Gossip: Man City to sign £42m Barca man
IVAN THE TERRIBLY GOOD FOR CITY?
Barcelona boss Luis Enrique says that “information which comes out in the media is not even 25 percent reliable” but most remain convinced that there is some truth in reports – emanating from Croatian outlet Jutarnji List – that Ivan Rakitic is on his way out of the Spanish club after he failed to figure in their last three La Liga games; he didn’t even make the squad for Sunday’s 1-1 with Villarreal.
His price is said to be £42m and his destination is said to be Manchester City, with Pep Guardiola seeking a replacement for the injured Ilkay Gundogan. Do they not realise that Fabian Delph made it as far as the bench on Friday night?
MILAN WANT MEMPHIS NOW
Here we go again…yet another club is linked with Memphis Depay, with the catch as always being that they want him on loan rather than paying £20m-plus for a player who has done the square root of bugger all over the last 18 months.
It’s The Sun Online who are making this latest claim and they throw in the scrap of gossip that Matteo Darmian is wanted by Juventus and Benfica man Nelson Semedo may replace him. Apparently this means that ‘January is set to be a busy month at the Theatre of Dreams’.
CHERRIES WANT PICK OF LIVERPOOL RESERVES
With Chelsea taking back Nathan Ake, Bournemouth are – according to the Mail at least – looking for a replacement defender who is comfortable on the ball and have found themselves looking at a list of Liverpool players (they did sign Jordon Ibe and Brad Smith from Liverpool, remember) and found the names of Mamadou Sakho and Joe Gomez.
Liverpool would prefer to sell the former and lose all of his £80,000-a-week wages – Southampton, Galatasaray and Sevilla are said to be interested – but Gomez could be an excellent shout; he needs games that he is unlikely to get at Liverpool this season.
AND THE REST
New Crystal Palace boss Sam Allardyce will focus on strengthening his attacking options when he talks through his January transfer plans with chairman Steve Parish…Chelsea boss Antonio Conte is keen on signing Swansea striker Fernando Llorente – and Blues striker Michy Batshuayi could be going the other way…Swansea City have been linked with Bayern Munich and Germany defender Holger Badstuber…West Ham are in talks to sell their Algeria winger Sofiane Feghouli to Italian side Roma…Watford may enter the race to sign Nottingham Forest’s ex-England Under-21 midfielder Henri Lansbury…Middlesbrough’s former England striker David Nugent, 31, is set to join Derby in a £3m deal.