For what it's worth, amongst the Spanish/Spanish leaning flairs on R/Soccer, Balague is known as a complete joke with no sources/genuine itk status whatsoever. A Sky Sports News presenter-type relationship with rumours.
Sierralta is to replace Prodl in the non playing man bun role. We're still on the look out for a slightly too short for CB, 'I can't believe he is being picked every week' Mapps replacement.
Maps stays if Troy says so. Trouble is Troy doesn't get to say so anymore. Trouble is no one's told Troy yet.
SSN now claiming that United are in talks with Barca for a loan deal for Dembele. Potentially great news! Will leave their fans furious mind you.
Hopefully they'll get this deal done. Looks like only a loan though, but that should end their interest in Sarr. Had they got Sancho, then Dortmund could well have gone in for Sarr to replace him, so I think this could work out well for us.
Looking forward to tomorrow's Daily Express linking Sarr with Barca. Leventhal to confirm 'talks may or may not have taken place, Watford rate Sarr highly, £40m price tag, subscribe for 50p this month"
Dortmund I believe, would have to absolutely smash there record transfer to meet Sarrs valuation. Isn't their current record £27m? They'll either have to pull our pants down, though I think this much of a reduction would mean Sarr would need to throw his toys out of the pram big time, and he seems too much of a professional to do that, or break their record on someone who's had just over half a season in the Prem. It isn't how they work.
Maybe not, but they'll have £100m in their pockets and Sarr is hot property right now. If Liverpool and United are considering him as a viable proposition, then I don't think he'd be miles off their radar.
Dortmund announced £40m losses recently - that’s why it’s believed United have stayed sniffing around Sancho for so long...they think Dortmund will relent on the price a bit so they can cover their losses. I would think Dortmund would be interested in Sarr - but there’s no getting away from the fact that £50m is prohibitive pretty much to 99% of clubs. United, Chelsea and City being the exceptions it seems.
That's it; I was desperately trying to remember what his nickname was to add when originally posting, but for some reason it just would not compute.
Time to worry if they don't have one of these deals completed before the first deadline (although could still get Cavani as he is a free agent):
Sky so as ever it's mostly rubbish but I think the way you'd frame it is that they're looking for attacking reinforcements across that front three almost regardless of official position? Greenwood could keep playing on the wing for now, and perhaps Ole has a silly dream of replicating that freewheeling and interchanging Ronaldo-Rooney-Tevez axis from back in the day.
Wow. Fabrizio Romano, on his podcast (I haven't listened to it but seen this info summarized on twitter) has said that Sarr is viewed by United as an alternative for Sancho, but that we are looking for 55-60m Euros. I would be devastated to see him leave but that's a very good fee. EDIT: supposedly, he is some way 'down the list' of replacements
It's some combination of a) Rashford, Martial and Greenwood can all play across the front three, so buying an out and out striker means that there is more depth across the front three and b) they are both cheaply available on short-term deals so they can convince Dortmund that Sancho is their long-term target and they'll be able to get him for cheaper next year when there are only two years left on his contract and so therefore their best best is to take the 100m or so United are offering now.
Not sure what the exchange rate is currently? Would that not make the fee around £45m-£50m in sterling as was previously reported?
United’s money genuinely would be better spent on Koulibaly, Telles, Cavani plus Dembele on loan. Those 4 would still come cheaper in total than just Sancho. And it would plug all the obvious holes in their squad. Then return for Sancho in a year when he will possibly be cheaper and Dortmund more willing to sell. Only issue being that other parties may also be in position to get Sancho next summer...
I’ll have a bit more respect for Gino if now he has seen Liverpool off, he knows United are desperate and has whacked another £10m on the price...
I'm not sure how viable Dembele on loan actually is. He only has two years left on his current deal and is at least somewhat in Koeman's plans at Barca so I'm not really sure what Barca get out of a dry loan.
From the Liverpool Echo: Bids have been made for Rhian Brewster, Harry Wilson and Marko Grujic. Combined prices for the three players are believed to total around the £60m mark. How much are we asking for again? Oh.
