YOU’RE STILL THE WAN I RUN TO
Mauricio Pochettino spent most of the aftermath of Tottenham’s FA Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester United stating that the club needs to invest more to continue developing. “The most important thing is we competed against a team that spends a lot of money and have unbelievable players,” he said. “With a different philosophy, we were able to compete with this team.”
The question remains as to how those funds will be raised as the club balances the cost of building a new stadium with progressing on the pitch. The Daily Mail appear to have the answer. Four players will be sold to generate £170million.
The offloaded quartet will be Danny Rose, Toby Alderweireld and Victor Wanyama – all valued at £50m – and Mousa Dembele, rated at around £20m. That does equal £170m. Congratulations to the Mail on their quick maths.
Tottenham are ‘willing to sacrifice’ certain players to help them move forward, with Rose, Alderweireld and Wanyama on the fringes for much of this season. Dembele has been key, but turns 31 in July.
Rose and Alderweireld have been heavily linked with Manchester United and Chelsea, while a Chinese Super League move is apparently on the cards for Dembele. As for Wanyama, he is the one player Steven Gerrard would like Liverpool to sign. And they were linked with him in February. But £50m?!
BALE HIM OUT
Gareth Bale is ‘frustrated’ at Real Madrid, according to Stuart James of The Guardian. Cue the words ‘Manchester’ and ‘United’ being slotted into a headline, accompanied with a picture of the Welshman looking grumpy on the bench.
Bale was an unused substitute as Real secured a 2-1 first-leg victory away at Bayern Munich in their Champions League semi-final, the forward watching on as Lucas Vazquez started and Marco Asensio and Karim Benzema were introduced. It is this lack of opportunities that has left Bale ‘extremely frustrated’.
However, James adds that the 28-year-old is not looking to leave. Bale ‘is bitterly disappointed’ that he is not playing, but ‘is determined to fight for his place and has no interest in pursuing a move at the end of the season’. He reckons he still has a future in Spain.
But even if Bale does throw in the towel, a Premier League return is not inevitable. English clubs might not ‘be able to match his financial package’, and United have gone ‘cold for now’ on their former target. Terrible scenes.
AND THE REST
Leicester City manager Claude Puel is fighting to save his job as the club plans a big-money squad overhaul this summer… Arsenal will rival Atletico Madrid and Napoli for Bayer Leverkusen’s 26-year-old Germany goalkeeper Bernd Leno, who is available for a fee of about £17.5m… West Ham have joined the race to sign 30-year-old Northern Ireland defender Jonny Evans for £3m as Premier League sides prepare for West Brom’s relegation… Former England, Tottenham and Arsenal defender Sol Campbell is set to be interviewed by Ipswich Town as they look for a replacement for Mick McCarthy.
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