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Gossip: Man Utd and Chelsea 'battle for Perisic', Costa 'wants Atletico move', Southampton 'to sack Puel'
When Jose Mourinho was spotted watching Croatia’s 1-0 win against Ukraine in March, he claimed he was only there to escape “the rainy Manchester weather”, and definitely not because he was interested in signing Croatian midfielder Ivan Perisic. And Hot Football Transfer Gossip believed him, because Jose seems like a nice guy who would not tell lies, and also because it’s true that his olive complexion is poorly suited to the climate of north-west England.
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But a story in today’s Mirror has left us feeling foolish, because it is reported that Mourinho does want to sign Perisic after all. He deceived us!
Not only that, the article adds Manchester United have a “verbal agreement” with the player about a summer move to Old Trafford. In other words, the kind of agreement that could have been reached during a personal visit to Croatia from the United manager. At this stage, it’s unclear when Hot Football Transfer Gossip will be able to trust again.
READ MORE: Monday transfer rumours
None of this necessarily means Mourinho will be successful in his pursuit of the 28-year-old Inter Milan winger though, because the Serie A giants are said to be demanding an “exorbitant” transfer fee of £43.7m that “could put the deal at risk”.
On the plus side for Jose, Inter are reportedly demanding an even higher fee from Chelsea. The Mail says the Blues are also keen on signing Perisic but have been quoted a sum of £48m to take him to Stamford Bridge. Also, there is no mention of any verbal agreement with the Blues. But given that we’ve just learned Mourinho’s word means nothing, that hardly seems to matter.
Radar
Another midfielder on United’s radar, Blaise Matuidi of Paris Saint-Germain, appears to have made some encouraging noises about a move to Old Trafford after refusing to commit his future to the French club.
When asked whether he would be staying at the Parc des Princes, the Mirror reports that Matuidi responded, “Honestly, I don’t want to lie, I don’t know yet.” Mourinho could learn a thing or two from him.
Atletico Madrid’s interest in Diego Costa could “complicate” Chelsea’s recruitment plans because the Spanish side will not pay more than £20m for the striker, whereas the Blues could make almost four times that amount offloading him to China (Independent). And Diego prefers a move back to La Liga. Trust him to be difficult.
West Ham are desperately trying to get their transfer business completed quickly to avoid being left with the dregs like they were last summer. The Hammers have made an opening offer for Manchester City’s £20m-rated striker Kelechi Iheanacho (Mirror) and a £25m cash-plus-player bid for Sunderland goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, with Spanish keeper Adrian thrown in as a makeweight (Newcastle Chronicle).
The paper explains that the Hammers “value Adrian at £6 million and are therefore offering £17 million cash on top of that”. They are also presumably hoping that the Black Cats aren’t very good at maths.
Elsewhere, Man City are confident of beating Man Utd to the signing of Monaco left-back Benjamin Mendy (Express), Southampton manager Claude Puel “expects to be sacked” and has already held secret talks with Ligue 1 side St Etienne (Sun) and Arsene Wenger will “discuss his future” with Arsenal’s board on Tuesday (Express). Come on Gunners fans – one last chance to hire out a plane (just don’t use British Airways).
