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Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Arsenal 'want £50m Morata', Atletico 'target Premier League trio'
Alvaro Morata has now been linked with a move to the Premier League so many times that – if he ends up never actually moving to the Premier League during his career – we will all lose a little bit of faith in humanity.
So yes, the stakes are high. But then the risks should also be low. The revelation in today’s Sun that Arsenal have joined the race to sign the Real Madrid striker is – according to meticulous data kept by Hot Football Transfer Gossip in an Excel spreadsheet – the 3,547th time that Morata has been tipped to move to England in the past two seasons.
READ MORE: Gossip – Shocking Sanchez swap deal, Conte talks and more
Surely, not all those stories could have made up? There must be a grain of truth somewhere amid this relentless barrage of sensationalist tabloidese. But then, it was the same with Edinson Cavani. And did he come to England? No.
But for now, our faith in mankind remains intact, and we are perfectly willing to believe that the Gunners will compete with Chelsea and Manchester United for the services of Morata this summer.
The Sun explains that Morata would prefer to join the Blues, but there is apparently a difference opinion at Stamford Bridge about whether the club should sign the Spaniard or Everton’s Romelu Lukaku.
This uncertainty could pave the way for Arsene Wenger to make a club record £50m swoop for the 23-year-old, although he would still face competition from his old mate Jose Mourinho.
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Meanwhile, Chelsea and Arsenal could both lose players to Atletico Madrid, who the Mail says are targeting Alexis Sanchez and Diego Costa as replacements for Antoine Griezmann. The Frenchman has been heavily linked with Man Utd, although that probably means they aren’t really interested in signing Morata. Grrr.
Atletico are also tipped, by the Independent, to swoop for Leicester striker Jamie Vardy, which would be good news for the people making that movie about him as things have been getting a bit boring lately.
Chelsea will battle Tottenham to sign Bournemouth right-back Adam Smith, claims the Sun. The Blues have reportedly sent scouts to watch the 26-year-old, who was released by Spurs in 2014 after making one appearance for them in five years. So he might be a bit sceptical about going back there.
Spurs and Chelsea are also competing to keep their manager. Inter Milan have allegedly offered to double Mauricio Pochettino’s salary to lure him from White Hart Lane to Serie A (Football Italia), while Antonio Conte has demanded a huge pay rise to stay with the Blues amid interest from the newly rich Italians (Mirror).
Elsewhere, Wolves manager Paul Lambert could quit over a proposal to give “Super Agent” Jorge Mendes control over the club’s transfers (Telegraph), Brighton have identified Liverpool’s Lucas Leiva as the man to make to make their top flight return a success (Mirror) and it has been revealed that Mario Balotelli’s Anfield contract contained a clause that earned him a £1m bonus if he avoided getting sent off three times in a season (Mail). The funniest part being that he barely played enough games to be sent off three times in a season.
