Gossip: Liverpool will fail to pinch Pulisic

Sarah Winterburn

LIVERPOOL TO FAIL WITH PULISIC BID
Borussia Dortmund ‘will resist all attempts’ (the Daily Mirror’s words) from Jurgen Klopp to lure 17-year-old American wonderkid Christian Pulisic to Liverpool despite a pretty eye-watering £17m bid for a player who started just four Bundesliga games last season. Pulisic is already so good that he has played six times for his country so he looks very much like the real deal.

According to the Daily Mail: ‘Klopp had been debating over whether to add another player to his squad before the window closes on Wednesday but has decided that the opportunity to sign Pulisic cannot be ignored and Liverpool are now waiting to discover whether their offer has been successful.’

In other news, Liverpool winger Lazar Markovic has been made available for loan after failing to even make the bench so far this season.

 

ALONSO FOR CHELSEA?
No, not Xabi Alonso but Marcos Alonso, the 25-year-old Spanish left-back who used to play for Bolton and even had a half-season on loan at Sunderland. Cologne’s Jonas Hector and Wolfsburg’s Ricardo Rodriguez have been considered (and cost too much money) but apparently Chelsea boss Antonio Conte has settled on Alonso, who has been at Fiorentina since 2013.

Reports of the move vary from The Guardian’s claim that he could sign on loan to price tags of £17m and £21m being mentioned elsewhere. We look forward to Conte being asked if he is making a ‘panic buy’.

 

SISSOKO A MAN IN DEMAND
‘Newcastle United have received six firm offers for Moussa Sissoko so far this summer,’ according to the Newcastle Evening Chronicle, who claim the club would sell for anything north of £25m despite publicly claiming the Frenchman is worth £35m. So let’s have a roll call of those six clubs: Inter Milan, Juventus, Real Madrid, Crystal Palace, Everton and West Brom, though the latter’s bid was dismissed as ‘risible’.

The Daily Telegraph claim that Everton and Palace are the front-runners and ‘will hope to get a cut-price deal in the last few days of the transfer window’. Our vote goes to Everton – he could be phenomenal there.

 

AND THE REST
Manchester City are prepared to pay the bulk of Hart’s £120,000-a-week wages to help him move on…Croatia international Marcelo Brozovic’s agent claims there is interest in his client from Chelsea and Arsenal…Southampton are set to break their transfer record to sign 22-year-old Morocco forward Sofiane Boufal…Inter Milan are on the verge of signing Manchester United target Gabriel Barbosa…Aston Villa defender Jores Okore is set to sign for FC Copenhagen.