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Gossip: Man Utd go 'all-out' for Morata as Ronaldo 'makes peace' with Real Madrid

Morata, Iheanacho and Bakayoko are all in demand
Morata, Iheanacho and Bakayoko are all in demand

Cristiano Ronaldo’s flirtations with his old flame Manchester United were fun while they lasted – so dangerous, so sexy. But now his regular partner, Real Madrid, has put his foot down.

Real was feeling a bit insecure about the whole thing and wondering whether Cristiano really did fancy United more, so it has made a public declaration of love for CR7, and this appears to have patched up any difficulties in the relationship, leaving United feeling so silly for allowing themselves to fantasise about getting back together with Cristiano again. Some boys just never change – they should have known that – and Real has always been the one he really wanted. Silly, silly.

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But anyway, it’s OK. Because now this is over they can focus on Alvaro. It’s for the best, really. Alvaro is so sweet and reliable, such a nice guy – nothing like Cristiano. And he’s younger, too. But most important of all, he is actually willing to make a commitment. He doesn’t just play games. Apart from the game of football – he’s good at that. Which is why they liked him in the first place.

And so to cut a long story short, the Sun reports that United are ready to go “all-out” to sign Morata after Ronaldo decided to “make peace” with Real Madrid after he received the public backing of Florentino Perez over a £13m tax fraud charge.

This “U-turn” appears to end United’s hopes of landing the player they sold for £80m eight years ago, so they’ll just buy Morata, which is what they were going to do all along before Ronaldo threw his toys out of the pram.

As the tabloid explains, “Alarm bells had started to ring at United when they heard Ronaldo wanted out of Madrid and a move back to United”.

And this misunderstanding and misuse of a common English idiom is just one of many examples of what a terrible paper the Sun is.

The next Paul Pogba

Moving on, the Star says Diego Costa is ready to “dig his heels in” and stay at Chelsea if they don’t let him join Atletico Madrid, which is the only place he wants to go. And since receiving that text message from Blues manager Antonio Conte saying he was no longer wanted at Stamford Bridge, Diego kind of knows Chelsea can’t stand in his way. See, he’s not just a pretty face.

Meanwhile, the Blues are “close” to signing Monaco midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko for £35m and his arrival will pave the way for Nemanja Matic to reunite with Jose Mourinho at Man Utd (Mail).

There are a couple of intriguing Barcelona-based rumours around. The first is that the Catalan giants have received a £31m offer for midfielder Andre Gomes for an “unnamed Premier League club” (Metro). It doesn’t really matter who it is, because they don’t want to sell him.

Even better than that, Goal claims Barca want to sign Tottenham reject Paulinho, who has been looking a lot less rubbish since he moved to Guangzhou Evergrande in 2015. But then, we would all look less rubbish if we played for Guangzhou Evergrande.

Elsewhere, Leicester are plotting a £25m move for Manchester City striker Kelechi Iheanacho as Foxes manager Craig Shakespeare aims to “spend big” this summer (Telegraph), Aston Villa are in “pole position” to sign free agent John Terry on a £60,000-a-week deal (Sun) and Man Utd are on the verge of beating Man City to the signing of Paris Saint-Germain starlet Aliou Badara Troare (Mirror). The 16-year-old midfielder has been described as “the next Paul Pogba”. So United will probably let him leave for nothing in a couple of years and then spend a fortune buying him back.

@darlingkevin