has apparently made his way onto a “three-man shortlist” of Jurgen Klopp’s attacking targets. The others are Bayer Leverkusen’s Leon Bailey and Christian Pulisic of Borussia Dortmund.
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None of them, however, will be replacements for Mo Salah, who has declared that he will not be leaving Anfield this summer (Mirror).
Elsewhere, Everton are poised to make a £25m move to sign Newcastle captain Jamaal Lascelles (Mirror), newly promoted Wolves are lining up a £33m move for AC Milan striker Andre Silva (Sun) and a £30m move for Sporting Lisbon goalkeeper Rui Patricio (Diario de Noticias) and Yaya Toure will snub offers from China and the Middle East to stay in the Premier League next summer “for less money” (Mail). He only wants £200,000 a week, the hopeless old romantic.
