Gossip: Real Madrid 'contact Pochettino', Man Utd 'target £50m defender', West Ham 'want Deeney'
“You never know what will happen in football” – the eight little words that strike fear into fans like no other.
On the face of it a sentence so innocuous, so meaningless, so obvious; yet in reality so often the precursor to some kind of devastating revelation.
It’s the intentionally ambiguous phrase spoken by the player (or manager) who is plotting something diabolical – and it has just emanated from the thin, stubble-framed lips of Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino.
He’s right, of course. You do never know what will happen in football. Newport might beat Tottenham in the FA Cup today; or Tottenham might beat Newport. Harry Kane might score a goal; or Harry Kane might be attacked by seagulls on his way to the game and be ruled out of the World Cup. Mauricio Pochettino might win Manager of the Year; or Mauricio Pochettino might go to Real Madrid.
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Oh no! Mauricio Pochettino might go to Real Madrid!
The Poch might not know what will happen in football, but the Daily Mail claims to. The paper reports that the European champions have made the Argentine their “first choice” to replace the increasingly beleaguered Zinedine Zidane in the Bernabeu hotseat and have “made contact with the manager’s associates”.
It’s not clear exactly what an “associate” is, but it doesn’t sound good for Spurs, with Pochettino allegedly “tempted” by the possibility of working in Madrid.
But you never know what will happen in football. Maybe they will replace Zidane with Gerry Francis instead.
Real want Hazard, De Gea and Kane
If it makes Spurs fans feel any better, it’s not just their team that faces the prospect of being ransacked by Madrid this summer.
The Mail says Real are simultaneously planning an “incredible £500m splurge” to sign Chelsea’s Eden Hazard (£200m), Manchester United’s David de Gea (£100m) and (oh, sorry Spurs fans) Tottenham’s Harry Kane (£200m).
In less bombastic news, Arsenal are still trying to sign Jonny Evans from West Brom, with the Sun claiming the Gunners will need to bid “in excess of £25m” to land the Northern Irish centre-back.
Amusingly, the Star claims Arsenal have offered the Baggies a part-exchange deal comprised of “£10m plus Mathieu Debuchy”. All they need to do now is convince Alan Pardew that Debuchy is worth £15m. It is an inflated market, Alan.
Another rather expensive-sounding full-back is Napoli’s Faouzi Ghoulam, who has a £52.6m release clause that Man Utd are reportedly willing to pay (Mirror). So maybe Jose Mourinho doesn’t love Luke Shaw that much after all.
Meanwhile, West Ham are set to turn to Watford’s Troy Deeney if they fail to land Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge (Sun), which they probably won’t because the Reds have apparently agreed a deal to send him to Inter Milan on loan (Mirror).
Elsewhere, Manchester City have “agreed” a club-record £57m deal to sign Athletic Bilbao centre-back Aymeric Laporte (Guardian), Newcastle have been told to pay at least £21.9m if they want to sign the Feyenoord centre-forward Nicolai Jorgensen (Northern Echo) and Chelsea manager Antonio Conte’s relationship with director Marina Granovskaia has become so bad that they no longer speak to each other directly and only communicate via an Italian device known as “Carlo Cudicini” (Sun). It’ll never catch on like the iPhone.
