Gossip: Mata to Barca, Chambers to Saints
MATA TO BARCELONA?
The Mail’s transfer man Simon Jones is at pains to make it clear that Juan Mata has no problems with Jose Mourinho – despite suggestions that he would dread the arrival of the new Manchester United manager – and ‘is excited at the prospect of a fresh challenge at Old Trafford and is ready to put in extra work over the summer to prove his worth’. So thanks for the story, Juan Mata’s agent.
But he also throws in an interesting nugget, that Barcelona are looking at Mata as a potential replacement for Arda Turan. As the Turk is very much on the fringes of the Barcelona squad, you would wonder just how much football that would entail for Mata. Maybe he should just re-join Chelsea instead?
CHAMBERS BACK TO SAINTS?
‘Southampton are ready to offer former academy ace Calum Chambers a refuge from his Arsenal hell,’ says the Daily Mirror. Hell? Really?
Anyway, looking past the ridiculously emotive language, the Mirror claims that the England international right-back/centre-half could return to the south coast on loan next season after starting just two Premier League games for Arsenal last season; to put that in perspective, Alex Iwobi played twice as many minutes of league football.
Crystal Palace, Bournemouth, Swansea and Watford are also said to be interested in Chambers, but Southampton – who can offer Europa League football – are the favourites after Ronald Koeman apparently sent scouts to watch him at the Toulon tournament.
GREALISH FOR STOKE?
Or Tottenham or Everton. But it is Stoke who have apparently ‘registered an interest’ in the Aston Villa midfielder who has been impressing for England’s Under-21s at the Toulon tournament. Grealish. According to the Daily Telegraph: ‘(Mark) Hughes expects to be without Ibrahim Afellay for the rest of the year after the Dutchman suffered a knee ligament injury and Grealish would appeal as Stoke attempt to bring in more British players ahead of next season.’
AND THE REST
Sunderland are ready to make a £10m move for West Ham forward Diafra Sakho, which would re-unite the Senegal international with former Hammers’ boss Sam Allardyce…Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone wants to bring Chelsea forward Diego Costa back for a second spell at the Vicente Calderon Stadium…West Ham United will not entertain the idea of selling defender Reece Oxford, with Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool all interested in the 17-year-old…Sunderland have no plans to sell England Under-21 goalkeeper Jordan Pickford despite interest from Manchester United…Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Keiren Westwood is a target for Premier League club…Southampton are stepping up interest in Sporting Lisbon defender Ruben Semedo…Newcastle United will step up their bid to sign Ross McCormack from Fulham over the coming weeks.