Gossip: Man United to bid £173m for Neymar…

Sarah Winterburn

NEYMAR MESSING ABOUT…
So after spending £89m on Paul Pogba (who is certainly putting in the hours), Manchester United’s next step towards world domination is apparently paying £173m to meet the release clause of Neymar at Barcelona. That’s quite the leap. We gently suggest they had better qualify for the Champions League…

This latest claim comes from Spanish newspaper Sport. They claim that not only will United pay £173m for the player, but they will pay Neymar almost £22m per year, which translates to £420,000 a week. Bloody hell.

Meanwhile, reports in Italy say that Jose Mourinho hopes to sign midfielder Marcelo Brozovic from Inter Milan and will pay up to £43m. Which suddenly sounds like peanuts.

 

REAL MADRID AND CHELSEA SHENANIGANS
On the one hand we have Marca, determined to being Eden Hazard to Real Madrid this summer. On Sunday they said that the Belgian was Zinedine Zidane’s No. 1 target this summer, and on Monday they are claiming that Chelsea are willing to negotiate because they made Hazard a promise last year that they would. Is that how football works?

 

On the other hand we have AS, who claim that Alvaro Morata now wants to give up his Real Madrid dream and join Chelsea this summer. There’s no place for him in the BBC so he could join the Blues in a £56m deal.

The two clubs should definitely talk.

 

EVERYBODY LOVES BEN
According to the Daily Mirror, every single one of the Premier League’s top six clubs want Middlesbrough youngster Ben Gibson this summer. Well at least that’s what it says in the headline. But then the story only mentions Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea. Which sounds about right.

John Cross writes every few weeks about all the interest in Gibson, and it’s absolutely definitely not because he knows his agent.

 

AND THE REST
Chelsea forward Diego Costa says he would be open to a move to France in the future and has praised Marseille, Monaco and Paris St-Germain…Newcastle boss Rafa Benitez wants to sign Swansea midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson, 27, for around £15m in the summer…Barcelona are no longer interested in signing Arsenal defender Hector Bellerin, with the Gunners wanting at least £45m…Arsenal are being linked with Alexandre Lacazette and Dusan Tadic.