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Gossip: Man City 'hijack Real Madrid's Mbappe bid', Barcelona 'step up Coutinho chase', Arsenal 'on verge of £45m Lemar deal'
So-called “special relationships” can be formed over many years, like the one between Great Britain and the United States, or almost overnight, like the one between Kem and Amber on Love Island. But the one thing they frequently share in common is an underlying shadiness borne of mutually self-serving motives – and that may also be true of Manchester City’s fledgling friendship with Monaco.
So far, this summer fling has involved some Emirati billionaires giving a Russian billionaire £95m for a couple of players, but the affair could be about to get even sexier. The Mirror reports that City are trying to complete of trio of purchases from the principality by giving the Russian billionaire another £143m for Kylian Mbappe.
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Although the 18-year-old has been repeatedly linked with Real Madrid, City chiefs have reportedly held “advanced talks” with Monaco and are confident they can “hijack” the deal. They already have Dmitry Rybolovlev’s (that’s the Russian billionaire) bank details in their phone so they can just transfer the dosh over as soon as he gives them the OK. Easy peasy.
City may as well buy Thomas Lemar too while they’re at it, just because it would annoy Arsene Wenger and it would be funny. The timing would be especially amusing because the Sun reports that the Arsenal manager “finally” believes he has secured a £45m deal to bring the 21-year-old winger to north London.
Ghanaian hardman
Liverpool have been faced with the terrifying sight of a posse of sunglasses-wearing Barcelona “officials” rocking up on Merseyside with the sole purpose of taking Philippe Coutinho back to Spain with them, reports the Express.
The visit comes after the Reds turned down a £72m offer for the Brazilian playmaker last week and insisted that their star man is not for sale. However, the sunglasses-wearing posse intend to make Liverpool an offer they can’t refuse, which the Express speculates could be in the region of £89m.
Manchester United are still trying to sign Ivan Perisic from Inter Milan, but the Mirror reports that the Red Devils are having to wait for the Italian side to “line up” their own transfer targets first.
Inter are keen to replace Perisic with Lazio forward Keita Balde but they face competition from West Ham for the 22-year-old Senegalese international, which must be very intimidating for them.
Meanwhile, the Express says unsettled Bayern Munich midfielder Renato Sanches was not on United’s list of transfer targets at the start of the summer. But now he is.
Elsewhere, Huddersfield are eyeing up a £4.5m move for Udinese’s Ghanaian “hardman” Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu (Sun), West Brom are set to offer £20m for Middlesbrough defender Ben Gibson after having two previous bids rejected (Mirror) and Stoke City are “not expected to move for Arsenal’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain” (Stoke Sentinel). They are also not expected to move for Alexis Sanchez, Sergio Aguero or Tonton Zola Moukoko. Just in case you were wondering.
