Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Man City ‘want £18m for Nasri’, Arsenal ‘chase Icardi and Evans’, Everton ‘bid for Bolasie’

Remember Samir Nasri? You know, he used to play for Arsenal, and France. Then he went to Manchester City (the Arsenal fans didn’t like that) and he won the league a couple of times actually, so that showed those Arsenal fans.

After that he kind of vanished. Which is why Pep Guardiola got quite the fright when the midfielder recently rocked up for City’s pre-season training, looking a bit chubby by all accounts.

In any case, Guardiola just ushered the Frenchman away and ordered his henchman to find him a new club. (Interesting, Frenchman rhymes with henchman - any hip-hoppers out there might want to make a note of that.)

So this leaves us with a scenario where City are looking for a club who a) have not forgotten Nasri exists and b) want to buy him for £18m. At least, that’s the price tag quoted in the Daily Star.

The tabloid has further entertaining details of Nasri’s recent travails, claiming that Guardiola put him in a “fat camp” and “made him run laps of the pitch on his own”, adding that Nasri has been spotted “clowning around” in Las Vegas with his mates. Clowning around is an excellent phrase.

What the Star doesn’t disclose, however, is the name of the single club that want to buy Nasri. For that, we have to go Sky Sports, who say AC Milan, Inter Milan and Roma are all interested in the formerly hench Frenchman.

He’s obviously still big in Italy then. Maybe that’s where he’s been? Appearing on the Italian X-Factor, perhaps.

Nasri’s old pals Arsenal, who have been muddling on in his absence for the past five years with limited success, also loom large in today’s Hot Football Transfer Gossip.

The Mirror says Arsene Wenger is determined to buy either Shkodran Mustafi or Jonny Evans by the weekend or he will be sad, while Gazzetta dello Sport claims the Gunners are still trying to buy Mauro Icardo from Inter and have offered Olivier Giroud in part-exchange. Not sure whether that sweetens the deal or not.

Chelsea are also interested in Icardi (Star), although they might just be saying that to make Romelu Lukaku jealous. The Express says the Blues are prepared to wait until transfer deadline day to sign the big Belgian.

Elsewhere, Everton have had an £18m bid rejected for Crystal Palace winger Yannick Bolasie (Guardian), Leicester are closing in on a £12.5m deal for Deportivo La Coruna striker Lucas Perez (Leicester Mercury) and Besiktas have denied any interest in Liverpool strikers Christian Benteke and Mario Balotelli (Talksport). The Reds hierarchy were obviously hoping the Turkish club would never get wind of all the rumours they’ve been creating in the UK gossip pages to drum up interest.

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