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Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Chelsea want Neves, Man Utd want Kroos

FC Porto fans are tremendously excited at the moment about their 18-year-old midfielder Ruben Neves. A local boy hailing from the small town of Mozelos, just outside the city, Neves has been at the club since he was a cherubic little eight-year-old lad. He grew up with FC Porto, playing across every age group until he made his senior debut aged 17 years and five months. Not only was he the club’s youngest player ever to start a league a match - he scored too, receiving the biggest cheer of the night in a 2-0 win against Maritimo. It was one of those magical moments when the fans could acclaim a player they knew the club had nurtured since childhood, and their love for the youngster grew as he established himself in the first team. This week, Neves starred in a defensive midfield role as Porto beat Chelsea - the club managed by their former boss Jose Mourinho - in one of their great European nights.

And according to the Evening Standard, Chelsea were so impressed that they’ve decided to buy him. Just like that, 10 years at Porto will be conquered by one night with the wealthy Blues.

Neves will probably go onto to make 500 appearances in his career - he’s made 41 so far - but it already seems as if Porto fans will have to watch those from afar. Neves has a £29m release clause in his contract, but Chelsea won’t care about that. If he’s worth it. they’ll pay it. If he isn’t, they can just buy him for less. Whether he’d make it at Stamford Bridge is highly questionable, but the footballing markets have already decided that he’s too good for his childhood club, despite being just a teenager.

Trying to move away from depressing tales that demonstrate everything that is wrong with football today, let’s focus on Manchester United, who have been linked by the Mirror with a swoop for Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos. Transfer speculation aficionados will remember that Louis van Gaal allegedly turned down the chance to sign Kroos last summer after the deal had been set up by his predecessor David Moyes, so we’ll believe this one when LVG comes out and publicly admits that Moyes is cleverer than him.

It has also been reported by the Manchester Evening News that United were “out-bid” for Anthony Martial by a “mystery club” but that the French teenager - who everyone said was already overpriced - opted to move to Old Trafford. Given that United’s offer was an eye-watering £58m, we can only assume that the mystery party bidding even more was some kind of drunk Texan oil billionaire.

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