WHY SAY ANYTHING?

Where does all that money keep coming from? Reports from Madrid are now suggesting that Real are prepared to offer Cristiano Ronaldo £28.5 million per year to stay at the club, something which he was probably always intending to do but we all know how he likes to play his little games at the end of every season.

He is actually reaching the stage of his career where he has to be careful with his annual shenanigans because, at 33 and getting older, there will come a time when he will pretend to throw his toys out of the pram and Real Madrid will run a truck over them!

In another report from a trusted source, Madrid are rumoured to be prepared to pay £307 million to take Neymar from the French capital to the Spanish capital. Neymar himself was unavailable for comment as he is busy jetting round Europe en route to Russia to take part in the World Cup.

He has said, however, that he wants to play for Pep Guardiola at some stage and, as everybody should know, Pep is the manager of Manchester City.

He was also unavailable for comment as he is busy playing golf.

So the council funded club appear to be about to dip into the coffers yet again if those reports turn out to be true!

Meanwhile, Jürgen Klopp continues to excite the fans…..

Liverpool will not be buying French international midfielder Nabil Fekir. Who says so? His club do, that’s who! They have accused the Reds of trying to lower the transfer fee AFTER the player had completed his medical. Being the fine upstanding paragon of virtue that they undoubtedly are, Lyon say they have pulled out of the deal.

Unsurprisingly, Liverpool thought the player wasn’t quite as fit as his club would have them believe and wanted a discount because the goods they were buying were somewhat damaged.

The deal may still happen if a new fee can be agreed.

In other Liverpool news Alisson, the Roma goalkeeper wants his future sorting out before the World Cup. Roma want around £79 million for him and Liverpool are probably interested. The only problem is that the keeper himself would prefer a move to Real Madrid.

This may not necessarily be a bad thing as he didn’t look too good in their recent Champion’s League meetings and Liverpool’s record when buying goalkeepers is not too clever. The last time they bought a decent number one was in 1967 when Scunthorpe United very kindly let them have Ray Clemence.

Up the East Lancs road…..

All is very quiet in Manchester at present where United are awaiting reports on their latest signing, Fred. He is the one who has managed to get injured before he has even kicked a ball for his new club and it looks as though he will be kept out of the opening couple of World Cup games.

Meanwhile it is even quieter across at City where, as we pointed out earlier, Pep is away playing golf and nothing must interrupt him when he is on the green.

Darn Sarf…..

According to The Sun, (so it must be true), Arsenal are about to sign the Freiburg and Turkey centre-back Caglar Soyuncu. They are also in the process of finalising a deal for Sokratis Papastathopoulos so they should be pretty solid in central defence next season.

As for the other two in London, Chelsea still don’t know who their manager will be next season and this appears to be their priority, although you would be forgiven for wondering why it is taking so long if it is a priority!

Tottenham Hotspur will probably make a signing or two as soon as people at the club can get over the new Daniel Levy. He has been transformed into a generous, affable soul who likes nothing better than throwing money at new players, existing players and a new stadium.

This, of course, will result in new blood being recruited and Mauricio Pochettino being able to sleep at night again!

And finally…..

The retrospective punishment being used in the World Cup means that players can be sanctioned if the referee has missed an incident, even during the game.

So if a player commits a cynical foul or dives to try and gain advantage and these attempted deceptions are not seen by the officials they can, for example, take action at half-time having been made aware of them.

This is of no great concern to Dele Alli who reckons that he will be concentrating on all that is good about the game and, because of this, he will be far too busy to make obscene gestures to players or go to ground too easily or even just kick somebody.

If bookies are taking bets on the first English player to fall foul of the new rule then it might be worth having a little flutter on the Tottenham man! Nuff said!