Gossip: Martin, Woodburn, De Bruyne, new Leicester manager

Daniel Storey

MANCHESTER UNITED KEEPING TABS ON MARTIN
It’s a quiet day in spurious transfer gossip land, but there is one new name linked with Manchester United. ESPN report that Jose Mourinho is keeping tabs on Spain Under-21 left-back Aaron Martin.

Manchester United scouts were watching Martin play for Espanyol on Friday evening, and apparently liked what they saw. ESPN say that United have been asked to be kept informed of any developments in the player’s future, but why don’t the lazy buggers keep an eye on him themselves?

The bad news is that Martin signed a new deal in January that runs until 2022, and will therefore cost a whacking great sum of money to sign. Still, Luke Shaw must be feeling pretty happy with life.

 

LOTS OF BUMF ABOUT THE LEICESTER JOB
There’s loads, so we’re doing a list. Sue us:

– The Leicester Mercury say that Nigel Pearson will not be taking over from Shakespeare. Which is probably a good thing.

– The Daily Express say that Sean Dyche is at the top of Leicester’s shortlist. That makes sense, even if it is an educated punt.

– The Sun say that Chris Coleman would be interested in leaving Wales to become Leicester manager.

– The Daily Telegraph say that Leicester do not have a new manager lined up.

– However, the Telegraph do mention a number of names, including Sam Allardyce, David Wagner, Marco Silva and Dyche.

 

BARCELONA WANT WOODBURN!
You do have to admire the brass balls of Don Balon and their commitment to linking every decent young Premier League player with a move to Barcelona or Real Madrid. On Sunday the paper were saying that Real Madrid wanted to sign Marcus Rashford or Harry Kane next summer. Now they reckon Barcelona are tracking Ben Woodburn.

Don Balon say that Philippe Coutinho is not the only Liverpool player Barcelona want. Woodburn is not only being tracked by Barcelona scouts, but the club has a ‘very serious determination’ to sign him. Course they do.

We did like this line: ‘Although he is only 17, many consider that it will not take long to take over the Real Madrid player Gareth Bale as a great star of the Welsh team.’ Well, it might take a little while.

 

AND THE REST
William Carvalho will sign a new contract at Sporting CP… Kevin De Bruyne is set to double his wages at Manchester City with a new deal… Southampton face competition from Lille for Barcelona striker Paco Alcacer… Christian Benteke is ahead of schedule as he battles back from a knee injury.