De Ligt sparks ‘transfer rage’ as Everton ‘forced’ into massive profit on Branthwaite

Editor F365
Man Utd transfer
Matthijs De Ligt and Jarrad Branthwaite with Man Utd's badge.

The Man Utd transfer silly season is upon us and Matthijs de Ligt has sparked some ‘transfer rage’ while Everton might be ‘forced’ to accept a transfer bid with an 85% mark-up.

 

Can you feel the force?
‘Matthijs de Ligt makes decision on Man Utd transfer after surprise discovery’ might just be the most Mirror headline ever.

A quick ‘Control F’ uncovers no ‘surprise’ or ‘discovery’ in the copy, so what is this ‘surprise discovery’? Is it simply that anybody wants to join Manchester United? Or does finding yourself lower down the pecking order than Eric Dier always count as a ‘surprise discovery’? It would certainly shock the hell out of us and we’re not a professional footballer.

It turns out that the ‘surprise discovery’ is the price, which would have been no kind of surprise to anybody paying attention; the £42m price tag was reported in mid-June.

And yet here we are: ‘The centre-half was tipped for big things but his career has stalled and now the Manchester outfit have come knocking and could land him for far less than they expected.’

How do we know what they ‘expected’? They probably ‘expected’ to pay the price that was quoted three weeks ago. They certainly would not have expected to pay a whole heap more for a player who is not first choice for either Bayern Munich or the Netherlands. And who is actually willing to join the eighth best team in England.

The Mirror story is taken from the Daily Mail, which is instructive in the language used in the reporting of Manchester United transfers:

United want De Ligt to play on the right side of central defence and have not given up hope of signing Branthwaite to play alongside him on the left if they can sell players to raise the funds.

An opening bid of £38m plus £5m in add-ons was rejected by Everton who don’t want to sell the 22-year-old but could be forced to listen to offers in the region of £70m.

They could indeed be ‘forced’ to listen to an offer of roughly 85% more. That would really ‘force’ them into a decision. Very clever tactics indeed.

MAN UTD TRANSFER NEWS ON F365:
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👉 Romano names ‘most likely’ Man Utd signing and confirms Red Devils could buy two centre-backs
👉 Man Utd ‘close to agreement’ for first summer signing with £34m transfer ‘99.9%’ likely

 

Hijack of all trades
Back to the De Ligt deal and the Manchester Evening News are here with some classic scare tactics:

Man United transfer news live De Ligt hijack, Lukaku return, Gutierrez bid, Zirkzee ‘close’

Can you ‘hijack’ a deal that is nowhere near completion? You definitely cannot ’emerge as late contenders’ on July 3, when absolutely nothing will happen until after Euro 2024.

Oh and…

Apart from all that, there’s definitely a ‘hijack’ going on. Stand and deliver and all that.

But that’s not even close to the worst De Ligt coverage in the MEN. Stand by your beds…

Man United transfer rage as thousands sign petition against move

‘Man United transfer rage’ as expressed by 7000 Bayern Munich fans over a period of three weeks. FFS.

 

For whom the Bell tolls
They call it PIERS MORGAN UNCENSORED but really The Sun should have put a thick line through the sh*t Morgan produced on the subject of Jude Bellingham and his massive balls.

I’ve found TEN other explanations for Jude Bellingham’s ‘X-rated’ gesture – Uefa killjoys need to leave our talisman be!

And these TEN explanations are absolutely hilarious. Not quite as hilarious as the idea that The Sun have actually paid Morgan thousands of pounds for this puerile nonsense, but hilarious nonetheless.

England football superstar Jude Bellingham is at the centre of a firestorm at the Euros in Germany after performing an allegedly X-rated gesture following the thrilling 2-1 win over Slovakia.

He’s not ‘at the centre of a firestorm’; he is merely being investigated by UEFA for a gesture that might land him with a fine that will be miniscule compared to the size of his pay packet (and balls). But the Mediawatch fun police covered all that on Tuesday.

Also, the idea that ‘England’s chances of winning the Euros could well come down to persuading Uefa that our star man was indeed gesticulating to his mates, and to providing a strong enough explanation of the message he was passing on to have him exonerated’ is ludicrous; England’s chances of winning the Euros comes down to only one thing: England getting roughly seven times better.

Morgan – once one of the most powerful men in the media – is reduced to making roughly 17 references to ‘packages’. Because cocks and balls are funny, right.

Elsewhere, this is just weird from the Mail:

Jude Bellingham WILL maintain he meant no offence by his X-rated gesture in England’s win vs Slovakia – as UEFA write to the Real Madrid star asking him to explain the action within next 72 hours, after launching disciplinary probe

Surely it would be a whole lot more newsworthy if he suddenly admitted that he DID mean offence. Frankly we would throw our considerable heft behind a ban.

Mediawatch Matthijs De Ligt

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