The transfer window for Europe’s biggest clubs is closed, but you can click here to review all the deals. Transfer Talk will continue to scour the world’s media and set correspondents loose to see what’s on the agenda for the summer.
TOP STORY: Zidane sanctions move for £180m-rated Sancho
Another day, another report suggesting one of Europe’s footballing giants will seek to poach Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund this summer. The latest comes from Bild, who writes that Real Madrid are the most-recent superclub to be interested in the 19-year-old winger.
Los Blancos have been linked with a move for Kylian Mbappe for a number of years, and while the 20-year-old Frenchman remains a favourite of Zinedine Zidane, there is an acceptance in the Spanish capital that Paris Saint-Germain are unwilling to part with their young star. And so Zidane, who returned to the Madrid dugout barely six weeks ago, has reportedly told club president Florentino Perez to bring in Sancho instead.
Dortmund have been telling outlets across Europe that Sancho is not for sale for months now, but Bild writes that the England international could indeed be had for the right price. The club are said to be open to a sale should the fee reach €180 million — a price that would make Sancho the joint-second-most-expensive footballer in history.
Old Trafford days numbered for Alexis, Rojo
Once again, it’s all go at Manchester United, with “go” being the operative word. According to The Sun, United are readying an emergency pay-off fund in order to ensure that the club can usher Alexis Sanchez and Marcos Rojo towards the Old Trafford exit.
Both players are among the highest earners at United — but their performances so far this season have hardly merited the enormous sums lavished on them by the club. Argentinian centre-back Rojo currently pulls in £150,000 a week from United, despite playing just 192 minutes of Premier League football so far this season. More worrying for the club’s money men is that he still has two years left on his current contract and is reportedly demanding a £6m fee to do one in the next transfer window.
That wage, though, pales in comparison to the jaw-dropping amounts paid to Sanchez. The Chilean let-down is on £505,000 a week at Old Trafford and given he appears to have no place in the club’s future, it’s little wonder that the United hierarchy are desperate to get rid of him.
City tempted by punt on Luis
He may only have played four matches for Benfica, but Manchester City have seen enough to make Florentino Luis a summer transfer target.
That’s according to The Guardian, which claims that the 19-year-old defensive midfielder has leapt to the top of City’s wishlist, with Pep’s Treble chasers ready to part with the €60m release clause required to bring him north to Manchester. The ever-shrewd Benfica, meanwhile, want to get Luis on a new deal soon so that clause jumps to over €100m, with his current contract already running to 2023.
Born in Lisbon, Luis has been with the club since 2010, coming through the youth ranks while representing his country at every rung of the youth-level ladder. Seen as one of Portugal’s brightest young talents, Luis is viewed by City as a potential long-term replacement for Fernandinho, who at the age of 33 will possibly be either hanging them up or heading elsewhere for one final payday.
Tap-ins
– Martin Odegaard arrived at Real Madrid with considerable fanfare — but now reports claim that he could soon be slinking out of the Bernabeu having made just a single appearance for Los Blancos. Reports in Dutch outlet, De Telegraaf (via Talksport), suggest that the Norwegian wonderkid, or one-time wonderkid, could be playing his football for Ajax next season after impressing on a loan deal with Vitesse in the Eredivisie this season.
– The Daily Telegraph claim that Darren Fletcher could be set for a sensational return to Old Trafford, just not in a playing capacity. The Scot is out of contract at Stoke City at the end of the season and the paper claims that he could soon be back on familiar ground, playing a critical role in the club’s revamped recruitment strategy under new man Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.