Premier League teams begin rebuilding ahead of next season

Man Utd in and out players

The latest from Old Trafford regarding manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer’s intended clear out of players is that the club will listen to offers for Matteo Darmian, Marcos Rojo, Juan Mata who has been unable to agree new terms and wants to head back to Spain and Romelu Lukaku.

Ander Herrera and Antonio Valencia have already left. Solskjaer has a wishlist of new talent he wants to bring in which includes Leicester centre back Harry Maguire, Ajax captain Matthijs de Ligt, Napoli centre back Kalidou Koulibaly, Crystal Palace’s right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Swansea City’s Daniel James and high scoring Lille striker and winger Nicolas Pepe. Koulibaly will be difficult to land because Napoli will fight to hold onto him and have placed a huge £150million price tag on him. Napoli have already rejected an offer of £85million from United and £90million from Real Madrid. Benfica’s young centre half, 22-year-old Ruben Dias is a possible replacement. Paris St Germain midfielder Adrien Rabiot also remains a possibility as he could come in for free as his contract expires soon. Solskjaer is taking a very short holiday with his family during the break to concentrate on working with the club in readiness for next season which kicks off on August 10th.

 

Sturridge would be a very good buy

Some players attract injuries like a magnet. Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere is a typical example, now playing for West Ham because he couldn’t hold down a regular place because he was rarely available. Regrettably, Liverpool’s talented striker Daniel Sturridge is in the same situation. Often cruelly referred to as ‘sick note’ Sturridge, he is a high-earning player on £120k a week but he has attracted criticism from both fellow players and fans. Managers want players like Jordan Henderson and James Milner who would stitch their own wounds and run back on to the pitch if given a chance. They are warriors. Now Klopp has lost patience with Sturridge and he will be leaving this summer. Any team manager and physio who can keep him fit will get one very talented striker, who scored 21 league goals when Liverpool came so close to winning the title in 2013-14. His colleagues from that team have gone on to great things: Philippe Coutinho, Luis Suarez and Raheem Sterling. I doubt Daniel will transfer to a place in a top-six Premier League team because of his injury record but a mid-table or lower team will be getting a real bargain if they can keep him fit.

 

Everton close in on Welbeck

My Everton insiders tell me that the Toffees are in a good place to sign Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck. He is now back in full training after surgery on his right ankle last November. West Ham are interested as they want to replace injury-prone Andy Carroll but Newcastle, Crystal Palace and Wolves are also in the running. I am reliably informed that Everton are the favourites to sign him but until the contract is signed you never know. At Arsenal, Welbeck earns £100k a week and I understand that Everton are willing to raise this. I am told that Welbeck would want a guarantee of regular starting matches so he can force his way back into the England team.

 

Lukaku could bring Everton £5million

Speaking of Everton, they will earn £5million if Romelu Lukaku leaves Manchester United in the next couple of months. Inter Milan are interested in taking Lukaku and he is very keen to go to Italy and play for them. Ex-Chelsea manager Antonio Conte is the incoming manager at Inter and has made it clear that he wants to work with 26-year-old. When Everton sold him to Manchester United for £75million in 2017 there was a clause put into the deal that if he moved on from Old Trafford before 2022 they would receive another £5million.

 

Bayern on the hunt for Sane

I am hearing from Manchester City that they are expecting Bayern Munich to make an approach for their German winger Leroy Sane. Bayern’s iconic legends and veteran wingers Arjen Robben and Frank Ribery are leaving this summer and Bayern need to spend big to replace them. Sane would fit the bill perfectly. Club President Ali Hoeness would only comment: “Yes, we are dealing with this matter.” Sane has a contract with City until 2021 and the Manchester club have already begun negotiations to extend this. However, no agreements have been reached as yet. He has been offered £150k a week. To demonstrate the depth of quality at City, Sane has fallen behind Raheem Sterling and Bernado Silva in Pep Guardiola’s starting order and he lined up for only 21 of the club’s 38 matches last season. Fans and commentators noted that the manager preferred Riyad Mahrez to start City’s vital two final matches instead of Sane and the German was not best pleased. Pep says he is a great admirer of Sane but wants to see more consistency from his winger. He also pointed out that the club has been negotiating with Sane’s agents for one and half years but added that he definitely wants him to stay. The fee for Bayern could be a problem with City talking of a £90million player whereas Bayern has put a price of £70million as the highest they can go. If Sane does leave, City will probably pursue Portuguese club Benfica’s 19-year-old Joao Felix who has been lighting up matches with his dazzling performances.

 

Wenger appreciating his time out

Arsene Wenger has been giving interviews during which he said how much he is enjoying life after Arsenal. He said it was ‘strange’ watching the team he managed for 22 years. But he has gradually got used to life outside the stress of weekly training and winning or losing matches. At 69 years, he admitted that he had neglected a lot of people around him because football took up all his time. He said: “Once you go in there, there is nothing else. So I thought, let’s take a bit of time. OK, two months, three months. Now I have a problem to get in again. I will go back into football for sure. In what position I don’t know, whether as a manager or not. The appetite, the desire, is still there. I know what kind of life I have in front of me.” I personally know how busy he used to be. I tried to convince him to go to Africa to do a 48-hour tour of academies and meeting selected players. He said no. He didn’t have the time despite me offering him five first class air tickets for his entourage, five-star hotel accommodation, meeting the President of an East African country and £50k. Wenger has invested in a company called PlayerMaker which is a football technology company and installs microchips in boots to track every piece of data in training and matches. When Wenger arrived in Premier League football he brought with him new training methods, diets and tactics and he quickly became a guru winning titles and cups. He wrote a best selling autobiography and made a name for himself as a TV pundit. He also added that now he has time to sit back and see mistakes managers make and how the patterns of games change.

 

No place for Nasri at West Ham

I am sorry to say that Manuel Pellegrini has lost confidence in Samir Nasri because of his constant injury problems and will move him on in the coming weeks. Samir is on a six-month contract from January at £80,000 a week. Regrettably, the Frenchman has made only five Premier League appearances and will join Andy Carroll, goalkeeper Adrian, forward Javier Hernandez and Lucas Perez going through the exit door.

 

Torreira leading the new Arsenal

Lucas Torreira’s arrival at Arsenal perhaps signified the change from the Arsene Wenger era more than anything else. The 22-year-old Uruguayan’s midfield presence for the Gunners has been immense despite their midweek Europa League Cup final defeat to Chelsea. On his arrival at the Emirates he was given time to adjust to life in London. During a trip to a supermarket, he discovered his home town product Fray Bentos meat pies! He was so excited and said: “I come from a tiny town of 25,000 people called Fray Bentos and these pies are our most famous export and here they are in my local shop! I feel at home now!” Torreira admitted that he was star-struck by players like Mesut Ozil and Alexandre Lacazette but on arrival at the Gunner’s London Colney training base he was handed the No11 shirt and given a space in the first-team dressing room next to Ozil. He said it was the most fantastic day of his life. He said: “It is such a privilege to be here with all these famous players.” Manager Unai Emery first concentrated on getting Torreira fit and he sat out the first five games. Everything has to be explained to him in Spanish by Emery but Lucas is working on his English. Now he is a regular and has formed a formidable partnership with the much improved Granit Xhaka. He is definitely one of the players leading the changes from the days of Wenger.