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Gossip: Chelsea 'want Barkley and Morata', West Ham 'target Muriel', Karanka 'facing Boro sack'

Morata, Barkley and Muriel - all wanted men
Morata, Barkley and Muriel – all wanted men

Sure, Chelsea might try to sign Romelu Lukaku from Everton, but where would be the fun in that? They’ve already signed him once. No, the Blues want to make their transfers a bit more interesting than that, so they have come up with the simple solution of signing Lukaku AND Ross Barkley at the same time, just for the craic.

The Telegraph reports that Antonio Conte is planning a £100m double bid for the Toffees’ top two attacking players – a move that will be easily funded by the ridiculous sums Chelsea have been receiving from weird Chinese clubs.

Shanghai SIPG already gave them £60m for Oscar for no reason, and the Blues are set to receive even more than that by selling Diego Costa to Tianjin Quanjian. The Sun says the Spanish Brazilian striker is keen on a move to Real Madrid, where he fancies himself as the successor to Karim Benzema, but the Spanish giants are unlikely to match the literally stupid £127m fee the Chinese are reportedly willing to spend on him.

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All of which will leave Chelsea with the cash to sign as many new forwards as they like. So, in addition to Lukaku (and Barkley), the Sun says they are going to spend £35m on Real’s Alvaro Morata too.

The Blues have also been “joined” by Manchester United in the race to sign Celtic striker Moussa Dembele for “at least £30m”, says the Independent. Whatever happens, it’s safe to say things aren’t looking good for Loic Remy.

Aitor Karanka fears the sack at Middlesbrough
Aitor Karanka fears the sack at Middlesbrough

West Ham’s seemingly endless search for a striker has led them to Sampdoria’s Luis Muriel – a 25-year-old Colombian international with a £24m release clause in his contract (Mirror).

Muriel has insisted he is “happy” at Sampdoria but added, “I’ve had several offers from Juventus, Inter, Milan and Roma in Italy, but also from abroad — in Spain and England.” All right mate, no need to show off.

Read more: Chelsea ‘to offer £100m for Lukaku’

Liverpool want to spend £20m on Bayer Leverkusen’s 20-year-old winger Julian Brandt, says the Mirror, but Bayern Munich apparently want him too so Hot Football Transfer Gossip suspects he’ll just go there instead.

The Reds are also keen on 21-year-old RB Leipzig striker Timo Weiner, according to the Mail. Basically, everyone is linking Liverpool with German players just because they have a German manager.

Elsewhere, Middlesbrough manager Aitor Karanka will be sacked if his side “don’t peform” against Man Utd this weekend (Star), Arsenal are tracking Stuttgart’s “Turkish wonderkid midfielder” Berkay Ozcan but Gunners fans would prefer them to sign Monaco’s Kylian Mbappe because he’s the “next Thierry Henry” (Mirror) and Barcelona are aiming to sign Borussia Dortmund’s teenage attacking sensation Ousmane Dembele in the summer (Mundo Deportivo). The same teenage attacking sensation Tottenham allegedly passed up the chance to sign him for £1m a couple of years ago. Oh well.

@darlingkevin