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Isco
Could Real Madrid’s Isco be off to east Manchester? Photograph: Victor Carretero/Real Madrid via Getty Images
Could Real Madrid’s Isco be off to east Manchester? Photograph: Victor Carretero/Real Madrid via Getty Images

Football transfer rumours: Isco to Manchester City from Real Madrid?

This article is more than 6 years old

Today’s gossip has been slow-cooked so that it melts in the mouth

Pep Guardiola is determined to make his Manchester City midfield the busiest creative offering since Jackson Pollock’s Convergence in 1952. To do so he’ll try to steal away Isco from Real Madrid using the power of his personality (and his club’s vast reservoir of Abu Dhabi cash, of course). Apparently, he’s on Guardiola’s ‘top-five’ footballers list, which presumably he has stuck on his fridge door at home. Isco recently signed a new contract at the Bernabéu until 2022 but we all know that means bugger all these days.

Newcastle, Everton and Crystal Palace have all expressed and interest in Besiktas striker Cenk Tosun but his nine goals in 15 games have got antennae twitching at Tottenham Hotspur too – and it says here his agent, who is also his dad, has been in touch with the club over a potential £20m move. So unless Spurs drop their interest expect the other three clubs to be left gawping on as Mauricio Pochettino waltzes off in to the sunset with his man.

Arsenal will wait patiently like a cat stalking its prey before making a move in the summer for Napoli’s pugnacious box-to-boxer Jorginho. Because waiting patiently always works so well for the Gunners doesn’t it?

Liverpool have zoomed ahead of Bayern Munich in the race to sign RB Leipzig forward Timo Werner because the club’s president, Oliver Mintzlaff, said Bayern didn’t even mention the player when he met Munich bigwigs for two meals (yes, two meals) recently. “We had a pleasant lunch and dinner with FC Bayern, with Mr [Karl-Heinz] Rummenigge and Mr [Uli] Hoeness. We talked about everything. But we did not talk about Timo Werner. Therefore there is no enquiry or offer,” said Mintzlaff.

Sam Allardyce has got a whiff of a potential Premier League relegation dogfight so, naturally, he would be up for taking the Everton job if Bill Kenwright and Farhad Moshiri would be up for taking him. “I’d have to consider that, if that phone call happens,” said Allardyce. “There’s no point in speculating at the moment. David Unsworth is in the chair.”

It says here that Alan Pardew’s people have been on the phone to Rangers to make it clear that if the club want the former Newcastle and Crystal Palace manager to dad-dance on the sidelines in a club-issued suit, he wouldn’t necessarily say no.

And Milan are eyeing a move for North Korea hot-shot Kwang-Song Han, who has been banging them in for Perugia in Serie B on loan from Cagliari this season. But Perugia’s president recently claimed that officials in North Korea do not want the player to appear on TV, which may be problematic if the 19-year-old were to be signed by one of Italy’s biggest clubs.

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