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Marco Asensio, Real Madrid’s boy wonder.
Marco Asensio, Real Madrid’s boy wonder. Photograph: Carl Recine/Reuters
Marco Asensio, Real Madrid’s boy wonder. Photograph: Carl Recine/Reuters

Football transfer rumours: Arsenal in for Real Madrid's Marco Asensio?

This article is more than 6 years old

Today’s rumours are enclosed

Even allowing for the fact that pre-season news cycles make each day seem like a month, and that for all we know they’ll be forced to play Steve Bould up front against Leicester on the opening day, this hasn’t felt like the most Arsenal-ish of transfer windows so far. Sead Kolasinac and Alexandre Lacazette were both nailed down early on and look fine signings; there hasn’t, when we cut to the chase, been too much sign of Alexis Sánchez or Mesut Özil leaving either and at the current rate of knots you might be forgiven for thinking Thursday really will be the next Friday in Islington from next month.

Especially if they can somehow get Marco Asensio through the door. What now? Yes, Real Madrid’s boy wonder is apparently on their radar and would go down just nicely as a long-term replacement for their want-away Chilean – who will presumably be high-fiving with Gunnersaurus for one more year. Manchester United and Juventus are among those interested too, though, while Real wouldn’t mind keeping hold of the gifted forward themselves – all of which files these links under “curious”.

Any move for Asensio could, of course, happen rather more urgently if Sánchez left round about now. Paris Saint-Germain may still be his best bet, particularly with their bid for Neymar seeming to have hit the skids. How do we know that? We know because Gerard Piqué has posted a photo with him and his club-mate looking very happy indeed, along with a message reading “He stays”, on his Instagram account. Footballers are what has given the Mill a job; footballers appear to be what soon put the Mill out of a job.

Up in Liverpool, they’re still keen to make good their long-term interest in Virgil van Dijk but they’re going to be very polite about it and only bid for the want-away Southampton defender when given permission. Who said leopards couldn’t change their spots? The Saints may be less than keen to grant it given Chelsea’s interest in both Ryan Bertrand and Cédric Soares. Liverpool will also have to go softly, softly for their RB Leipzig target Naby Keïta, who now looks a more likely target for next summer when he would become a modern-day steal at £48m.

Could West Bromwich Albion, model retirement home for pensioned-off Manchester United stalwarts, be about to see another one – perhaps earlier than expected? They are apparently taking a look at Chris Smalling, who could become surplus to requirements at Old Trafford with Victor Lindelof on the books and Eric Bailly back to fitness. United aren’t done with their own chequebook though and may have a clear-ish run at Nemanja Matic now that Juventus have opted against pursuing the Chelsea midfielder.

One front that has been pretty quiet of late is the Moussa Dembélé front – but things could be about to warm up considerably with the news that Marseille and Celtic have been discussing a possible deal. It’s thought that £20m could get Dembélé to the south of France, although the timing would be far from ideal.

Newly-relegated Hull City think the way to get over losing Andy Robertson to Liverpool is to replace him with Brentford’s Rico Henry, while newly-promoted Brighton are keen for Cardiff’s Kenneth Zohore to lead their line. And that’s your lot for today. Another week of all this starts here.

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