The 25-year-old Real Socieded defender Diego Llorente is a summer target for both Liverpool and Everton, according to the Basque newspaper Noticias de Gipuzkoa. It reports that a figure of €30m has been mooted for a 25-year-old who has shown “remarkable evolution” to become the team’s finest centre-back. “Given the amount of money in the English game, €30m is not very much,” it sniffs.
Talking of not very much money Ole Gunnar Solskjær, who was earning £400,000 a year as manager of Molde before he moved to Manchester United, will be offered annual swag of £7.5m to stay at Old Trafford, according to the Mirror. “As well as his basic salary, Solskjær’s contract is likely to include lucrative bonus clauses,” it adds. Which is just as well – otherwise there’s no way he’d accept £7.5m when he could earn just as much elsewhere (if he worked for 18 years).
And talking of loads of money Newcastle so enjoyed spending it on a player in January that they are preparing to do it all again, only more so. News is breaking that they are ready to pay £40m for Joelinton, a move that would almost double the transfer record the club set less than two months ago when they bought Miguel Almirón for £20.7m. The 22-year-old Brazilian’s performances for Hoffenheim this season, where he has either scored or created 20 goals in 30 appearances, have convinced them to spend.
“La Gran Bronca,” reads the massive headline on the cover of Marca – The Big Fight – as it details a sensational post-match bust-up between Sergio Ramos and Florentino Pérez after Real Madrid’s sensational shellacking by Ajax on Tuesday. “The president pointed at the players and told them they were to blame for what was happening,” it reports. “Then Ramos stood up and said that they had warned him in the summer that he needed to sign a striker, and the fault thus did not lie entirely with the players. Pérez went on to threaten to kick Ramos out of Real Madrid, to which the player responded by saying something like, ‘Pay up my contract and I’ll leave with my head held high.’”
Trendinalia España
(@trendinaliaES)Esto trae @marca en su portada de hoy viernes 8: pic.twitter.com/j5kxjtiRXl
Ramos went on to convene a meeting of the players at the club’s training ground on Thursday, to which coaching staff were not invited. It was particularly uncomfortable for Isco, who had refused to travel with the team on Tuesday after learning that he was not in the squad. “That decision, when so much was at stake, did not sit well with his team-mates,” Marca reports, “generating an extremely tense atmosphere just two hours before a momentous game.” The player has apologised, but according to Calciomercato is “enraged” and “humiliated” and has instructed his agents to get him a move to either Manchester City or Juventus.
Tuttosport
(@tuttosport)La prima pagina di #Tuttosport ⤵️
-La nuova #Juve
–#Milik–#Ruiz: #Napoli stellare! #Inter, adesso scongela #Icardi
–#DiFrancesco paga per tutti: #Roma a #RanieriLeggi le altre notizie su https://t.co/rUiJ7m0TCw pic.twitter.com/yKdHcxc3c5
Tuttosport dedicates its front page to the changes afoot at Juventus, of which it seems there will be plenty. It starts in the dug-out, with Maximiliano Allegri said to be one of the names being considered by Real Madrid as a replacement for Santiago Solari, and Didier Deschamps, Zinedine Zidane and Antonio Conte being lined up for the Turin-based hotseat should he depart. Moves are also afoot to bring in one centre-back – either Benfica’s Rúben Dias or Matthijs de Ligt from Ajax – and another midfielder in addition to Aaron Ramsey, with Paul Pogba and Lyon’s Tanguy Ndombélé the only names on the shortlist. Plus a new contract for Mario Mandzukic and a wholehearted attempt to snaffle Federico Chiesa from Fiorentina.