It’s Gareth Bale’s birthday and among the popping corks and sounds of party horns being blown there is also talk of happy returns, chiefly a move back to Tottenham Hotspur, the club that helped transform Bale from a skinny, injury-prone sickly left-back into a goal-guzzling, thunderous inside-forward. With Zinedine Zidane having placed Bale on a dusty shelf in a Real Madrid closet, Spurs have offered to refresh the Bernabéu coffers with £54m and then let off a few party poppers if they bring the 30-year-old back to N17. There is a snag, though. It says here Bale earns around £600,000 a week through wages and endorsements at Real and Spurs could, at best, match half of that. So while Bale would appreciate a nice cake and a birthday knees-up in north London, he’d expect much greater gifts landing in his bank account each week to play football there. He’s pooped his own party.
Spurs have their eye on another physically imposing inside-forward, in any case. With Roma having sent Franco Baldini to London for talks over signing Toby Alderweireld, Mauricio Pochettino has made it clear he wants the 20-year-old Nicolò Zaniolo to be sent to Spurs as part of the deal. Pochettino is trying to beef up his squad with a few big lads before the new season and the Italian ticks all the right boxes – he’s a whopping 6ft 3in tall and has a left foot like an anvil.
For the second time in a week, football-playing brand Neymar has told PSG that he doesn’t want to be there. His body language has said as much for the past 12 months so he needn’t have wasted his breath. But with Barcelona having just splashed out £107m on Antoine Griezmann, what options has he got? As Al Pacino said in Carlito’s Way: “When you can’t see the angles no more, you’re in trouble, baby, you’re in trouble.”
Leicester have told Harry Maguire that he can leave but only if Manchester City or Manchester United pay more than £75m for the modern-day Steve Bruce. Just let that sink in. As for the actual Steve Bruce, once Mike Ashley has removed the moths from his wallet, he’ll take out £4m and send it to Sheffield Wednesday as compensation for nabbing their manager and installing him in the Newcastle hot seat.
Celtic have told Arsenal they will have to pay more than £25m for the rampaging left-back Kieran Tierney but the Gunners are adamant that they are not going to lick their fingers and peel off any more notes. Perhaps the reason they won’t go any higher is because they want to keep £25m spare for Everton, whose zippy displays for Brazil on the way to winning the Copa América made Unai Emery feel hot under the collar. The Grêmio forward is still favourite to join Milan, though. Meanwhile, in rather bizarre news, the Ajax technical director, Marc Overmars, has told his former club they should flog Mesut Özil and buy Hakim Ziyech for £31.5m. “I think Hakim Ziyech is better than Mesut Özil . I would say sell him [Özil] and you will get Hakim for half. But they [Arsenal] didn’t listen to me. So it could just be that he stays with Ajax.” Whether he’s auditioning for the job of Arsenal sporting director or just wilfully trying to upset his employers is unclear. It’s rather amusing, though. Overmars also said that Juventus are this close to completing the signing of Matthijs de Ligt.
Elsewhere, Aston Villa are on the verge of signing Marvelous Nakamba from Club Brugge (Villa fans, get working on this Lightning Seeds song, now), Jean Michaël Seri looks to be heading out of the Fulham exit door for Galatasaray or Milan, Wolves want Wallace from Lazio and the Bundesliga is bracing itself for the arrival of Chuckles. Yes, José Mourinho wants to work in Germany. Oh, and Philippe Coutinho has been making encouraging noises about a possible return to Liverpool on a two-year loan deal.