Gossip: Neymar to Man United, Klopp to Real Madrid

Daniel Storey

MARTIAL AND POGBA FOR NEYMAR. OBVIOUSLY
Tell you what, it’s been a long time since the Sunday papers went quite as ballsy with their transfer and managerial rumours as they have today.

We’ll start with the Star on Sunday, and an exclusive from Paul Hetherington. He writes – presumably with a straight face – that Manchester United could sign Neymar this summer, by giving Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial to Paris Saint-Germain.

At no point in this does anybody seem to have considered that Neymar might not want to move to Manchester United, but don’t let that worry you. Mourinho is sanctioning a move that sees him lose two key players plus £50m for the Brazilian. It’s definitely on.

The story is so low on detail that it’s actually amusing:

‘France internationals Pogba and Martial are being linked with their country’s richest club.

‘And that could give United the opportunity to sign Neymar, 26, who does not appear totally settled in Paris.

‘Any deal would see United having to trade both Pogba and Martial – plus around £50m for the Brazilian.’

No, that really is it.

 

REAL MADRID WANT KLOPP TO REPLACE ZIDANE
The second bold take is The Sun on Sunday’s claim that Real Madrid want Jurgen Klopp to replace Zinedine Zidane. Still, at least they can be confident that nobody on Merseyside is reading.

It’s an exclusive from Alan Nixon, writing that Zidane will be sacked if he doesn’t win the Champions League, and that Klopp ‘has emerged as the man Real want to replace him’. Everyone has forgotten about Mauricio Pochettino, then?

‘Klopp has also been linked with a return to his homeland with Bayern Munich but top sources in Germany say that Real are the club with the most interest in him,’ the piece says. They are not named.

 

BIG SAM TO GET WEST BROM GIG?
Now here’s a story we really can get on board with: Sam Allardyce getting another new job. The Sunday Times’ football correspondent Jonathan Northcroft writes that Allardyce has emerged as a contender for the West Brom job if he is sacked by Everton at the end of the season. That would make it five club jobs and the England gig in a touch over three years.

It would also establish West Brom as the perfect care home for ageing British managers. Roy Hodgson, Tony Pulis, Gary Megson, Alan Pardew and Allardyce in the space of six years. *Kisses fingers*

That said, can’t really see Allardyce taking a Championship job in the summer. Far more likely is that he heads back off to Spain and waits for the first panicky phone call from a Premier League owner. We’re going November 4.

 

AND THE REST
Leicester are ready to buy James Maddison from Norwich… Everton have made Paulo Fonseca their top target to replace Sam Allardyce this summer… Manchester United look set to sign forward George Hirst from Sheffield Wednesday.