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BBC
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has convinced Real Madrid striker Alvaro Morata, 24, to join the club - with an offer expected on Monday. (Marca)
Morata has dropped a hint on social media that he could be joining United, after he 'liked' an Instagram post appearing to confirm an imminent move. (Metro)
United could offer 35-year-old Zlatan Ibrahimovic a short-term deal, despite releasing him, if the Swedish striker recovers successfully from knee surgery. (Manchester Evening News)
Paris St-Germain have made a huge step towards sealing a deal for Monaco's 18-year-old France forward Kylian Mbappe, who is also wanted by Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United. (L'Equipe - in French)
Chelsea are favourites to sign Real Madrid's Colombian attacking midfielder James Rodriguez, 25. (AS - in Spanish)
Liverpool are ready to make a last attempt to stop midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, 23, from signing a new £100,000-a-week contract with Arsenal. (Daily Express)
Manchester United are close to agreeing a deal for Monaco's Brazil midfielder Fabinho, 23. (Manchester Evening News)
Algeria winger Riyad Mahrez, 26, has not ruled out staying at Leicester City for the new season, despite making clear his intentions to leave the club this summer. (Leicester Mercury)
Mahrez says he has not had any formal offers yet. (Elheddaf Television via Sky Sports)
Manchester City keeper Joe Hart's England career could be in jeopardy, with no club offers for the 30-year-old after his loan spell with Torino. (Daily Mirror)
West Ham are ready to offer Hart a Premier League a move. (Sun)
France defender Laurent Koscielny, 31, has distanced himself from reports linking him with Marseille, saying he is happy at Arsenal. (Telefoot via ESPN)
Italy striker Andrea Belotti, 23, wants to stay at Torino and might refuse to leave even if a team meets his 100 million euro release clause, according to club president Urbano Cairo. (Radio 24 via Four Four Two)
Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, 18, will sign a new deal at AC Milan. (Corriere dello Sport - in Italian)
Huddersfield Town are hoping to make Reims' French central defender Julian Jeanvier, 25, their first signing following promotion to the Premier League. (Daily Mail)
West Brom and Newcastle are both keen on Celtic's 26-year-old Scotland striker Leigh Griffiths. (Daily Mirror)
Uruguayan forward Gustavo Viera, 16, is set to attract interest from several Premier League teams - with his club, Montevideo-based side Liverpool, expecting him to move to Europe. (Sun)
Barcelona are set to make an £88m bid for Marco Verratti after the 24-year-old midfielder declared that he wants to leave Paris St-Germain. (Daily Mail)
Hibernian's Scottish forward Jason Cummings, 21, on the verge of joining former Rangers boss Mark Warburton at Nottingham Forest. (Scottish Sun)
Meanwhile...
A resourceful Birmingham City fan drew the club's new away strip with felt tip to make sure he was the first to wear it - and fooled fellow supporters. (Birmingham Mail)
Striker Emmanuel Adebayor has revealed that the worst decision of his controversial career was joining Crystal Palace, for whom he scored just one goal in 15 appearances last year. (Daily Mirror)
A former Barcelona director has lamented the poor crowd at the Nou Camp for Saturday's friendly game featuring members of the team that won the 1992 European Cup, including Pep Guardiola and Ronald Koeman. (Daily Mail)
Former Real Madrid player Luis Figo, 44, offered a reminder of his greatest days as a player after he fired in a free-kick during a legends match against Roma. (Sun)
Raheem Sterling has learned how to knit with a Manchester City fan. (Dugout)
Arsenal forward Alexis Sanchez has swapped his football boots for boxing gloves while training with the Chilean national team in a video posted on his Instagram account. (Sun)
Sunderland found an inventive way to launch their new home kit, by allowing a local team to wear it in a match and streaming the game on Facebook. (Facebook)
Guardian Rumour Mill
Michael Butler
It’s amazing what an international break can do. Bored chief executives or bored journalists could probably be more creative than check the weekend’s goalscorers and then link them with a big-bucks move to that of their rivals, but that isn’t really the lay of the land. So fresh from smashing a shot straight at Scotland’s Craig Gordon, Liverpool are preparing a bid of £40m for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, according to the Express, in “a last-ditch attempt to stop him from signing a new £100,000-a-week contract with Arsenal.”
Now the Mill is in no position to tell Arsène Wenger what to do, but if such an offer is true, for a player entering the final 12 months of his contract, it would not be a surprise to see the Frenchman drive Oxlade-Chamberlain to Merseyside himself. The 23-year-old did impress in a right wing-back role towards the end of last season, but has ambitions to play in a more central midfield role and has previously stated that “I’ve always wanted to be Steven Gerrard.” We’ll see how that one pans out.
The Leigh Griffiths v Joe Hart Part I and Part II episodes has left England No1 looking and sounding increasingly desperate. “I would love to give you a poker-straight answer as to where I’ll be next season, but I’ve got nothing at the moment,” Hart mumbled. Griffiths, meanwhile, has free-kicked himself into talk of a move to both West Brom and Newcastle, despite warming the Celtic substitutes bench for much of last season.
Álvaro Morata is set to join Manchester United and has told Gareth Bale to join him and make the United squad better. And James Rodriguez has been told by his stepfather to join Manchester United in the summer to get some playing time.” Morata liked a post on Instagram with these very words, proving absolutely nothing, but sending Manchester United online forums into meltdown and giving the Mill hope that this Madrid-Manchester saga might be over soon.
Stop press! Liverpool want a Southampton player. Don’t worry, this one is believed to be all above board: somebody has realised that Dusan Tadic has a £13m release clause. Meanwhile, that silly Gelson Martins ruse hasn’t worked and Liverpool have done what everyone knew what they were going to do: increase their bid for Mo Salah: Roma are reportedly mulling over an offer worth €45m.
In case you missed it over the weekend, Bayern Munich have signed Arsenal reject Serge Gnabry on a three-year contract. Whilst that is slightly old news, what is does mean is that Bayern’s Douglas Costa looks closer to slinging his hook: Juventus are thought to be meeting German officials this week, with Tottenham and Liverpool also thought to be keen.
Meanwhile, Everton are looking at Burnley’s Andre Gray, Schalke looks set to beat Arsenal to the signature of Nantes’ Amine Harit, and Tottenham will meet the €25m release clause of Nice’s Ricardo Pereira if Kyle Walker leaves the club this summer. That’s your lot.
Star
Man Utd to sell Chris Smalling: Everton, West Ham and Crystal Palace keen
CHRIS SMALLING is heading out of Manchester United - and three Premier League clubs are keen on him.
By Rhys Turrell
Smalling will be sold by Jose Mourinho this summer.
The England defender has been deemed not up to it by the United boss.
Starsport exclusively revealed before last month’s Europa League final that Smalling would be getting the boot.
And Everton, Crystal Palace and West Ham are all potential destinations for the defender.
Smalling, 27 was signed from Fulham in January 2010 for a fee in the region of £10m.
If Palace and West Ham firm up their interest, the centre-back could decide a move back down south in for the best.
However a switch along the M62 to Everton would allow Smalling to continue playing in Europe.
Everton are in the Europa League next term and the United man may fancy the challenge of trying to retain the trophy with a different club.
Victor Lindelof will replace Smalling at Old Trafford.
OGN
Breaking – Eupen Turn Down West Ham £7m Bid For Onyekuru, Reveals Reasons
As Exclusively reported by Owngoalnigeria.com yesterday English Premier League outfit the only team to have submitted a bid for hot in demand Eupen forward Henry Onyekuru have had their bid rejected.
West Ham tabled a bid of around £7m for Onyekuru,which fell short of Eupen asking price of £7.8m for the forward who finished as joint top scorer in Belgium with 24 goals.
The reason as to why West Ham bid was rejected isn’t about the asking price as we gathered but rather Eupen believes the club is not prestigious enough for the recently turned 20 year old Nigerian forward.
Linked with a move to Arsenal, Eupen rejection of West Ham bid on the grounds of prestige could mean they are still hoping Arsenal will return for the forward despite the gunners pulling out of talks for him last week.
Everton, Swansea City and Southampton are the other English teams in the running to sign Onyekuru, who failed to make the matchday squad for Nigeria in their 0-2 loss to South Africa on Saturday.
Daniel Martins
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