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Gossip: Man City identify 'first piece' of transfer rebuild, Man United star 'heading' to Spurs, Liverpool 'target' James Rodriguez

Pep Guardiola, James Rodriguez and Jose Mourinho
Pep Guardiola, James Rodriguez and Jose Mourinho

Daniel Levy knows a good deal when he sees one. Apart from Moussa Sissoko, obviously. And Vincent Janssen. And Roberto Sol… no, stop this isn’t fair.

Levy genuinely does – normally – know a good deal when he sees one. He’s the kind of man who hovers around the reduced to clear section in the supermarket, and bulk buys cartons of Unsweetened Almond Milk when they’re on offer at £1 instead of £1.80, because he knows deep down in his gut that it’s morally wrong to pay £1.80 for a solitary carton of milk, even if it has got nuts in it. What the Tottenham owner seeks is quality, combined with value. And he may be close to a transfer move that perfectly fits that bill. Maybe.

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The Sunday Mirror reports that Spurs are set to engage in some high-level left-back wheeler-dealing that involves selling Danny Rose to Manchester City for £50m and buying Luke Shaw from Manchester United for less than half that amount.

Although Rose is clearly the better player on current form, Shaw is five years younger and arguably more talented. In fact, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that, with the right nurturing, Shaw will be better than Rose in a couple of years (just as he was a couple of years ago). Plus, he comes with a free £30m thrown in.

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The Mirror says Pep Guardiola has identified Rose as “the first part” of his summer rebuilding plan, while Levy is currently building a stadium that costs £750m. So it could be a deal that suits everyone.

Of course, signing Shaw would be a gamble. But when you shop in the reduced section, there’s always an increased element of risk that the product you purchase has started to go off.

In Kylian Mbappe news, the Sunday Express says Monaco’s teen sensation is currently valued at a “bank-busting” £130m. That’s unlikely to put of Manchester United, who have been trying to sign someone that expensive for ages.

The Red Devils have also been linked with a £60m move for Real Madrid’s James Rodriguez by the Manchester Evening News, although the Sunday Mirror suggests the Colombian is in fact most likely to move to Liverpool.

Ronald Koeman will demand a “£100m transfer war chest” if Everton sell Romelu Lukaku and Ross Barkley this summer, claims the Sunday People. Although given that £100m is roughly the amount the Toffees are likely to recoup for those players, that kind of means Koeman isn’t asking for any transfer funds at all. He didn’t think that one through.

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Anyway, the Sun on Sunday says the Toffees are the “frontrunners” to sign Sunderland’s Jordan Pickford and Burnley’s Michael Keane for a combined £40m, so he can at least spend some of his so-called war chest on that.

Elsewhere, Arsenal are targeting Leicester City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel in what the Sunday Mirror describes as “a clear sign that Arsene Wenger is planning to stay” (not sure how they work that out), Inter and AC Milan are set to do battle for Man City’s out-of-contract midfielder Yaya Toure in the sumnmer (Sun on Sunday) and Galatasaray are willing to pay Spurs £15m for attacking flop Vincent Janssen – just £2m less than Spurs paid for him (Mail on Sunday). See, that wasn’t such a bad Levy deal after all.

@darlingkevin