Advertisement

Gossip: Ronaldo 'insulted' by £88m price tag, Man Utd 'target Shaqiri', Chelsea 'agree Higuain deal'

Cristiano Ronaldo, Gonzalo Higuain and Xherdan Shaqiri could be set for big-money transfers this summer
Cristiano Ronaldo, Gonzalo Higuain and Xherdan Shaqiri could be set for big-money transfers this summer

Is a BMW cheaper than a Ford Fiesta? Is the Maldives cheaper than Center Parcs? Is Alpen cheaper than Tesco Swiss Style Muesli?

Of course not – they are more expensive because they are better. So why the hell is Cristiano Ronaldo cheaper than some other footballers?

These are the questions being asked today by Cristiano Ronaldo (and no one else, incidentally) after Juventus offered €100m (£88m) to sign him from Real Madrid.

READ MORE: Modric is our leader but our team is most important

READ MORE: England similar to Spain’s 2010 World Cup winner – Garcia

READ MORE: Revealed – Jordan Pickford’s secret water bottle helped beat Colombia

While the European champions consider the bid, Spanish paper Marca reports that the deal is “in jeopardy” because the Portuguese forward is “insulted” by the size of his proposed transfer fee.

“If I’m worth €100m, it means that they don’t want me”, he is paraphrased as saying on the paper’s front cover – although it’s not totally clear if he’s referring to Real or Juve or both of them (probably both of them).

The fee would indeed make him cheaper than six other footballers in the world: Neymar (€222m), Kylian Mbappe (€180m), Philippe Coutinho (€160m), Ousmane Dembele (€150m), Paul Pogba (€105m) and – by an infuriating whisker – Gareth Bale (€100.8m). This makes no sense to Cristiano, who is roughly five times’ better than all of them (and also roughly five times’ older, by the way).

SLIDESHOW: The stadiums of the Russian World Cup (Click image below)


To refuse a transfer on this basis, however, would rather seem like cutting off his nose to spite his exquisitely smooth face.

Therefore, he is still being tipped to begrudgingly go through with the thing – despite the injustice of it all – and is reportedly “house hunting in Turin”. At least if he ends up with a more expensive house than Gareth Bale that will be something.

Man Utd ponder move for Xherdan Shaqiri

In other stuff, Ronaldo’s former club Manchester United have allegedly joined the race to sign Stoke City’s Xherdan Shaqiri. The Sun says Red Devils manager Jose Mourinho is “considering a move” for the Swiss winger, who is available for a cut-price £12m following the Potters’ relegation.

Mourinho has apparently “told friends” that he was impressed by Shaqiri’s performances for Switzerland at the World Cup, and those friends have evidently gone and told the Sun about it – the snakes.

Shaqiri is said to be “keen” on the move, which is not a great shock given that Stoke’s next home game is against Brentford.


Gonzalo Higuain nears Chelsea switch

Meanwhile, Chelsea have reached an agreement with the aforementioned Juventus to sign Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain for £53m and will complete the deal as soon as Maurizio Sarri takes over as Blues manager, according to Italian outlet Sport Mediaset.

As for Higuain’s troubled national side, AS reports that Argentina want Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola to be their next manager.

And Sheffield Wednesday want Pep Guardiola to be their next manager too. Just saying.

Elsewhere, Arsenal manager Unai Emery is willing to sell players to fund a move for Barcelona’s £30m-rated Portuguese midfielder Andre Gomes (Independent), Everton have made contact with Barca about signing their Colombian centre-back Yerry Mina after his impressive display against England (Liverpool Echo) and Newcastle have been told they would have to “break their transfer record” to sign Nice striker Alassane Plea (Northern Echo). Which is unsurprising given that they haven’t broken it since they signed Michael Owen 16 goddamn years ago.

@darlingkevin