Gossip: Man Utd's £200m transfer plan revealed, Kane to Arsenal claim, incredible Aubameyang bonuses leaked
You probably don’t take much notice of the Metro unless you’re enduring an especially boring journey on public transport and you find a rolled up copy of it on the seat next to you. But today it has excelled itself by claiming to know everything there is to know about Manchester United’s summer transfer plans.
According to Metro.co.uk, which appears to be making a concerted effort to distinguish itself from the aforementioned free newspaper by proudly naming itself after an actual URL, Jose Mourinho is planning a “£150m spending spree” but is planning to top up that figure by selling three or possibly four players.
These include Jose’s least favourite man Luke Shaw, for whom the Red Devils may be forced to accept £18m due to his £130,000 wages, with Tottenham and Everton interested.
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Meanwhile, Matteo Darmian is set to join Juventus, although the Italians are not prepared to meet the £15m asking price, Daley Blind is wanted by Roma and Marouane Fellaini will leave Old Trafford unless United increase their latest contract offer of £145,000 a week. He can’t be expected to live on that.
Altogether, the Metro calculates that these sales will remove more than £20m from the wage bill, plus adding around £50m to the transfer budget, giving Mourinho more chance of landing his top targets.
These are Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, the £80m-rated Lazio midfielder, Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Fred and a replacement for Shaw, with Tottenham’s Danny Rose and Juve’s Alex Sandro the preferred choices. So now you know everything, unless Metro.co.uk is wrong.
Kane to join Arsenal for £100m?
Arsene Wenger has signed off his final pre-match press conference in style by saying Tottenham could be forced to sell Harry Kane to Arsenal for £100m to help pay for their new stadium – prompting all the tabloids to report the laughable claim as fact on their back pages.
The future of Spurs defender Toby Alderweireld is also set to come to a head, with Sky Sports claiming the Belgian is set for some showdown talks with manager Mauricio Pochettino amid interest from Chelsea, Man Utd and Paris Saint-Germain.
Meanwhile, German paper Der Spiegel has revealed some of the staggering wages and bonuses earned by Premier League players.
Among the leaked information includes claims that Alexis Sanchez was paid a £6.7m signing on fee to join Manchester United, on top of his £391,000 wages, while the Chilean gets another £75,000 every time he starts plus an annual signing on fee of £1.1m.
But that’s peanuts compared to the £18.2m Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was paid to leave Borussia Dortmund for Arsenal, in addition to a £15.15m loyalty bonus spread across the four years of his contract, while Henrikh Mkhitaryan got a £8.65m bonus for joining the Gunners and Jack Wilshere earns £50 for every 15 minutes he avoids getting injured.
Elsewhere, Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane has added fuel to speculation he plans to sign Neymar by claiming the Brazilian is “compatible” with Cristiano Ronaldo (Goal), Barcelona defender Yerry Mina has told teammates he will join Liverpool on loan next season (Express) and Sam Allardyce expects to learn “next week” whether he will remain as Everton manager next season (Guardian). But in case you can’t face the tension of waiting Sam, here’s a little spoiler: you won’t.
