WHY SAY ANYTHING?

(Fred, having spotted the cameras, sticks out his tongue and starts doing those keepy-uppy thingummyjigs)

What did we tell you in yesterday’s tittle-tattle? Those of you who actually read it will remember that we pointed out that it was approaching the time when players were going to have to start making the headlines for moving from one club to another instead of managers.

With only Chelsea to decide upon who should occupy their hot seat next season, the news on coaches was always going to become rather thin on the ground eventually and the attention must now, inevitably, turn to the real entertainers.

So here’s what we know so far.

Manchester United have announced that they have agreed a deal to sign Fred from Shakhtar Donetsk. This does not mean they have signed the player, just that they have agreed that they will sign him so why they don’t just wait until that has happened before announcing it is a little beyond our mortal ken.

Apparently, they must have gone further with Porto and a deal for Diogo Dalot, a teenage defender nobody outside of Portugal had heard of until very recently, because they have announced that one!

Arsenal, meanwhile, have signed Stephan Lichtsteiner on a free transfer from Juventus and he will officially join the club when his contract expires on July 1st.

Unai Emery has also been raiding the crèche at PSG and has signed Yacine Adli, a 17 year-old midfielder who can play out wide if required.

They are also at the same stage as United and Fred with a deal for Sokratis Papastathopoulos, which has been agreed and just needs finalising. Apparently, and rather unbelievably, the former Dortmund man turned down Manchester United to join Arsenal. Some reports just go too far!

West Ham United have signed Ryan Fredericks from Fulham on a four year deal but are struggling to meet the wage demands of PSG’s Javier Pastore so that one may not happen.

Liverpool, as we already know, have signed Fabinho but appear not to be making much progress in the pursuit of a decent goalkeeper with Alisson stating that his preference is to go to Real Madrid.

That would leave Jan Oblak as the stand-out candidate and, with only Arsenal for competition, he shouldn’t be too difficult to get but there are rumours that PSG are sniffing around as well and that could muddy the waters somewhat.

Chelsea, Spurs, Manchester City and Tottenham haven’t bought anybody yet but, fear not ye fans of these non-red teams, they will start to make moves quite soon.

In other news…..

Yaya Touré has wasted no time in letting it be known that he thinks his ex-boss is a cad! In an unprovoked tirade he just proved what a lot of people already knew. Basically, Touré hates Guardiola and, now that the Catalan is no longer his manager, is quite happy to tell the world.

He talks of being marginalised and of the City manager having a “problem with African players”.

His problem is that the world is not quite ready to be interested in an opinion which smacks very much of sour grapes and has only emerged since the player left Manchester City.

This is the same Yaya Touré who threw a strop when he wasn’t given a birthday cake by his club and who has regularly threatened to look elsewhere for employment over the years.

He has, in general, been a good servant and has deserved his accolades and the plaque in his honour at the City academy. All he is achieving with this outpouring of vitriol is the spoiling of his own wake.

He should now leave the club with dignity and wait until he is very much older before writing his memoirs at which time he can include his thoughts on his career and people will then look back on it and judge accordingly. Now is too soon and he will get little, if any, sympathy.

And finally…..

Sergio Ramos, that upstanding defender of everything that is right in the world, one of those players to whom the issuing of a yellow or red card always appears to come as a shock, has now felt the need to step forward and defend himself.

This is a first. He usually goes as far as to feign innocence but in the full knowledge that he really did whatever it was he was accused of at the time.

None of his bookings or sendings off have been contested because, well it was Sergio, so they must have been merited.

Now, however, he has had enough. Blamed for Mohammed Salah’s injury in the Champion’s League final which was actually caused by Salah grabbing Ramos’ arm and then falling awkwardly to the ground, he is also now being blamed for causing Loris Karius to play most of the game suffering from concussion thanks to a blow from the Spaniard before those goals.

As he said himself of both the incident with Larius and the one with Salah, “I see the play well, he grabs my arm first and I fell to the other side, the injury happened to the other arm and they said that I gave him a judo hold.

After the goalkeeper [Karius] said that I dazed him with a clash with me I am only missing (Roberto) Firmino saying that he got a cold because a drop of my sweat fell on him”.

 

So there you have it, poor old Sergio, the victim for once but the villain as usual. Some things never change!