🚨 Man City closing in on one deal and eyeing up another, plus Vitor Roque to Barcelona latest, and big updates from Arsenal, Chelsea & Man Utd
Today's transfer round-up, featuring Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and much more!
Good morning everyone, hope it was a happy Christmas to those who celebrate! Welcome to another Daily Briefing, with all your essential football headlines in one place and completely ad-free. Enjoy!
Today’s top stories:
Arsenal
Benjamin Sesko is open to leaving RB Leipzig amid interest from Arsenal and other top Premier League clubs - full story here.
Barcelona
Vitor Roque will travel to Spain in the next 24 hours to join Barcelona, plan confirmed. Tigrinho plans to arrive on Wednesday. He’s coming with his family in order to start training under Xavi in the following days.
Barcelona want to trigger €7m buy back clause for Chadi Riad. It formally can’t happen now but only at the end of the season once Real Betis will buy him — then Barca will activate buy back clause. Betis also have 50% sell-on clause included.
Manchester City have already scheduled one more meeting with River Plate to complete the structure of the Claudio Echeverri deal, but Barcelona really wanted him too. Deco is a big fan of the player and other key figures at the club know this talented player very well. The player was also tempted by this option, but it was impossible for Barca to make this deal happen because of Financial Fair Play restrictions.
📰 Barcelona have identified Fluminense midfielder Andre as a potential signing for the future, but could face competition from Man City and Liverpool (Mundo Deportivo)
Besiktas
Former Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is the favourite to take over at Besiktas as he closes in on the job (Mirror)
Boxing Day Football
As is tradition, it’s a big day for Premier League football today, with these fixtures to look out for…
12.30pm: Newcastle vs Nottingham Forest
3pm: Bournemouth vs Fulham
3pm: Sheffield United vs Luton Town
5.30pm: Burnley vs Liverpool
8pm: Manchester United vs Aston Villa
Chelsea
It was disappointment for Chelsea on Christmas Eve, but Christopher Nkunku managed his first goal for the club - how much can he give to the team now that he’s back from injury? FT Wolves 2-1 Chelsea [Pictures from Sky Sports]
Mauricio Pochettino on Nicolas Jackson: “If we compare Nico to different strikers that arrive at his age to a new league, he is scoring goals when you look at his performances. He is young, first PL season, the expectation is massive, we are Chelsea. Blame all together, not just one.”
Manchester City are confident of completing the Claudio Echeverri deal, but Chelsea also had an interest in this player. They had some contacts to ensure they were in the race, but City are now the big favourites as they advance to the final stages of this saga.
Inter Milan
Inter are advancing in talks to sign Tajon Buchanan from Club Brugge. Negotiations are underway between the two clubs. This week could already be important to find a solution as Inter need a Juan Cuadrado replacement ASAP.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan will sign a new deal at Inter very soon. A verbal agreement was reached weeks ago and is now all set to be sealed. Mkhitaryan will sign until June 2025. No doubts on both the player and club side.
Leeds United
Crysencio Summerville has produced some superb form since October: 10 goals and 5 assists. Several clubs including Aston Villa keep tracking him, but Leeds have no intention to sell him in January as he’s key player. Burnley also had a £20m bid turned down by Leeds in August.
Liverpool
Jamie Carragher has suggested Liverpool could replace Luis Diaz, telling the Gary Neville podcast: “Diaz just looks like a shadow of himself, the knee injuries last season, he had family problems this season, but I feel Diaz needs a big second half of the season or Liverpool will be going in the market in the summer. With Mane and Firmino going they haven’t really replaced them in terms of quality.”
Manchester City
Manchester City are discussing internally to buy Savinho and bring him back to the club next season. Premier League and Bundesliga clubs want to approach City Group with €30m proposals. In any case, Savinho will stay at Girona until the end of the season.
Finlay Gorman has signed his contract as a new Manchester City player from Leeds United. Long term deal sealed after medical passed as revealed last Friday. The 2008-born top talent turned down three other bids from Premier League top clubs in favour of joining City.
Julian Alvarez on Real or Barca in the future: “The truth is I’m very happy at Manchester City. I’ve been at the club for a little more than a year. I feel very happy with everything we’ve achieved. Now our goal is to compete and try to win them all over again!”
Manchester City have already scheduled one more meeting with River Plate to complete the structure of the Claudio Echeverri deal. The 2006-born Argentinian talent will stay at River on loan as part of the agreement. Man City are confident of agreeing the final details soon.
Manchester United
Raphael Varane continues to be linked with a move back to Real Madrid. They are still discussing internally about signing a new centre-back, because they’ve had so many injury problems in that position. However, for the moment Varane is not in contact with Real Madrid, and there’s been no approach to Manchester United at this stage. For Varane, there’s a chance he will stay at United this January and then leave in the summer, the situation is open and will depend on the proposals.
Could Man United be set to swoop for this talented Ligue 1 attacker?
Erik ten Hag on Willy Kambwala: “He has shown he has the capabilities. You can see has a very bright future. Of course he has to work on himself, but you can see his potential and we are very pleased with his performance.”
Ten Hag on if there is a possibility that Anthony Martial is sold in January: “When we have news, then of course I will tell it. But that is not our aim.”
Paul Scholes is worried about a lack of goals from the Red Devils, saying: “United have got real problems. Goalscoring is a real issue. It’s four games without a goal and without creating really. You talk about McTominay with six goals as your leading goalscorer, he’s a midfield player. The forward players have got to stand up, find some confidence from somewhere and bring some threat to the team. There’s no threat in the team.”
Amad Diallo’s Man United future looks in some doubt - full story here.
Napoli
Victor Osimhen’s agent Roberto Calenda: “Release clause? The contract is confidential. Next summer it will be the same: we’ll speak to Napoli and we will decide together. Last summer, some monstrous bids arrived… but we decided to stay.”
Napoli talented fullback Alessandro Zanoli is on the verge of joining Genoa on loan - the agreement is now at the final stages. Zanoli has accepted Genoa as favourite destination, clubs finalising deal as loan fee is being discussed. It will be sealed in the next days.
PSG
Lucas Beraldo is set to sign a five year deal as a new Paris Saint-Germain player. His medical tests will be this week and then the deal will be made official by PSG and Sao Paulo, as revealed last week.
PSG are also closing in on a deal for Gabriel Moscardo. Not long now after positive talks over a deal for him to join from Corinthians for €22m fee plus €1m add ons.
Real Madrid
Raphael Varane continues to be linked with a move back to Real Madrid. They are still discussing internally about signing a new centre-back, because they’ve had so many injury problems in that position. However, for the moment Varane is not in contact with Real Madrid, and there’s been no approach to Manchester United at this stage. For Varane, there’s a chance he will stay at United this January and then leave in the summer, the situation is open and will depend on the proposals.
Tottenham
Brennan Johnson donated money so 150 meals could be cooked on Christmas Day and given to the homeless. Some of the meals were delivered to A&E staff, the fire service and Police - to say thank you for their hard work.
Could this Tottenham midfielder be closing in on an exit from the club?
Dominic Solanke has been in fine form and Spurs are the latest to show an interest - full story here.