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Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Messi to Man City, Morata to Arsenal, Witsel to Spurs
You’re plummeting out of the top four, you have no good defenders and squad self-esteem is lower than ever, so what do you do? If you’re moneybags Manchester City, the solution is obvious: buy Lionel Messi.
According to the Daily Mail, club chiefs at the Etihad believe Pep Guardiola will “give them the edge” in their pursuit of the Argentinian superstar. Hmm. You’d imagine that Barcelona’s guarantee of Champions League football and playing in the world’s best squad might simultaneously give them “the edge” in keeping him.
But City retain hope that one day, they will have Messi instead of Wilfried Bony leading their attack. The Mail makes the case that Guardiola is Messi’s “friend”, while City’s chief executive Ferran Soriano “has known Messi for a long time”. Wow - it’s a wonder Messi hasn’t already moved to Manchester, just to spend more quality time with these guys.
The paper adds that City believe Guardiola “will give them a significant advantage in transfer negotiations for any Barcelona player”. Yeah, because he signed all those Barca players for Bayern Munich, like Thiago Alcantara and… that’s it.
A more solid-sounding transfer rumour - or at least one about a more solid-sounding player - appears in the Sun, which reports that Arsenal are set to tie up a £33.7m deal for Granit Xhaka - the Swiss midfielder named after a rock.
The tabloid says the Gunners are prepared to pay the 24-year-old Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder £120,000 a week after Arsene Wenger had a conversation with his father Ragip Xhaka, whose name is disappointing un-rocklike.
Arsenal are also being tipped by Spanish paper AS to sign Juventus striker Alvaro Morata from Real Madrid, and that isn’t a typo. Real are reportedly planning to activate a £24m buyback clause on their former player, before immediately selling him to the Gunners for £40m, which sounds like good business in anyone’s book (except Juve’s).
Leaving the Emirates, however, could be Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who the Mirror says is a target for Southampton - the club he left as a 17-year-old. Saints are apparently prepared to offer Arsenal about the same amount they received for him in 2011 - £15m - to bring the midfielder back to St Mary’s.
Elsewhere, Liverpool are interested in Roma attacking midfielder Leandro Paredes (Express), Chelsea’s John Obi Mikel will consider a move to the Chinese Super League in the summer (Standard) and West Ham are again being linked with a move for Christian Benteke (Mirror).
Finally, in transfer news about players with excellent afros, Tottenham target Alex Witsel says he wants to leave Zenit St Petersburg in the summer (Standard) and Manchester United are winning the race to sign hairy Dutch wonderkid Tahith Chong (Manchester Evening News).
