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Hot Transfer Window Gossip: Chelsea 'to sell Courtois, buy Donnarumma', Messi 'staying at Barcelona', Griezmann 'closer to Man Utd move'

donna
donna

What can stop Chelsea’s relentless march towards the Premier League title?

Pep Guardiola? No chance. Tottenham? Probably not. Plague of locusts? Highly unlikely. Nuclear war? Not as unlikely as it was before President Trump’s inauguration, but still a long shot. What about not having any goalkeepers? Yeah, that could probably do it.

The Blues currently have a couple of top class shotstoppers vying for the number one jersey, but it is being reported that both could soon be on their way out of Stamford Bridge.

Second-choice keeper Asmir Begovic looks set for a move to Bournemouth, who have offered £10m for the Bosnian (Mirror). Which seems like a decent move for all parties, until we read in the Sun that first-choice stopper Thibaut Courtois has his heart set on a move to Real Madrid.

In fact, that big Belgian is said to have “already begun planning” his move to the Spanish capital and has enquired about enrolling his daughter into a school there.

So could Chelsea be careless enough to sell two keepers at once and have to put John Terry in goals for the rest of the season?

Sadly not. The Mirror says Antonio Conte is targeting AC Milan’s 17-year-old sensation Gianluigi Donnarumma and has been alerted by the teenager’s San Siro contract talks “stalling”. Shame.

Meanwhile, there is absolutely “no danger” that Lionel Messi will be leaving Barcelona, according to the player’s father (Sun). Which is weird because we’ve read in the Daily Star loads of times that Messi will be leaving Barcelona, and they have no reason to lie. What does Messi’s dad know about it all, really?

Antoine Griezmann has appeared to move a step closer to an £86m (at the current pound/euro exchange rate) move to Manchester United after Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone said he would never “tie down” the player if he wants to move in the summer (Telegraph). But then it’s easy for Simeone to be Mr Magnanimous and say that because he’s leaving the club in the summer anyway.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp will today wake up to the news that Mahmoud Dahoud, the Borussia Monchengladbach starlet he has been tracking for months, is now also wanted by Barcelona (Star). Soooo annoying.

Elsewhere, Newcastle want to re-sign Andros Townsend from Crystal Palace on loan (Chronicle), Ashley Young has been offered £16m to move to Chinese side Shandong Luneng (Mirror), West Ham have agreed an £8m fee with Southampton for 33-year-old defender Jose Fonte (ESPN) and Dimitri Payet’s departure from the Hammers appears increasingly inevitable after the French playmaker’s car was vandalised outside his house (Mail). To be fair that might have not been a targeted attack as it’s quite a common occurrence if you live in east London.

@darlingkevin