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Hot Transfer Window Gossip: Chelsea 'target £56m Vidal', Barcelona 'want Aubameyang', Pepe 'heading to China'
Arturo Vidal is having English lessons, which could mean one of several things. 1) He is planning a trip to Disney World, Florida with his young family and wants to brush up on his language skills; 2) He is catching up on every episode of EastEnders since the show’s launch in 1985 and can’t understand a word Dot Cotton says, so he wants to better understand the dialogue; 3) He is going to sign for Chelsea.
According to the Express, the answer is 3) He is going to sign for Chelsea.
The paper claims the Bayern Munich midfielder has had an illicit phone conversation with Blues manager Antonio Conte, his former boss at Juventus, about the possibility of leaving the German champions for the soon-to-be (probably) English ones.
Conte apparently wants to “beef up” his midfield, despite it already being quite beefy, and is set to press ahead with a £56m bid for Vidal. That’s more than double the £25.5m Bayern paid for the Chilean two seasons ago, during which time his age has increased from 27 to 29. When did football get so silly?
Conte’s quest for beef does not end there, with the Star reporting that Chelsea have failed with a £27m bid for Atalanta midfielder Frank Kessie. The 20-year-old Ivorian has been dubbed the “next Yaya Toure”. In fact it seems he can be mentioned with being dubbed it, which must be getting pretty annoying for him by now.
Liverpool, Arsenal and both Manchester clubs are also reportedly keen on Kessie (TNYT), but Atalanta are holding firm and have also rejected Chelsea’s offer to loan the player back to them for the rest of the season.
The best piece of Chelsea-related Hot Transfer Window Gossip, however, appears in the Telegraph, which claims that the Blues are planning to make an actual swoop for 34-year-old Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon. If there was ever a signing to consolidate your position at the top of the Premier League table, that’s it.
Let’s move on from Chelsea now and talk about Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who the Express says is a target for Barcelona. You may recall that the Borussia Dortmund striker promised his late grandfather that he would one day play for Real Madrid, so presumably granddad wouldn’t be too chuffed about him moving to their arch-rivals instead.
Meanwhile, the Mail – via the medium of Jamie Carragher’s mouth – suggests that Barca could still snare Philippe Coutinho from Liverpool despite the midfielder signing a megabucks five-year contract at Anfield.
Elsewhere, Leicester are “facing a battle” to prevent striker Islam Slimani moving to Chinese side Tianjin Quanjian in a £40m deal (Mirror), Real Madrid defender Pepe will move to Hebei China Fortune at the end of the season (AS) and Sunderland are vying with Fenerbahce to sign Stoke City midfielder Charlie Adam (Sun) as David Moyes bids to add another promising youngster to his Black Cats squad.
