EXCL: Man Utd's Antony statement, Chelsea's Cherki contact, Palhinha speculation continues, two Arsenal updates, and more

Manchester United’s statement on Antony

Let’s start today’s piece with Antony, because Manchester United yesterday released a statement about the accusations against the Brazilian winger and the investigations taking place. There were some rumours about a possible exclusion for Antony from the squad, as happened with the Brazilian national team, but Manchester United didn’t confirm that. What we can say for now is that on the player side, Antony and his camp have not received any information from Man United about the club putting him out of the squad.

United are waiting for the investigation and to get more information on this story, and then they will update this Antony case, but at the moment they are not mentioning that he is out of the squad. It’s also important to mention that Antony has not received any information from the club’s board that he’s out of the squad, so let’s see what happens. Keep an eye on the situation, but it seems nothing is imminent from United’s side.

Two major Qatar deals nearly done

There are a couple of imminent deals in the works, and one of those is Philippe Coutinho leaving Aston Villa to join Al Duhail. An agreement is imminent for Coutinho to leave on loan for the Qatari club. The player has said yes to the move despite also receiving approaches from Besiktas on Deadline Day - he was keen to go to Qatar.