Gossip: Real Madrid 'launch £120m Hazard bid', Man City 'turn to Alexis', Man Utd 'want Griezmann in January'
People should be snuggled up in bed this morning sleeping off their hangovers; not up at the crack of dawn writing transfer rumours. That’s the only legitimate excuse the Sun can have for using the headline “Razzamat-Haz” to describe Real Madrid’s latest bid for the Chelsea playmaker Eden Hazard.
But with January finally upon us, this is the kind of silliness that is liable to happen. As the transfer window SWINGS open today, the tabloid reports that the European champions are poised to make an “opening bid” of £120m for the Belgian, whose dad Thierry recently issued a thinly veiled “come and get me plea” (or whatever the Belgian is for “come and get me plea”) to the Bernabeu on behalf of his son. And yes, Belgian is not a language – I know.
Real boss Zinedine Zidane is apparently planning to use Hazard’s “contract situation” to “make him a Galactico”. It’s not a particularly urgent “situation” though, because the Blues No.10 still has more than two years to run on his current Stamford Bridge deal.
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Nevertheless, the Sun further fuels speculation about Hazard’s future by reporting that he was “dropped to the bench” for Saturday’s 5-0 home win against Stoke. Otherwise known as rested.
However, the Mirror simultaneously reports that Real have “abandoned plans” to sign Hazard due to the emergence of homegrown youngster Marco Asensio. So either someone is lying, or everyone is.
Injury-hit City step up Sanchez chase
Another man you can expect to read a lot of nonsense about this month is Alexis Sanchez, whose chances of remaining at Arsenal throughout the window appear to have diminished after most of Manchester City’s players got injured in yesterday’s draw with Crystal Palace.
The Mirror reports that City boss Pep Guardiola “opened the door” to an imminent move for the Chilean when he stated after the Palace game that, “In terms of what happens, we will have meetings and see what is best.” Although with a comment that vague he could have been referring to literally anything, from transfers to his next Ocado shop.
Meanwhile, Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is still hoping his season can be “salvaged” by Antoine Griezmann.
The Express says the Special One has made an “SOS call” to the Atletico Madrid forward and urged United’s board to trigger the £86m release clause in Frenchman’s contract this month, rather than waiting until the summer.
Griezmann looks like he is on his way to Barcelona though, so he probably sent that SOS call straight to his voicemail.
Elsewhere, Besiktas striker Cenk Tosun will seal a £25m move to Everton this week on a £150,000-a-week contract (Sun), Watford manager Marco Silva is confident of pipping Newcastle to the signing of Leicester City striker Islam Slimani (Mirror) and Bayern Munich have won the race to sign highly rated Schalke midfielder Leon Goretzka for free at the end of the season (Bild). That’s the same Bild which said two days ago that Goretzka was going to Liverpool; they are basically no better than the Sun are they?
