Gossip: Alex Sandro to Man United, Aubameyang to… Everton
ALEX SANDRO BECOMES MANCHESTER UNITED’S NO.1 TARGET
How lovely to start a Friday morning with Duncan Castles, touting Manchester United for a January transfer spending spree. Jose Mourinho’s lickspittle claims that Alex Sandro is the club’s No. 1 target, and that £80m could be spent in the upcoming window.
Here’s how this goes:
1) Jose Mourinho decides he wants added investment in his squad.
2) Manchester United have rarely bought big in January.
3) Mourinho speaks to a friendly journalist, one who has no qualms about printing his every wish.
4) Journalist writes a story about Manchester United being prepared to spend in January.
5) If transfers subsequently don’t come off, Mourinho has a ready-made excuse for failing to engineer a serious title bid. He needed more, you see.
Also, is he just trying to scare Tottenham into selling Danny Rose? Surely not.
ERM… EVERTON WANT AUBAMEYANG
Well, this rumour hits you straight between the eyes. The Daily Mirror’s Darren Lewis writes that Sam Allardyce has an audacious plan to bring Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to Goodison.
Now we don’t doubt that Everton and Allardyce would like to sign Aubameyang, in the same way that we would like to take Kate Beckinsale out for a lovely dinner and drinks. It’s lovely to have aspirations, but don’t ever get carried away into thinking that they could happen.
‘The Premier League’s biggest clubs all now have high-class frontmen leading the line, after having their interest in Aubameyang rebuffed,’ Lewis writes. ‘But the player is up for a move to the Premier League.’
That might now be true, but if so then Aubameyang has changed his mind. Because on October 2 he said: “’I was never tempted by the Premier League. It’s simply a personal opinion.”
It’s just not going to happen.
INGS WANTED BY SEVERAL CLUBS
Let’s get back to reality for a moment, and a striker that really could be making a move to a non-elite Premier League club. Less Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and more Danny Ings.
Writing in the Guardian, Dom Fifield reports that Danny Ings is wanted by West Ham, Crystal Palace, Stoke City and Newcastle in January. Given that he has not started a Premier League game since October 2015 despite getting himself fit again, he has to leave.
Jurgen Klopp has talked up Ings’ attitude and said that he can be an important player for Liverpool, but that’s a fantasy. Even if Klopp lost Daniel Sturridge, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah to injury, he could pick a front three of Sadio Mane, Philippe Coutinho and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ings might not even get on the bench ahead of Dominic Solanke.
Still, Ings would be an excellent six-month loan option with a view to a permanent summer move. Newcastle would be excellent, but what about Southampton eh?
AND THE REST
Swansea City are to keep faith with manager Paul Clement and give him the January transfer window… Chelsea are rivalling Barcelona’s interest in Gremio’s 21-year-old midfield star Arthur… Mike Ashley and Amanda Staveley met at a London curry house… Chelsea want Leon Bailey from Bayer Leverkusen for £20m.
