The transfer window for all of Europe’s big five leagues is closed, but that doesn’t stop Transfer Talk from rummaging around about who will be moving where come January.
TOP STORY: Conte to replace Lopetegui at Real Madrid?
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has reportedly phoned former Chelsea boss Antonio Conte recently to sound out his availability, so say Il Corriere dello Sport.
The paper reports that Conte, who has been out of work since leaving Stamford Bridge this summer, feels “very ready” to take up the Bernabeu role, despite Julen Lopetegui only being installed a few months ago himself.
With Real failing to win since Sept. 22, however, the next 10 days could spell the end of Lopetegui’s tenute, with vital matches in La Liga and the Champions League before the first El Clasico of the season at Camp Nou. But are the Bernabeu fans ready for Conte’s defensive style of football?
LIVE BLOG
18.18 BST: With his contract set to expire at season’s end, Daniel Sturridge is set to embrace his super-sub role and commit to a new deal at Liverpool, writes the Sun.
17.14 BST: Chelsea’s hierarchy has given up on Alvaro Morata … and resigned themselves to the fact that Olivier Giroud will never be a regular goal scorer at Stamford Bridge … and believe that Michy Batshuayi is short of the quality to be among Europe’s greatest forwards. That’s according to the Sun, who reports that the Blues are ready to launch a big-money January purchase of a forward, with Paulo Dybala, Timo Werner and Krzysztof Piatek among a shortlist of 11 names — of varying plausibility — interesting Chelsea brass.
16.21 BST: Well this is awkward… Gonzalo Higuain has said he was “kicked out” of Juventus following the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid. The Argentine is now on loan at AC MIlan.
15.30 BST: It’s official, Manchester United defender Luke Shaw has signed a new deal to stay at Old Trafford, which will keep him at the club until June 2023, with the option to extend for a further year.
15.15 BST: Fenerbahce teenager Elif Elmas has caught the eye of Manchester City, Tottenham and Sevilla, according to Turkish-football.com. The 19-year-old midfielder is already a starter for his club so a big move may not be far away.
14.16 BST: The chickens (or is that wolves?) are coming home to roost for goalkeeper Rui Patricio. The ‘free transfer’ he signed for Wolves on looks like costing the club £15m as Sky Sports say the club are close to settling a compensation agreement with Sporting Lisbon after he cancelled his contract in Portugal following a summer of turbulence.
13.55 BST: Roma striker Edin Dzeko signing for West Ham looks like it won’t happen. Hammers manager Manuel Pellegrini said: “You can talk about five, six or seven players that are linked with us. We must not talk about one player. I know him well but we are not thinking about that at the moment.”
Just seven? It’s been a bit more than that…
13.42 BST: Earlier we brought you news that Everton were eyeing up Divock Origi, but the Newcastle Chronicle believe they will have competition. Newcastle boss Rafael Benitez is lining up January moves for Liverpool strikers Origi and Dominic Solanke apparently.
However, Premier League clubs may not register more than two players on loan at any one time and Newcastle already have Kenedy and Salomon Rondon on their books. So any deal would have to be permanent.
13.03 BST: Manchester City are in talks with Leroy Sane over a new contract, say the Daily Telegraph. The Germany winger’s deal runs out in 2021, but City are keen to tie him down.
Given he didn’t make the World Cup squad, was dropped by Pep Guardiola earlier this season and criticised for his application in training, it might be tougher than the club think to get his signature.
12.43 BST: Former Manchester United starlet Ravel Morrison is reportedly on the brink of having his Lazio contract terminated. Italian publication Il Messaggero report that he’s been frozen out and, after a fair few incidents in his career to date, that doesn’t come as much of a shock.
12.00 BST: Manchester United defender Luke Shaw has signed a new deal to stay at Old Trafford, sources have told ESPN FC. Shaw, 23, put pen to paper a new long-term contract at Carrington on Thursday to end speculation over his future.
11.44 BST: England and Stoke goalkeeper Jack Butland has joined Wayne Rooney’s agency, Triple S Sports, ahead of a potential move back to the Premier League in January or the summer.
11.21 BST: Feyenoord and Fenerbahce are interested in signing Rick Karsdorp from Roma, according to Calciomercato. The Dutch right-back is continuing his recovery from a serious knee injury and may need to leave for first-team football as he bids to make a return to the national side.
10.56 BST: Neymar could be set for a major transfer saga in the summer with Cadena Ser reporting that he has a pact with Paris Saint-Germain which would allow him to leave the Ligue 1 side at the end of the season for €220m.
The Brazilian ace only moved from Barcelona to PSG in the summer of 2017 after agreeing to pay his €222m release clause at Camp Nou. But earlier this week Mundo Deportivo reported that Neymar has been begging to come back to the Catalan side for some time and that some members of the board are not ruling out the idea of bringing him back.
Now Cadena Ser backs those claims and adds that the figure will drop to €200m if he leaves in 2020. Real Madrid have also been heavily linked with his services in recent months but the report states he prefers a return to Barcelona.
10.34 BST: Everton have made tentative checks on the availability of Liverpool striker Divock Origi as they assess ways to strengthen their options upfront, sources have told ESPN FC.
Origi is way down in pecking order in the striking department at Liverpool and has not been part of a matchday squad for Jurgen Klopp this season. A source said that Liverpool had become aware of potential interest from Everton in the 23-year-old, but were yet to receive any contact from their Merseyside neighbours.
10.28 BST: Despite starting just two games on loan at AC Milan, Chelsea midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko isn’t returning to London any time soon, according to Italian agent Federico Pastorello.
“Bakayoko is happy in Milan and Milan is happy with him,” Pastorello told Calciomercato. “It was known that it would take some time, but everyone believes that he can make a big contribution to the season of the Rossoneri. So any rumours about his return to Chelsea in January are completely unfounded.”
09.50 BST: PSV winger Steven Bergwijn is attracting interest from both Manchester United and Liverpool, say De Telegraaf.
The 20-year-old made his senior international debut for Netherlands in the 3-0 win over Germany last Saturday.
08.55 BST: Tottenham keeper Hugo Lloris has said France teammate Paul Pogba is being unfairly judged because of his £89.3m transfer fee.
“He has a status in the UK, maybe because of his huge transfer fee. Sometimes people judge him not very fairly. Now he has more maturity, he knows what he needs to do, he proves that with us [France]. I think his performances at United are far from being as bad a people say.”
08.41 BST: Chelsea midfielder Eden Hazard is ready to accept a new £300,000-a-week deal at the club, according to a report in the Daily Express. It would finally put to bed any lingering rumours of a move to Real Madrid — which he did claim was a ‘dream’ the other day — unless it has a buyout clause of course…
08.00 BST: Schalke’s 36-year-old defender Naldo has penned a new deal. He is now tied to club until 2020, when surely he will retire?
PAPER TALK
Messi wants Pogba at Barcelona
Several of Barcelona’s senior players are pushing for the club to sign Paul Pogba from Manchester United, including one Lionel Messi.
As per the Daily Mail, there are “influential voices” within the Barca team who believe the team would benefit from the addition of Pogba’s presence, power and technical ability. Messi is one such advocate, with Gerard Pique and head coach Ernesto Valverde both understood to be of the same mind, despite the enormous asking price (and agent fees) that any such deal would entail.
However, some of the Catalan side’s first-team scouts remain unconvinced that the Manchester United midfielder possesses the requisite positional sense to flourish within their vaunted tiki-taka system.
Bundesliga clubs plan ‘mega raid’ on Premier League
With the likes of Jadon Sancho and Reiss Nelson proving near-instant successes, it’s being reported that several German clubs are poised to poach yet more promising English talent from the Premier League.
Indeed, The Sun claim a “mega raid” is being planned by multiple Bundesliga clubs, with every single German top flight team sending a scout along to watch England Under-17s game against Brazil on Tuesday night.
Manchester City prodigy Phil Foden, 18, and West Ham midfielder Declan Rice, 19, are the two starlets attracting most interest, with Borussia Dortmund reportedly impressed enough with Sancho’s impact that they are looking into signing yet more young English players.
Neymar longs for Barcelona return
Neymar is pining to return to Barcelona after coming to the conclusion that his grand dreams of winning the Champions League and Ballon d’Or with Paris Saint-Germain won’t be coming to fruition any time soon.
According to Mundo Deportivo, Neymar “regrets” his move to Paris, is “unmotivated” by playing in Ligue 1 and misses linking up with his former comrades at the Camp Nou, especially Messi.
The 26-year-old is also said to be feeling eclipsed by Kylian Mbappe, who is a already a teenage world champion and fast becoming the new superstar of French football.
Barca have been offered Neymar’s services several times over the past few months but have until now remained decidedly cold on the idea with the Catalan club still irked with the striker over the manner in which he left for PSG.
However, things have now changed and MD surmise that the grand return of the once prodigal son, while still extremely complicated. is gradually becoming more and more plausible with each passing week.
West Ham eye up Giroud
West Ham are gearing up to pluck Olivier Giroud from Chelsea’s midst when the transfer market reopens in January.
In what is branded an “audacious” manoeuvre by the Daily Mirror, the Hammers are planning to reignite their attempts to land Giroud having previously made a tentative offer for the French forward while he was still an Arsenal player.
The east London club are also weighing up activating a two-year extension option in Andy Carroll‘s contract that would prevent them from losing the stocky striker for nothing come the summer.
Barca in market for centre-back
After president Josep Bartomeu’s recent announcement that Barcelona will be in the market for a new centre-back in January, MARCA are reporting that the Catalan side have already identified their preferred targets.
Barcelona are apparently on the lookout for experienced players who are coming towards the end of their contract, or players with release clauses they deem to be “reasonable.”
The first-choice target is Matthijs De Ligt, but Barca are fearful that Ajax will not be willing to sell one of their most coveted assets in the middle of the season. The other name on what is a fairly short shortlist is that of Toby Alderweireld, whose deal at Tottenham is due to expire next summer.
Tap Ins
– According to the Express and Star, Wolves are close to agreeing a £16m fee with Sporting Lisbon over the transfer of goalkeeper Rui Patricio, who moved to Molineux back in June after cancelling his contract with the Portuguese club.
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