Jesus being squeezed out of City

The news concerning Gabriel Jesus is that Manchester City have offered him to Spanish club Atletico Madrid with Arsenal also anxious to be involved if the player decides to move. He said after scoring in Brazil’s win over South Korea that he is playing a waiting game and wants to see all options before deciding whether to move. The arrival of Erling Haaland will certainly limit his chances and Pep Guardiola is agreeable to letting him move out of the club. Arsenal have already talked with his agent Marcelo Pettinati and have discussed upping his salary from £100k a week at City to £190k a week at the Emirates. My contacts at Atletico Madrid tell me their club are not looking to increase their wage bill dramatically and will not make a bid if Jesus does not drop his demands. Pep Guardiola used Jesus only 28 times last season which was equal to his lowest involvement since transferring from Palmeiras. He would expect greater game time at Arsenal where Mikel Arteta is looking to strengthen his attacking options.

United and Liverpool fight for Nunez

Erik ten Hag and the United executive board are searching for a striker as backup and eventual replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo. Liverpool are planning for life after Sadio Mane. Portugese club Benfica seem to have the answer in Darwin Nunez. He has scored 34 goals in 41 matches which includes 6 in the Champions League. Virgil van Dijk says Nunez is in the top five of most difficult opponents he has ever played against. Nunez is bound to be compared with Edinson Cavani as both are Uruguayan. The 22-year-old is valued by Benfica at around £85 million.

New strategy at Chelsea

New Chelsea owner Todd Boehly has not bought the club to make a quick profit. The days of buying big name players who trade on their reputations, such as £100 million Romelu Lukaku, are over. Boehly wants new signings to have long-term futures at the club or if they are later sold they will have value and he will also inject more money into Chelsea’s impressive academy. Boehly and Thomas Tuchel met this week and discussed the future of Lukaku. The striker has been unhappy with his time at Chelsea since the beginning of 2022 and apparently messaging the coach and directors of Inter Milan to persuade them to take him back. He is, I am told, ready to lower his Chelsea salary by a third to make himself more attractive to Inter. Lukaku is due to fly back to London after being on international duty for France where injury curtailed his appearances. Tuchel and Boehly are looking at Arsenal target Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez, Lille’s Jonathan David and Benfica’s Darwin Nunez as a replacement for Romelu.  

Gerrard demonstrates transfer speed skills

Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard is looking to finish his transfer dealings before Villa travel to Australia for a pre-season tour in July. Villa reached agreement to sign Sevilla defender Diego Carlos for £26 million and this follows Philippe Coutinho making permanent his loan from Barcelona. Villa have also acquired the services of Boubacar Kamara from Marseille. In addition Gerrard told the ­­­Villa board he wants Burnley’s 29 year-old James Tarkowski who is available on a free transfer but Everton are challenging strongly for his signature. As a final piece of his jigsaw, Gerrard and his executive team are seriously considering approaching Liverpool about signing 28-year-old midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. He has only one year left on his current deal and Liverpool would want a fee of around £10 million if a deal can be done. West Ham have also shown interest in Alex and will possibly mount a deal themselves. Jurgen Klopp is aware that his proposal to use 5 substitutes per match means he will have to keep a strong reserve team and that might influence his decision to keep Oxlade-Chamberlain.  

City tells Ake he can move on

I understand Manchester City have told Nathan Ake that he is free to look for another club this summer. The Dutch centre back is of interest to Newcastle who, with their new Saudi backed riches, are being linked with just about any Premier league player who is for sale. Newcastle have not confirmed to me that they are going to buy Ake however a move to the north east would reunite him with his Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe. He played in 121 matches and then transferred to City for £41 million two seasons ago. Ake has won two title medals but has played only 24 Premier League matches.

Sterling due to meet with City executives

Raheem Sterling has confirmed that he wants to play in Europe. The 27-year-old will meet Manchester City executives after international duty. He has won four Premier League titles, the FA Cup and four League cups during his time at City however he did not start the final two games and did not feature in City’s Champions League defeat by Real Madrid. Currently he earns a huge £300k a week salary but is looking for a rise and assurances from Pep Guardiola that he will get more game time despite Erling Haaland’s arrival. Next season Raheem’s contract expires and he will be free to join any club he wishes. His current value is around £80million after scoring 18 goals last season. Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham are all interested and City will accept his transfer request this summer instead of letting him leave next summer when the club would receive nothing. Talks for a new deal are ongoing but I am told agreement is far from assured.  

Eriksen could be answer for United

Manchester United have joined the queue to sign Brentford’s Christian Eriksen this summer. New manager Erik ten Hag has a modest budget to spend in comparison to other big club’s spending plans but he wants six new players brought in. Carefully managing the budget sheet will be important and he sees Eriksen as offering outstanding value. The Danish international will be available on a free transfer in a few weeks’ time although Brentford manager Thomas Frank has vowed to fight to keep him. United’s negotiations to sign midfielder Frenkie de Jong are not going well and Eriksen could be the answer to strengthen their midfield. Scouts from West Ham watched Eriksen and Joakim Maehle during Denmark’s 2-1 win over Austria on Tuesday. Both were impressive. Maehle plays for Atalanta in the Italian Serie A and has won 26 caps for Denmark.   

Mane wants to meet new challenges

Liverpool have rejected Bayern Munich’s opening offer of £25 million for Sadio Mane. The package was a basic £21 million with another £4 million if the German club wins the Champions League during Sadio’s stay at the club. He has scored 120 goals in 269 matches since he joined the Reds from Southampton in 2016. Mane scored an impressive hat-trick in the Africa Cup of Nations against Benin last week. Commenting on his remarks before that game he said he could leave Liverpool but claimed afterwards that, “I spoke while joking with a bit of humour. Liverpool is a club I respect a lot. The fans adopted me from day one. Regarding my future, we will see.” There has been tension recently between a frustrated Mane and Mo Salah who often keeps the ball, taking shots at goal when his strike partner was in a better position to score. I am hearing whispers from French club Marseille that they could enter the race to sign Mane if he becomes available and they are the Senegalese player’s favourite team.