Gossip: Neymar, Llorente, the littlest Dembele

Daniel Storey

PSG TO BID £200M FOR NEYMAR
Well, welcome to silly season at least three months ahead of schedule. Blame global warming, or something. The punchy headline on Goal.com is that they have ‘revealed’ a secret Paris St Germain plan to bid £200m for Barcelona’s Neymar.

The report claims that PSG were close to landing Neymar this summer, and will go all out to land the Brazilian after finally admitting defeat in their attempts to sign Cristiano Ronaldo. Can’t help thinking that this might be a fruitless quest too.

Unfortunately, that’s where we lose Goal. Because the story then starts talking about Neymar’s new deal that still remains unsigned, and use that as evidence that the player wants to leave and will not sign. From what we’ve heard, that new contract is basically done, and that Neymar wants to stay. The plot thickens…

 

ARSENAL WANT LLORENTE
Nope, not the striker that plays for Swansea, but the Real Madrid midfielder who is currently doing lovely things on loan at Alaves.

Don Balon bring us the claim that Marcos Llorente has been on Arsene Wenger’s radar for a while, and Wenger is keen on adding the 21-year-old to his squad.

The story is exceptionally low on actual detail regarding Arsenal’s interest, so we’ll just sit here cracking our knuckles until he inevitably lands in England.

 

MANCHESTER CITY WANT CELTIC’S LITTLE WONDERKID
It’s my first day back after a little holiday, so it’s bloody wonderful to settle straight back in with a Daniel Cutts exclusive on The Sun website. You know the type by now, the one that promises something massive that rarely happens and doesn’t even make the paper. Yeah, that one.

Anyway, today Cutts claims that Manchester City are eyeing Celtic’s new 13-year-old wonderkid Karamoko Dembele. Of course they bloody are, everyone across Europe is keeping an eye on him.

I can see you at the back of the classroom with your hand up, and I know what question you’re going to ask. Yes, Cutts has got a quote from an unnamed source at the club. Textbook.

“He has been on the radar for a number of months now. He is very talented,” the source said. “The club is always searching around Europe for another potential star and Dembele is one being looked at.”

It would be a bigger story if it were the opposite, and that City had no interest.

 

AND THE REST
West Ham’s injury curse has struck again after winger Gokhan Tore was ruled out for five weeks… Manchester United are checking out Valencia starlet Fran Villalba… Chelsea have no plans to sell defender Andreas Christensen… Arsenal look set to have a fight on their hands if they are to keep hold of defender Hector Bellerin, with Barcelona putting him at the top of their transfer list… Frank Lampard has admitted he wants to go into management once his playing days are over but only if it is at Chelsea.