Gossip: Man United defender to West Ham; Arsenal sign WC winner

Daniel Storey

ARSENAL (AND OTHERS) WANT GOTZE…
You really do have to admire the work of Sven Mislintat. Arsenal’s new ‘transfer guru’ seems to want the club to sign either Borussia Dortmund players or former Borussia Dortmund players. This time, it’s both.

The Daily Mirror say that Arsenal are eyeing the signing of Mario Gotze, whose move back to Dortmund from Bayern Munich has not worked out as he would like. Gotze was left out of Germany’ World Cup squad, leading to him apparently looking to leave the Bundesliga.

The Mirror actually credit four other Premier League clubs with interest in Gotze – Everton, West Ham, Leicester and Newcastle. Surely his stock hasn’t fallen quite that far?

 

…AND HAVE HAD LUIZ BID REJECTED
More Arsenal news comes from Le 10 Sport in France, and it’s a story that we’ve heard before. David Luiz needs an escape route out of Chelsea and Arsenal need a central defender. You do the maths. Or math, if you’re reading us Stateside. You and your singular mathematics.

Our French cousins (absolutely no idea why they would have the scoop on a Brazilian leaving one English for another) say that Arsenal have launched an £20m bid for Luiz. That actually sounds about right, given age/experience. Could this actually happen?

No, because Chelsea have also rejected that bid. The greedy sods.

 

LIVERPOOL INTERESTED IN PORTO STAR
If you were going to make a list of six positions in which Liverpool could do with a £35m player, left-back would not be on that list. Still, who needs logic when you’re reporting on murky transfer gossip.

French newspaper Parisien say that Paris Saint-Germain are interested in signing the Porto left-back Alex Telles for £35m, which makes a good deal of sense. However, Le Parisien then say that Chelsea and Liverpool are also interested in Telles.

Perhaps Chelsea are, although they have an awful lot to sort out behind the scenes first. But Liverpool, for whom Andrew Robertson was bloody excellent last season, surely aren’t going to drop that kind of money and make Robertson second choice.

 

SMALLING TO BE SOLD TO WEST HAM
Last week we were told that Jose Mourinho wanted to sign at least one central defender, but was not interested in making any of his current options for sale. Perhaps that was just a strategy to stop their likely transfer fees from decreasing, because now Chris Smalling is being linked with a move away from Old Trafford.

Smalling to West Ham makes an awful lot of sense. The centre-back was clearly peeved at not being part of England’s World Cup squad, but he still hasn’t convinced that he’s worthy of being in Manchester United’s starting XI and he’s one of their three longest-serving players.

The Metro – with an exclusive – say that Manuel Pellegrini is targeting Smalling, having been given a £70m transfer budget this summer. If that’s true, Smalling should take up a fair proportion of that budget. He’s still only 28 and he has 31 England caps. That kind of experience shouldn’t come cheap.

 

AND THE REST
Leicester want Lokomotiv Moscow’s Solomon Kvirkvelia… Juventus are planning to make a move from Crystal Palace star Patrick van Aanholt if Alex Sandro leaves… Ashley Young, Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson are set to start for England against Tunisia.