WHY SAY ANYTHING?

Manchester City are on the verge of completing a deal for Aymeric Laporte. The Frenchman currently plays for Athletic Bilbao and City have circumvented any needless haggling and price manipulation by the Spaniards by just agreeing to pay the release cause, meaning that there is nothing Bilbao can do about the transfer other than sanction it.

The player has yet to he capped by his country but that, in truth, is more a reflection on the strange selection policy sometimes adopted by the French manager, Didier Deschamps.

The question now is; will he play regularly for City? Most people would think that a player costing around £60 million would be nailed on for a place in the first team but, as usual, that is not necessarily the case when it is Pep Guardiola picking the starting eleven.

He is just as likely to continue with the partnership of John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi who have been performing well together, as he is to make changes.

However, having both been culpable for the two goals scored by Bristol City in the Carabao Cup semi-final, it may be that one or the other will be given a break.

In other City-related news it is being reported that they will face competition for the signing of Jean-Michael Seri, a midfielder from the Ivory Coast who currently plays for Nice.

Who else wants him? Manchester United, that’s who! They are set to bid farewell to Marouane Fellaini and welcome Michael Carrick to the coaching staff at the end of this season, so feel in need of at least one replacement.

Seri would cost in the region of £35 million and it will probably fall to the player to make the final decision on which team he joins.

At City he would have to oust one of Fernandinho, Silva, De Bruyne or one the wide players if Guardiola chooses to play him there.

At United he would need to force his way in front of Mata, Pogba, Matić or also one of the wide players so, based on that, he probably stands a slightly higher chance of getting games at United rather than City, but who really knows?

A player in the same mould as N’Golo Kanté and once having been touted as “the new Xavi”, he would be a welcome addition to either club.

Stubborn Old Man will likely make Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang his second marquis signing of this window to play alongside his first, Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

The most interesting aspect of these two signings will be to see if the fans can come up with any witty terrace songs about them!

Chelsea appear to be close to signing both Edin Džeko and Emerson Palmieri from Roma for a combined fee of around £44 million if you read The Guardian, or £57 million if you read The Metro.

Signing Palmieri, a left-back, would probably signal the end of their pursuit of Alex Sandro but it is the signing of Dzeko which is the more intriguing of the two for a couple of reasons.

The first being that Roma are currently better than Chelsea and were certainly the masters in their two Champion’s League group games.

Secondly, Džeko is currently the first choice centre forward at Roma, something very unlikely to be the case at Chelsea where Álvaro Morata would fill that position. So what would Džeko gain by joining, other than the obvious one, money?

Still, it looks as though this deal is going to happen so we will just have to wait and see.

 

Liverpool are still interested in signing Thomas Lemar from Monaco and have also expressed an interest, reportedly, in Salomon Rondon of West Brom, although quite who he would replace of Firmino, Salah and Mané would be interesting to see. Maybe there is some truth in the rumour that Salah will be going to Madrid in the near future!

It is more likely, however, that he would replace the back-up player that Daniel Sturridge has now become. Sturridge needs to leave sooner rather than later to get some games in ahead of the World Cup.

And all of this going on when what they really need is a new goalkeeper!

And finally…..

 

Tottenham Hotspur have been rumoured to be interested in both Malcom and Lucas Moura. Of the former Mauricio Pochettino said that there was as much chance of signing Usain Bolt, so we can probably rule that one out and, of the latter, Spurs have denied that any talks are in progress so that doesn’t appear to be going anywhere either.

They are now reported to be discussing a deal with Ajax for their winger David Neres so, until they deny it, we’ll keep an eye on this one.

So that’s the top six and what they are, supposedly, all getting up to. Stay tuned to find out if any of this transfer nonsense actually happens.