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Gossip Column Inches – Part 6

The Thursday gossip column is bought to you by a bit of hangover, but when the weather is this good why wouldn’t you go and sit in a beer garden the night before. Anyway no-one cares about my alcohol intake, here’s a whole host of transfer news instead.

Gossip in normal font, my thoughts in bold

Manchester United are set to bid for Barcelona and Colombia centre-back Yerry Mina, 23, after failing in their attempt to sign 25-year-old Leicester City and England defender Harry Maguire. (Mirror) Considering he only moved to Barcelona in January this is something of a strange one, that said he has not really settled in at the Nou Camp as the Catalan giants look set to cut their losses.

Everton are not willing to match Barcelona’s £35m valuation of Mina, and will instead move for Manchester United’s Argentina defender Marcos Rojo, 28. (Goal) Could be a decent capture for Everton as they need to freshen up their centre back pairings.

Tottenham are lining up a £30m bid for Bournemouth’s 21-year-old midfielder Lewis Cook, who captained England Under-20s to World Cup success last summer. (Star) This could be interesting for Tottenham, not only that but it would fill their home grown player requirement.

Chelsea will risk losing 26-year-old Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois on a free transfer if they are unable to recruit a replacement before the transfer window closes on 9 August. (Mail) It might make more sense to at least have the Belgian at their disposal for one more year, they need to be keeping hold of all their big names otherwise it could be a difficult season for the Blues.

Real Madrid and Croatia midfielder Mateo Kovacic, 24, will not join Manchester United because he does not want to play under Red Devils manager Jose Mourinho. (Marca) Can’t say I blame him.

Adrien Rabiot, 23, can leave Paris St-Germain if the Ligue 1 champions sign his fellow France midfielder N’Golo Kante, 27, from Chelsea. (Mundo Deportivo, via Calciomercato) Earlier in the week he was meant to be signing a new contract, so believe what you want

Bayer Leverkusen have made contact with Tottenham over signing 19-year-old English midfielder Marcus Edwards. (Sun) Another young starlet who is eyeing up a move to the Bundesliga, could be a loss for Tottenham. At the same time though the feeling is that his attitude is not good enough to play under Mauricio Pochettino.

Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri is set for for talks with Brazil winger Willian, 29, with Real Madrid, Manchester United and Barcelona interested. (Star) £65m for Willian, the game’s gone mad.

West Ham have had a £27m bid for Uruguay striker Maxi Gomez rejected by Celta Vigo, who are demanding the 21-year-old’s £35m release clause is met. (Mirror) I would imagine that West Ham come back with an improved offer, especially with Andy Carroll once again going lame.

Crystal Palace are closing on Swansea’s 26-year-old Ghana forward Jordan Ayew in a deal that will involve 21-year-old Netherlands midfielder Jairo Riedewald going the other way. (Guardian) Swansea are selling off what star names they have, first Mawson and now J.Ayew. They may well struggle to return to the top flight

Serbia midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic is staying at Lazio this season. The 23-year-old has been linked with Manchester United and Chelsea this summer. (Star) The fact that Lazio were asking for somewhere in the region of £100m probably played a large part in this.

Barcelona technical director Eric Abidal has denied he met Paul Pogba to discuss a transfer for the 25-year-old Manchester United and France midfielder. (Mundo Deportivo – in Spanish) Is this news?

The transfer of Argentina striker Gonzalo Higuain, 30, from Juventus to AC Milan is “just about” done, according to Milan’s general manager Beppe Marotta. (Gazzetta dello Sport, via ESPN) Quite the capture for Milan, Higuain undoubtedly the spare man at Juventus. Can he deliver a Scudetto for his new employers?

AC Milan are also set to sign another Chelsea target – Juventus and Italy defender Mattia Caldara, 24 – in a swap deal for 31-year-old Italy defender Leonardo Bonucci. (Mail) Bonucci going back to Juventus, that’s something of a surprise it must be said.

However, Chelsea are not giving up on signing Higuain, and could sell 31-year-old France striker Olivier Giroud to Marseille in order to finance a move. (Mirror) Surely Chelsea would have to sell Morata if this was the case, it seems the deckchairs may need to be arranged.

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