The Mill wouldn’t be the Mill without a few knowing whispers of Real Madrid’s latest plan to poach the Premier League’s finest. On Tuesday the grapevine is humming with the news that they want to galacticise Raheem Sterling. The word is that their people met his people over the summer, and that Sterling is keen to play for them one day. What’s the worst that could happen?
If Sterling does go to Madrid, he might find himself working under Mauricio Pochettino. In a surprising development, Madrid will approach Pochettino if/when/why/what Zinedine Zidane is bundled off to the P45 farm.
Pochettino has also been linked with the non-vacancy at Old Trafford, but today’s rags reckon Ole Gunnar Solskjær will be given more than a day to rebuild Rome. If he is still in a job in January, his targets will include Sean Longstaff, Erling Braut Håland, James Maddison, Sandro Tonali and the brilliant goalscoring midfielder Kai Havertz, who has been valued at £90m by Bayer Leverkusen.
The 247-year-old Croat striker Mario Mandzukic, who almost joined United in the summer, fancies a move to the Premier League in January rather than Qatar in September. His current club, Juventus, would apparently like Willian to run down some blind alleys for them next season. They are also intrigued by the existence of the PSG full-back Thomas Meunier.
Milan, meanwhile, would like a piece – several, ideally – of the Spurs right-back Serge Aurier, while Tottenham will continue to build for the 2027-28 season by signing the young Fiorentina winger Riccardo Sottil.
Barcelona are watching Napoli’s majestic centre-half Kalidou Koulibaly, and they know where he lives.
Last, and emphatically least, a former footballer thinks Liverpool should sign James Maddison. This is England ’19. Go on, click that bait.