Paper Talk: Man Utd cleared for £42m Milan raid; Arsenal’s new keeper

Manchester United are fancied to make a £42m splurge for one of Italian football’s best defenders, while Arsenal are nearing a deal for a £22m replacement for Petr Cech, according to Thursday’s newspapers.

 

BAYERN EMERGE AS MAIN RIVALS TO UNITED FOR DEFENDER

Manchester United could battle it out with Bayern Munich to sign AC Milan defender Leonardo Bonucci this summer, according to reports on Thursday.

The Daily Mirror, citing Italian paper Tuttosport, claims Milan could be forced into selling a number of their stars this summer due to FFP regulations. And Bonucci – being the highest-paid player not just at AC Milan, but in all of Serie A – will likely be first out the door.

Milan caused a transfer stir in Italy last summer by luring the centre-half from Juventus, paying £40million for his services. Now 31, Milan expect to make just a small profit on the player and are said to have made him available for £42million.

Bonucci was a target for Chelsea last summer, but opted to stay in Italy due to his son’s health, However, he is now said to be ready to move abroad with both United and Bayern touted as serious contenders for his signature.

 

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AND THE REST

Arsenal are closing on a £22m deal to sign highly-rated Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno (The Sun)

Rangers boss Steven Gerrard has Bournemouth striker Jermain Defoe and former Liverpool team-mate Lucas Leiva on his summer shopping list (The Sun)

Dedryck Boyata is keen to commit himself to Celtic in the long-term (The Sun)

Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart faces a long summer, having missed out on England’s World Cup squad and learning that no Premier League clubs are interested in signing him (The Sun)

Mauricio Pochettino is ready to commit to one more year at Tottenham when he meets chairman Daniel Levy for ‘crisis’ talks (The Sun)

Wayne Rooney could stay at Everton next season now Sam Allardyce is no longer the club’s manager (The Sun)

Paulo Fonseca snubbed the chance to take over as West Ham boss after meeting with the club’s owners on Monday (The Sun)

Robert Lewandowski met with super-agent Pini Zahavi in Munich on Wednesday as he continues to plot his way out of Bayern – the Poland striker has been linked with Chelsea and Real Madrid (The Sun)

Brighton, Reading and Middlesbrough are all interested in Lokomotiva Zagreb defender Denis Kolinger, who could be available for as little as £1m this summer (The Sun)

Swansea are resigned to losing centre-back Alfie Mawson and goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski this summer after their relegation from the Premier League (The Sun)

Crystal Palace midfielder Yohan Cabaye is closing on a move back to France with Marseille (The Sun)

Chelsea’s Belgium forward Eden Hazard, 27, has said he is waiting to see the club’s transfer business before he commits to a new contract (The Independent)

West Ham want to interview former Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini after Fonseca ruled himself out of the running to replace David Moyes (The Guardian)

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola expects to sign only two players this summer (Daily Express)

Arsenal are yet to make an approach to Manchester City over Mikel Arteta, despite him emerging as one of their leading candidates to take over from Arsene Wenger (Daily Mirror)

West Ham will hold talks with departing Paris Saint-Germain manager Unai Emery while they are waiting for a definitive answer from Shakhtar Donetsk boss Paulo Fonseca (Daily Mirror)

Arsenal are ready to splash out on three defenders – Sokratis Papastathopoulos from Borussia Dortmund, West Brom’s Jonny Evans and Caglar Soyuncu of Freiburg – this summer (Daily Mirror)

As part of their defensive overhaul, Arsenal will also allow Shkodran Mustafi to leave the Emirates (Daily Mirror)

Steve Bruce is on collision course with Aston Villa chiefs over their decision to refuse a new contract to defender Alan Hutton (Daily Mirror)

Chelsea defender Gary Cahill was stunned when England boss Gareth Southgate rang him to tell him he was in his World Cup squad, having expected to miss out (Daily Star)

Liverpool are set to sign Chelsea midfielder Isaac Christie-Davies on a free transfer (Daily Star)

Rangers have failed with a bid for Brighton defender Connor Goldson (Daily Star)

Manchester United have added Atletico Madrid defender Sime Vrsaljko to their list of summer targets (Daily Mail)

Leicester are closing in on a £25m deal for Porto right-back Ricardo Pereira and plan to follow that up with the signing of Manchester City’s Patrick Roberts (Daily Mail)

Stoke defender Kevin Wimmer is in talks over a move to Hannover 96 (Daily Mail)

Luis Enrique’s hopes of landing the Chelsea job could receive a significant boost after one of his rivals for the role, Maurizio Sarri, held talks over staying at Napoli (Daily Telegraph)

Everton have opened talks with Marco Silva about taking over from Sam Allardyce as manager (Daily Telegraph)

Dele Alli is desperate to impress Gareth Southgate in pre-World Cup training and friendlies to re-establish himself in England’s starting XI (Daily Telegraph)

West Ham defender Reece Burke is a target for Rangers as they look to reshape their squad and challenge Celtic (Daily Record)

Jack Ross is set for a second round of talks with Ipswich on Thursday as he edges closer to the job (Daily Record)

 

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