With the exception of Belarus, South Korea and starting today, Germany, global football is currently suspended. The Premier League has been given the all clear by the government to restart after June 1, behind closed doors, and with that in mind, teams are now training awhile adhering to social distancing guidelines.
However, there are still plenty of questions to be answered when it comes to Project Restart, and we’ll learn more this week as meetings are held and votes taken. Until football returns, we still have plenty of transfer rumors to cover. So let’s take a spin with through the MUFC rumor mill.
For today’s MUFC news and notes round-up go here.
For today’s first MUFC transfer rumor round-up, covering three players in Borussia Dortmund’s 4-0 trouncing of FC Schalke go here.
We start today with news of United reportedly doing background checks on one of their top three summer transfer targets, Jack Grealish. It’s totally understandable why United really need to do their due diligence on the Aston Villa captain.
For one, he would conceivably be an £80 million investment, according to the Mirror. Secondly, his breaking of quarantine, within hours of publicly stumping for people to stay home, and then offering a weak excuse, is a major red flag.
This is a classic example of a player’s price going up and staying there when it’s Manchester United who’s interested.
Relegation could play a major role here, on two fronts. If Villa go down they’ll really need money and Grealish will very much want out. Both are advantageous for United.
Elsewhere, recent years have seen Leicester City lose some of their best and brightest stars to bigger English clubs, with N’Golo Kante, Riyad Mahrez and Harry Maguire being prime examples. They’re determined to make sure Wilfried Ndidi, the man who succeeded Kante in midfield, not become the next name on that list.
NBC Sports, citing an exclusive report in Nigeria, claim that the Foxes have deemed Ndidi not for sale; period. Speaking of Maguire, last summer saw his inspiring a Manchester derby in the transfer market.
And reportedly, we could see another one in the summertime, this one over 19-year-old Argentine midfielder Thiago Almada.
The Sun believes that the Velez Sarsfeld man will cost around £15 million plus add ons, and that City see him as the heir apparent to David Silva.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
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