Money appears to be no object in linking Liverpool to every half-decent goalkeeper in Europe right now.
Today it is Atletico Madrid’s Jan Oblak who has been drawn out of the hat alongside an £80m fee. We are supposed to now believe that Liverpool will offer this for Oblak, Madrid will bend over and all Liverpool’s troubles will disappear. At the other end of the stick, Liverpool are also being linked to their B team goalkeeper, Alex McCarthy of Southampton. Well, I suppose if you are buying two goalkeepers for £80m it doesn’t matter if one costs £80m and the other nothing at all, right?
Liverpool are also being linked to Shaqiri as the rumour makers are noticing that the World Cup is starting to distract people and they need some headlines that will get them back on their pages.
And if Shaqiri wasn’t sexy enough in the hip department, Liverpool are still being linked to Nabil Fekir who is currently on French duty. Don’t stop there, Liverpool!
Speaking of international duty, England waved goodbye to Blighty with a 2-0 win over Costa Rica at Elland Road, Leeds last night. I think we’ve found the answer to the question, “how can Manchester United get the best out of Marcus Rashford?” Sack Jose and appoint Gareth Southgate. Rashford looks like a completely different player for England, mainly because he is allowed to go and do what he is good at. Mind you, watch out for Danny Welbeck as well – he has quite a respectable goal-to-game ratio for the national team. Having said I wouldn’t get too excited about England heading to Russia, the last two performances have shifted me from ‘we will find a way of not getting out of the groups’ to ‘well, we’ll win all our group games then get knocked out in the first round of knockouts’. Trust me, that’s me getting excited.
The clubs being linked to Bayern Munich’s Poland star Robert Lewandowski seem to be on a rotating disk at the moment and today’s pick is…. Manchester United. Don’t worry Chelsea fans, I believe it is your turn again tomorrow.
Manchester United haven’t announced Fred as their man just yet, which might be a good thing as the Brazil midfielder suffered an ‘ankle trauma’ in training yesterday. No, we don’t really know either so will keep you posted.
Tottenham Hotspur are preparing for LAT (lif after Toby) as the central defender is still being linked to Old Trafford. By way of replacement, the Poch is though to have Matthijs de Ligt of Ajax and Newcastle’s Jamaal Lascelles written down.
Danny Drinkwater, unsurprisingly, is on the same bus out of Chelsea as Antonio Conte though we are not sure what stop he is getting off at. Coming in could be Jean Michel Sarri of Nice because, well, he hasn’t been linked to Chelsea for a while. That will please Eden Hazard.
West Ham United clearly have a coherent transfer strategy in mind and they are back searching for floaty little attacking types that can play off a front man (except they don’t really have any front men) and are in for Lazio’s Felipe Anderson. That’s bound to alert a few other bigger clubs who will no doubt try and sign him too, using the sales pitch “we are not West Ham”.
John Terry could be off to Derby County meaning it won’t be long before Didier Drogba, Joe Cole and Eidur Gudjonsen get a call.
And finally, if Amazon think that dangling Cardiff City vs Burnley on a Monday night under people’s nose is going to con the good British public into parting with another tenner a month for live and exclusive football then, dammit, they are probably right.
