They said it could be a watershed moment. It could be a changing of the guard. It could be the moment where all that money spent made a bit of sense. Finally, they could rise to the top. No, I am clearly not talking about Nemanja Matic’s last minute winner for Manchester United against Crystal Palace on Monday but Paris Saint-Germain hoping to overturn their first-leg deficit against Real Madrid. Did they do it? Did they balls? And the first transfer rumour to break this morning? Yep, you guessed it.
Marouane Fellaini is exactly what PSG need for it all to come together, according to the Daily Mirror who really do strike me as the newspaper with their finger right on the pulse of all things Paris. When you have Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Edison Cavani what you need is a bit of an artist in the midfield to actually get the ball to them. So why they are going for the big mophead I do not know. Maybe they feel they need a bit more elbow in the middle of the park. Oh, he is free? That must help their FFP or something I am sure.
Jose Mourinho would like to replace Fellaini with either Jean-Michel Seri of OGC Nice or Abdoulaye Doucoure of Watford. Or maybe with both. Either way, the United boss wants to get his hands on them because they are thought to be interesting Jurgen Klopp over at Liverpool and, frankly, they don’t need any more help to become a better side than United.
Paris Saint-Germain are not just sniffing around the Premier League for players, oh no. They are likely to give their current gaffer the heave-ho after failing to win the Champions League again and they have whacked both Arsene Wenger and Antonio Conte on their shortlist. Wenger makes perfect sense because you would turn to a guy who has never won a European trophy to help you make the breakthrough to winning a European trophy, wouldn’t you?
While Liverpool might have to fight United for Seri and Doucoure, they might get their own way on a couple of other targets. They are thought to have made “good moves” for Thomas Lemar of AS Monaco, though the exact good moves are not mentioned. We could ponder over whether it was a solid two-step or maybe a fancy twirl was added at the end to catch the eye of the French international but, frankly, we will never know. They also like the look of Sessegnon Sr at Fulham who is keen to make the move. Personally, I had Ryan Sessegnon’s career path down as being more likely a move to Arsenal, stagnate for three years then make the move to one of the top four, but hey.
Sadio Mane claims Liverpool “can beat anyone” having watched his side fail to beat Porto at Anfield last night. OK, OK, Liverpool won on aggregate but you get my point.
Danny Welbeck has come out to deny talk of a dressing room split at Arsenal. Now. now Welbs. Don’t tell fibs. There has to be a split. On one side of the room you have the players, and on the other, you have the manager. If there isn’t a split in that dressing room right now, then there bloody well should be.
Leicester City fans can relax this morning after more disturbing news about Riyad Mahrez appeared overnight. No, he isn’t having another strop about not being allowed to leave but he did “claim” he was retiring from football with immediate effect. It turned out his Facebook account had been hacked, probably by his agent who is running out of new ways to get him out of the King Power Stadium.