Today’s big news is that the Mirror has cracked the mystery surrounding José Mourinho’s presence at Serbia’s World Cup qualifier against Austria. Surely he wouldn’t have gone all that way just to keep an eye on Nemanja Matic, who he can keep a perfectly good eye on most of the time without so much as leaving Manchester? No he was not: he was checking out Matic’s team-mate Mijat Gacinovic, the 22-year-old Eintracht Frankfurt midfielder, who the paper reports, “has been identified as one of the most exciting young talents currently operating in the Bundesliga”. Bayern Munich also had a representative at the game, and Arsenal had a scout at Serbia’s two previous internationals, so if Manchester United want to actually sign him they should be ready to rumble. Brighton also had scouts at the match, though they aren’t likely to compete for Gacinovic – they’re interested in the Newcastle outcast Aleksandar Mitrovic, with whose constant disciplinary tightrope-walking Rafael Benítez has finally lost patience.
Manchester City want to sign yet another full-back, says the Sun, to help them cope with Benjamin Mendy’s absence through injury. Never mind that Mendy is expected to be back in four months and the transfer window opens in three, meaning the new signing would become essentially redundant within weeks of his arrival. Anyway, they fancy Napoli’s Faouzi Ghoulam, who is out of contract next summer and could thus, they speculate, be snapped up for a paltry £3m. Conveniently, “City are hoping to open talks with Napoli next week when they face each other in the Champions League”.
Paris Saint-Germain want to buy a goalkeeper next summer and have drawn up a shortlist of potential recruits. A very short list. There are just two names upon it, reports le10sport.com, and they are Atlético Madrid’s Jan Oblak and Manchester United’s David de Gea. The French club believes either could be purchased next year without breaking financial fair play rules, so long as someone takes Javier Pastore and Ángel Di María off their hands. Di María could move to China as early as January, apparently.
Talking of PSG players, Real Madrid have located “the new Kylian Mbappé”, reports Don Balón, and they are not going to let this one slip through their fingers like they did the last. This one is Dimitri Oberlin, currently on loan at Basel from Red Bull Salzburg (confusingly, the new Kylian Mbappé is some 14 months older than the old Kylian Mbappé). “The young pearl of European football scored two of his side’s five goals against Benfica in their last Champions League game,” Don Balón reports. “Of course, several of the biggest clubs in Europe are already monitoring him. But Florentino Pérez hopes to be the first to move.”
The Lazio centre-back Stefan de Vrij appears to be attempting a BorisJohnsonesque have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too-style negotiation with the Italian club. Lazio want to bind him to a new contract, and have offered a healthy pay rise which the defender is minded to accept. However, they also want to set the player’s release clause to something in the off-putting neighbourhood of £40m, but he wants it to be just half that “as he would still be interested in joining a big club in the summer”, according to Calciomercato. Thus he hopes to end up with all the benefits of a bumper new contract, with all the advantages of a miserly old one, the cunning old dog. This news is particularly pertinent to Liverpool, one of the big clubs – along with Juventus and Atlético Madrid – who have been linked with the 25-year-old. Across town at Everton, they are mulling over a move for the giant Sporting Lisbon striker Bas Dost. “Ronald Koeman is determined to sign a forward when the transfer window opens in January and has held a long-term interest in his fellow Dutchman,” reports ESPN.
Finally, the Italian FA is hoping to convince Antonio Conte to abandon Chelsea and return to the helm of his national team next summer, the Express exclusively reports. “Express Sport understands influential figures within the FIGC want Conte back in charge after Gian Pero Ventura failed to impress during their World Cup qualifying campaign,” it says. “Milan are also keen on Conte and are ready to make him an offer this summer, but Chelsea want the popular Italian to stay.”