Gossip: £1m a week for Rooney; Payet, Rakitic
ROO THE DAY
Neil Custis has an exclusive in The Sun, so you know it’s a big old Saturday. The man in Manchester claims that Wayne Rooney is ‘ready to quit’ United.
It takes Custis only two paragraphs to refer to the club’s record goalscorer as ‘Roo’, and it is in said second paragraph that it is claimed Chinese Super League clubs are willing to offer the 31-year-old up to £1million a week to join. Which is a lot of money.
Rooney ‘is aware he needs to cash in on his final years,’ it says. Because his current wage just isn’t enough. And with Sir Bobby Charlton’s goalscoring record falling last week, there is nothing left to keep him at Old Trafford.
The club captain is aware he is no longer first choice, and is willing to therefore leave in search of regular football. And lotsa money. So fair play to him.
As an aside, Custis refers to the striker as ‘Roo’ three separate times in the story. It’s cute.
IVAN THE TERRIBLE
Time to hop across Manchester to the Etihad Stadium now, because there is big news concerning Pep Guardiola signing a Barcelona player. Lionel Messi?!??!??!?!111?!??1one?1?!
No. Ivan Rakitic, actually. Although Messi is mentioned in the story. Basically, the Spanish giants need to sacrifice a few players in order to afford an increase in the Argentinean’s wages. Rakitic, who is struggling for regular first-team football, is on that list.
Spanish paper Marca claim that City could renew their interest in the midfielder, and why wouldn’t they?
PAYET, FORWARD
A couple of Dimitri Payet updates for you here. We join Sky Sports for the first.
Their claim is that Marseille are still ‘miles away’ from an agreement with West Ham over the playmaker. Robert Snodgrass moved to the London Stadium on Friday, but that has not made a deal any easier.
West Ham want at least £30m for the player. Marseille will not budge from their valuation of £25m. What’s £5m between friends, guys?
The Times go ahead and contradict Sky by reporting that the Ligue Un club made a bid of £27.2m last night. Of course, that still falls short of the Hammers’ valuation. However, they are willing to pay £3m more in add-ons.
That offer has led Slaven Bilic to urge the board to let Payet go. Frankly, they’d be silly not to. They get up to £30m – and therefore make a huge profit – on a player who no longer wants to be there. Simple.
AND THE REST
Diego Costa’s proposed move to China is set to fall through after the club in question decided to pursue another target…Watford are considering an offer approaching £27m for 27-year-old striker Odion Ighalo from China’s Shanghai Shenhua – and will let him go this month…Sunderland are prepared to match Southampton’s offer for Napoli striker Manolo Gabbiadini…Radamel Falcao has rejected three mega-money offers to move to the Chinese Super League…Chelsea will turn their attention to Paris St-Germain goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu, 30, if their bid for Celtic’s Craig Gordon, 34, fails…Aston Villa are ready to offer 21-year-old midfielder Jack Grealish to Premier League Middlesbrough for striker Jordan Rhodes, 26, in a surprise cash-plus-player deal.
