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Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Kalinic 'could scupper Rooney move', Man City 'want Oxlade'Chamberlain', Milan 'target Sanchez and Aguero'

So what would be embarrassing is if Manchester United tell Wayne Rooney he can go to China, and he decides to go, and then he can’t actually find a club that wants him.

Hot Football Transfer Gossip isn’t sure exactly what is going on down there at Tianjin Quanjian, but
they’re clearly not shy about throwing some cash at the forthcoming Chinese Super League season.

Axel Witsel (£300,000 a week) has taken up one of their overseas player spots and Alexandre Pato (£15m transfer fee – lolz) is in the second, which means there is one golden ticket left for another footballer willing to prioritise money over their footballing legacy.

Will it be Rooney? Maybe, says the Mirror, but also maybe not.

While United have given their skipper the green light to move to the Far East this month if he wants, it appears he has a couple of rivals for that golden ticket – namely Borussia Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Fiorentina’s Nikola Kalinic (yes, the same one who used to play for Blackburn and was a bit rubbish).

Tianjin Quanjian manager Fabio Cannavaro, whose blood runs sky blue and mauve (those being the colours of Tianjin Quanjian, as you know), has revealed he has had a “chat” with Rooney but that the England captain “doesn’t suit our style of play” (would that be the famous Tianjin Quanjian Way?).

Cannavaro added that he’d prefer to sign Aubameyang, but Dortmund won’t let him leave, so his “prime target” is now Kalinic, which would appear to leave Rooney as his third-choice back-up option. Not the most auspicious moment for United’s record scorer.

Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola’s fascination with players who can’t hold down a regular place in Arsenal’s midfield continues. After recently being linked with a move for Jack Wilshere, Manchester City are now being tipped by the Mirror to make a move for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.


Pep was apparently impressed by the Ox’s display against Bayern Munich “two and a half years ago”. Right. Everton are also said to be interested.

AC Milan have even more ambitious transfer plans than Tianjin Quanjian, with the Express reporting that the Italian giants are keen to sign Alexis Sanchez, Sergio Aguero and Alvaro Morata this summer after being taken over by a Chinese consortium.

Liverpool’s summer transfer plans could be scuppered by sexier clubs, with Real Madrid joining the race for Bayer Leverkusen’s 20-year-old midfielder – and Reds target – Julian Brandt (Mail) and Borussia Monchegladbach’s Mahmoud Dahoud being tipped to sign for Dortmund instead of moving to Anfield (Talksport).

Jurgen Klopp may have better luck trying to lure Pedro Obiang from West Ham, with the Sun suggesting that the German coach has been “impressed” by the Spanish midfielder this season and is lining up an £18m offer.

Elsewhere, Man Utd are set to offload Daley Blind and replace him with Benfica’s Victor Lindelof (Sun), Chelsea want to sign Inter Milan’s Croatian midfielder Ivan Perisic for £29.5m (Star) and Man City defender Nicolas Otamendi will be a summer transfer target for Real Madrid, according to his agent (Independent). A bit of optimism never hurt anyone.

@darlingkevin