Gossip: Juve now offer £30m for Alexis Sanchez

JUVE OFFER £30M FOR SANCHEZ
Well, well. We heard yesterday that Juventus had offered £26m (which we are duty-bound to label ‘derisory’) for Alexis Sanchez, who joined Arsenal for £33m two years ago, and now Tuttosport claim that the Italian club have already raised that offer to £30m. It seems unlikely that Arsenal will swallow a loss on the Chilean international but if reports are correct that his agent Fernando Felicevich has told Arsenal that his client wants to leave, then £34m might be enough to tempt them into selling. That figure should not be a problem if they receive north of £90m for Paul Pogba and potentially £50m for Leonardo Bonucci.

The above might make it easier for us to believe that Arsenal would £43million for Julian Draxler; that rumour emerged on ESPN on Thursday morning.

 

LIVERPOOL IN FOR TALISCA
Now we are not saying that this is b***ocks, but a quote of 25 million Euros for a player who started six league games for Benfica last season sounds like an awful lot to us. The fact that the front page of O Jogo features the words ‘Jorge Mendes’ before either ‘Talisca’ or ‘Liverpool’ raises our suspicions – the story has clearly come from an agent desperate to get his man out of Benfica and into a better league. Talisca does not appear to have done an awful lot to justify this massively inflated fee in the two years since he joined Benfica for £3.4m.

Wonderfully, Talisca’s Wikipedia page suggests that he is ‘has been nicknamed “Yaya Talisca” in reference to Ivorian midfielder Yaya Touré, but bases his game on that of his compatriot Neymar’. That’s some mix of styles. What we do know is that he is a big lad (6’3″) and largely likes to play as an attacking central midfielder. For £21.4m, we suspect Liverpool would want somebody who actually has a Brazil cap.

The link in Bild with Jakub Blaszczykowski seems a little more likely, with the 30-year-old surely an inexpensive signing after an underwhelming season on loan at Fiorentina from Borussia Dortmund.

Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror’s headline is ‘Jurgen Klopp ready to dump EIGHT Liverpool stars as part of massive summer overhaul’ but there are no names in there that are remotely surprising; we already knew that Christian Benteke, Jordon Ibe and Martin Skrtel are all likely to leave.

BONUCCI TO COST MAN CITY OVER  €100M
Obviously that includes wages, but it starts with a  €60m offer to Juventus for 29-year-old defender Leonardo Bonucci, said by Corriere dello Sport to be tempted by a five-year contract worth €8m a year. Well, he would be. That’s considerably more than he is being paid in Italy. There were suggestions on Wednesday that he would prefer a move to Chelsea and a reunion with Antonio Conte, but it seems unlikely that Chelsea will offer north of £50m for a player with no sell-on value; it’s not 2006.

 

AND THE REST
Arsenal have reportedly opened negotiations with Wolfsburg and launched a £43m bid for Germany star Julian Draxler…Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has held transfer talks over Alexandre Lacazette – but the price remains a sticking point…Everton boss Ronald Koeman is lining up a move for Southampton striker Graziano Pelle…Rafa Benitez is hoping to lure Blackburn captain Grant Hanley to Newcastle…Radja Nainggolan has snubbed a move to Chelsea because he wants to stay at Roma…Premier League champions Leicester must pay £20m to sign Brazilian striker Luan from Gremio…Middlesbrough hope to sign Borussia Dortmund defender Neven Subotic after flying him in for talks…Stoke boss Mark Hughes will resist Burnley’s attempt to sign midfielder Charlie Adam…

Davide Santon is closing on a return to the north east with bitter rivals Sunderland…Manchester City are set to win the race for Colombian wonderkid Marlos Moreno…Leicester City are to finalise the £18m signing of Ahmed Musa from CSKA Moscow after he arrived for a medical…Tottenham Hotspur are ready to pay the £17m asking price of AZ Alkmaar to sign Vincent Janssen…West Ham have opened talks to sign Carlos Bacca from AC Milan and will meet with the player’s representatives this week…Chelsea have firmed up their interest in Kalidou Koulibaly by submitting a £34m bid, according to reports…Cesc Fabregas is facing a battle to stay a first-team regular at Chelsea because Antonio Conte has doubts about the Spaniard’s effectiveness in his preferred tactical system.