Today's news is that Ross Barkley is prepared to leave the grinding poverty of Mouserland and travel south to seek his fortune amongst the gold paved streets of that London. It's a sweet story and as old as time. It's also one that the Daily Bullshit have fully embraced. However, apply a modicum of the skills of investigative journalism to the piece and things look somewhat different. Where would such a story come from? The young Mouser himself? No, Stevie G got terrible death threats when he threatened to make his fortune away from the "the land, the place I love." Better to allow your agent do it without attributing it to anyone. But why do such a thing? Could it be that nasty Mr Koeman has threatened to sell any player who refused to sign a contract when approaching the last year of their existing deal? Brian senses that both sides are having difficulty in reaching an agreed excessive wage for the underperforming scamp. Koeman probably doesn't rate the bloke too highly but has the smarts to realise that he'll double his money if he can get him to sign on the dotted line before the summer and would receive bugger all if no sale or deal is reached by 2018. Sign now and we'll sell you to Pep for what we got for Stones the year after? Sounds about right to me.
It wouldn't surprise me either way, to be honest. I can see how he'd fit into our squad and Lukaku looks like he's leaving, so maybe Barkley fancies joining him? A year left on his contract, still pretty young, English and has the ability and workrate. Can we swap him for Sissoko? Wait, someone did that one already, didn't they?
You lot really aren't happy with your team are you, that's 3 you want to ditch so far and replace them with Lukaku, Barkley and Rashford. Are there any defenders you are desperate to replace?
The other story which is doing the rounds is Porto striker Moussa Marega, who is currently on loan at Vitoria Guimares. On the one hand he's having a pretty goddamn good season at Guimaraes, with twelve goals in eighteen games...but come the **** on, there's no way Porto are letting him leave in the summer without charging £ridiculous for him, and that's on the assumption they even intend to sell him this summer rather than the more likely scenario, namely have him part of their first team next season then wait for the £ludicrous fee to be offered. Sissoko is three players now? If you're going to troll our board, at least show some kind of talent for it.
Both the Milan clubs have been linked, which in theory will boost the potential fee into the £18-22m range as a result, and a £12-16m profit is certainly something that can be reinvested into the squad (on top of the £20m we've received for Bentaleb and Fazio, the former is £16m of pure profit as he was signed for nothing) If those do add up, that's £32m in the coffers before TV money etc
Sissoko can help Pogba settle nicely, too. Great signing for Utd. Makes perfect sense for them to sign him
The Rashford one will happen if he doesn't get game time at United. The other two are just wild imaginative rumours.
It appears that Troy Parrott has signed: http://extra.ie/sport/soccernews/irelands-newest-teen-sensation-preparing-life-spurs Of course, the only real confirmation will be when his pic appears on the academy part of our site, as we never confirm development signings.
Today's rumour concerns Toby Alderweireld's contract negotiations. Much like the negotiations with Hugo Lloris,Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen et al this signals the player's imminent departure. On this occasion to Manchester United. Hmmmm, really? The suggestion is that Toby wants parity with the best paid players at the club. Whilst he doesn't have a profile as high as those 2 players, he is very important to the team. I'm sure that someting slightly south of Harry's deal could be offered and be found acceptable. That doesn't sound too impossible a solution given that the player is very happy at the club. I'd be amazed if United had any realistic hopes of tempting him north and shocked rigid if we had any thoughts of letting it happen.
Funny how that is getting more coverage than the story I relayed here: http://not606.com/threads/international-break-thread.345320/#post-10358470
Nike ITKs have told me the Rashford thing was marked ultra-confidential. So God knows how you also got that info.
Didn't Parrott post a picture on Twitter of a Spurs dressing room, then swiftly delete it? His page no longer has any posts at all, which is probably very sensible.
You mean like 38 appearances so far (20 as starter) Only Zlatan has played 3 games more than him and Herrera is the only one to have matched his total. Joint second most appearances isn't so shabby for a 19 year old
