David Moyes spent the majority of last summer trying to get Baines and Fellaini away from Everton. But did he? Is it possible he only wanted the Belgian, then deliberately failed with Leighton to make his former club feel like they'd still had a bit of a win, and therefore less likely to stand in Marouane's way? Unlikely, but surely there's more to rumours of United interest in
Jan Vertonghen and
Mousa Dembele of Spurs, Barca's
Alex Song and
Cristian Tello, plus
Ilkay Gundogan and
Marco Reus from Dortmund than just lazy journalism, right? Speaking of which;
Shinji Kagawa, makeweight. You can probably guess for who.
Spurs are at it as well! It's Ajax
pair Joel Veltman and
Davy Klaassen for them.
Arsene Wenger's been talking to
Mario Balotelli's agent (such a director) and is also keen on Wolfsburg's
Maximilian Arnold. Young German midfielders; the new young French midfielders.
In the mid-to-late nineties Inter were a constant threat to the Premiership's talent pool. They only signed Paul Ince, and later Robbie Keane, but that rumoured Cantona/Giggs double swoop seemed real, and still occasionally brings United fans out in cold sweats to this day. Unfortunately, the money's just not there anymore, and seeing them scratch around for the likes of
Erik Lamela,
Hatem Ben Arfa,
Nemanja Vidic and
Patrice Evra is almost heart-breaking.
It seems a bit odd that anyone would willingly offer up their best striker to secure the permanent signature of a keeper, especially when that keeper's spent the last 3 years on loan with you anyway. But there you go,
Costa-for-Courtois swapsie apparently. In other Chelsea news, Mourinho hopes to get deals for
Edinson Cavani and
Luke Shaw tied up before the World Cup, and he might be tempted to nip back to Madrid for
Sami Khedira too.
David Luiz though, Barca, £22m.
Micah Richards is off to Liverpool or Galatasaray for £8m, £8m that City will put towards
Isco, who they missed out on last summer and will now cost £30m to prise away from the tender embrace of Carlo Ancelotti (no homo).
And David Beckham wants
Cristiano Ronaldo to join his MLS team when it gets going in 2017. He is well Miami, in fairness.
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