Manchester United have just £20m left to buy a striker and will spend £60m of that on Rasmus Højlund, while there is bad news for Arsenal…
Mathematics with the sun
Heading from The sun Today
Andre Onana flies in to complete Man Utd transfer TODAY … but deal leaves Ten Hag with just £20m to spend on striker
Elsewhere in The sun Today
Erik ten Hag will now turn his full attention to the capture of Atalanta’s Rasmus Hojlund.
The Italian club initially demanded a whopping £86m for the 6ft 3in Danish striker, who made just 87 senior appearances and scored nine goals in 32 appearances last season.
But the Old Trafford outfit are becoming convinced they can get the price down to around £60m including add-ons for the 20-year-old.
Good to talk
Sorry about this, but we’re back to weird quotes in the headlines again. This one from The sun is just inexplicable.
TRANSFER NEWS LIVE: Bayern hold Kane ‘talks’, Premier League race for Diaby, Alba set to join Messi at Inter Miami
They have held talks. Talks have been held. No one doubts that Spurs and Bayern and Kane are in negotiations. What is in doubt is the outcome of these talks. It’s not a quote, it’s not a concept that you might want to distance yourself from, it’s not an idea that people won’t grasp. Why are those scare quotes there? Bayern hold Kane negotiations. Done. Accurate. Sorted.
It’s obviously not a big deal, but it drives us ‘crazy’.
Shining stars
Ugly news for Arsenal from The sunwho reveal that ‘SIX stars are set to leave the Gunners this summer’ before Mikel Arteta can get his hands on more cash to spend after only being handed a paltry £200m. to improve his team so far.
Who are these Six Stars then? Kieran Tierney, we’ll admit, is a good if injury-prone full-back, but one we’d probably stop short of calling an Arsenal star. What about the rest of this celestial sextet constellation?
Cedric Soares, Nicolas Pepe, Albert Lokonga, Nuno Tavares and Rob Holding could also be on the way out.
Words just don’t mean anything anymore, do they?
Bavaria big
Bayern Munich won a pre-season friendly 27-0 yesterday. It’s not that surprising – it’s not even the first time it’s happened. It is the third time in recent years that they have played a game against local ninth-tier opponents FC Rottach-Egern, and while this was the biggest of their wins in those three games, the other two finished 20-2 in 2018 and 23. -0 the following year.
It is definitely a game from which you can learn absolutely nothing about anything or anyone. Bayern Munich, the best team in Germany and one of the best in the world, is much better than a team that in England would be roughly at Combined Counties Premier or Eastern Counties Premier level. It’s literally just a bit of fun that Bayern takes very seriously every time, which only makes it funnier. There are no conclusions to be drawn here.
So obviously conclusions have been drawn. ‘Sadio Mane’s face says it all’ it offers Mirror after he inexplicably failed to wildly celebrate scoring the 27th goal in the last minute.
Even better from Express which reckons ‘Marcel Sabitzer sends message to Man Utd after five-goal 27-0 Bayern win’. Yes, and that message is that he would be hugely useful if Man United find themselves in a spot of bother against, say. Banstead Athletic at any time next season.
Marcel Sabitzer sent Manchester United a reminder of his abilities when he enjoyed a memorable night in Bayern Munich’s first pre-season friendly on Tuesday night. The Bundesliga champions beat FC Rottach-Egern 27-0 with Sabitzer one of three players to score five goals.
Don’t name the other players to score five goals guys! You play it down.
It’s almost as if United very well have a perfect memory of his abilities from his 11 goalless appearances in the Premier League last season. Which is perhaps a little more relevant than scoring five goals from inside the six-yard box in a practice round against amateurs.
However, they are not alone.
‘Man Utd fans plead to ‘bring him in’ after loan star scores five in pre-season clash’ reckons The star after finding three people very openly joking (and not begging by any means) on Twitter.
The sun go even further, with the bolder claim that ‘Man Utd fans want all loan flop back as he scores FIVE goals to lead team to stunning 27-0 pre-season win’.
All? Do all Man Utd fans want him back? Or ‘Four Man Utd fans make the same joke on Twitter’?
If four people make up all that is left of Manchester United’s fan base, then The Sun have massively buried their lead here. They don’t go around with those protests.
do not forget me
We’ve already had fun with it Spurs’ wide selection of potential Like A New Signingsbut Express have gone there for real.
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou could save Daniel Levy millions by keeping £67m forgotten duo
Giovani Lo Celso and Destiny Udogie are said to be a duo and both were impressive in the second half of the defeat to West Ham. We’ll also give the Express their due for not pretending pre-season results matter, focusing on the encouraging elements of Spurs’ performance rather than the SHOCK result of the Hammers STUN Spurs as others went with.
And Lo Celso’s possible uses in a team lacking any other obvious back-up to James Maddison in the No.10 role are obvious. There is an undeniable possibility that a Spurs career that appeared to be over could be given a new lease of life.
However, labeling Udogie with him as part of a ‘forgotten duo’ is nonsense.
Lo Celso’s Spurs career has gone wildly wrong and can now get back on track. That’s classic forgotten man territory, right there.
But Udogie? His Spurs career is exactly where it was always planned to be. He signed from Udinese last summer, was immediately loaned back for a year to continue his development, and now at 20 he is ready for a place in Spurs’ first team. Not much of the last 12 months has gone entirely to plan at Spurs, but Udogie’s path is an undoubted exception. Some fans and hackers might have forgotten about him, but the Spurs certainly hadn’t.