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Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Neymar, Payet, Busquets, Mourinho, Mahrez

Without being inside Pep Guardiola’s exquisitely bald head, it’s impossible to know for certain who will be his “number one target” when he takes over as Manchester City manager in the summer. But the papers are deriving great enjoyment from guessing. (And then dressing it up as fact, obviously.)

The Sun’s guess isn’t that original. The tabloid states unequivocally that Pep will prioritise the signing of Neymar above all others, having missed out on the Brazilian when he became Bayern Munich boss in 2013. The transfer fee is kind of irrelevant, although it’s been widely reported that Neymar’s get-out clause is £144m and City would be more than happy to pay that. Or double that, whatever.

The Sun adds that Manchester United are set to rival City for the Barcelona star in “a Manchester derby where victory is more important than any game United and City will play on the pitch”. And the tabloid insists that Neymar could be persuaded to leave the Nou Camp. Which we wouldn’t have believed except they wrote COULD in big letters like that.

An alternative theory is that Guardiola wants his first signing to be West Ham midfielder Dimitri Payet, for whom City could be prepared to pay £30m. And that “exclusive” comes from… oh, the Sun as well. So they’ve basically contradicted their own Neymar story. Just to cover all bases, the paper adds that Chelsea and Arsenal are also keen on the 28-year-old Frenchman.

Another player who could be lured to the Etihad is Sergio Busquets, who told ESPN there are “just two people who could make me change my decision to stay at Barcelona”. One is Guardiola, the other is his wife. However, Busquets said he doesn’t think Pep would ever ask him to leave the Nou Camp. It could be a different story if his wife is appointed Man Utd manager, however.

Admittedly, this would be a surprising development, especially to Jose Mourinho, who has apparently “told friends” he expects to take over from Louis van Gaal in the summer, according to the Star. The tabloid adds that rumours of Mourinho’s move to Old Trafford are “rife in football circles” - spheres of influence in which the Star’s reporters are presumably central due to their hugely respected journalism.

Meanwhile, Man Utd are keeping tabs on Athletic Bilbao’s 21-year-old French defender Aymeric Laporte (Manchester Evening News), Paris Saint-Germain are interested in former Newcastle man Hatem Ben Arfa (Daily Mail) and Leicester are set to offer Riyad Mahrez a significant increase on his £35,000-a-week wages (Mail).

Finally, in today’s Chinese Super League transfer news, Loic Remy could be moving to Shanghai Shenhua for £11m (Mirror), Dani Alves has been offered £9.3m a year by an unnamed club (Mundo Deportivo) and - most extravagantly of all - Nikica Jelavic is closing in on a £4m move to Beijing Renhe (Mail).

@darlingkevin