FRIDAY’S BIG HEADLINES
LUK WHO’S JOINING UNITED
The anatomy of a modern transfer played out on Twitter: in the space of about 30 crazy minutes yesterday, Manchester United seemingly briefed the press that they had Romelu Lukaku for £75m, only for Everton to spot a chance to apply a bit of late pressure in the deal, and possibly invite a counter-offer from Chelsea, by briefing that no deal had been reached. Cue confusion.
Briefly, there was the tantalising possibility that United might have ‘done a Ramsey’, with Lukaku, perhaps understandably, preferring to return to the club he adored as a child rather than going to play for the man who once decided he wasn’t good enough to command a starting role and unceremoniously kicked him out of said club.
But it appears there will indeed be a slightly awkward grip of the hands and a marginally exaggerated smile clapped across two faces in the USA when Lukaku joins United’s pre-season tour, because the Jose Mourinho reunion is on. Clarity has been provided, firstly by images of Lukaku training with Paul Pogba in LA – courtesy of Poga’s own Instagram story.
The Sun, who first broke the news of United’s big bid for Lukaku, are ahead of the game again on Friday morning, bringing us the news that the 24-year-old has undergone a medical. If Chelsea do, as reported elsewhere, think they still have a chance of signing Lukaku, Michael Emenalo better get his skates on.
It seemed an extortionate figure when Everton paid Chelsea £28m to sign Lukaku back in 2014, but few players bring such a guarantee of goals as the man who has scored 85 in the Premier League before the age of 25 and now Everton are set to make a profit of around £40m – although whether getting Wayne Rooney into the bargain is a net profit or loss remains to be seen. Either way, it’s a great bit of business for all parties. Except Chelsea of course.
MORATA IN LIMBO
Jose Mourinho Alvaro MorataGetty Images
Oh wait, there is another loser in all of this: Alvaro Morata, who according to Jack Pitt-Brooke in the Independent this morning was fully expecting to join up with United in America later this week. The Real Madrid striker had already bought himself a United duvet from the Old Trafford megastore, stuck The Smiths and The Stone Roses on repeat on Spotify and started practicing his pronunciation of ‘excuse me, Jesse, can you please show me the way to Dab University?’
After United failed to strike a deal with Real Madrid, though, Morata has been left in the lurch, but there is an obvious escape route. Chelsea. According to The Indy:
“ The Real Madrid striker was convinced as late as Wednesday that he was days away from being a United player and that he would soon be on a plane on their tour of the USA next week. But as United now close in on a £75m deal for Lukaku instead, Morata has been left surprised and stranded at Real. Morata is now hoping that Chelsea will come back in for him and spend the money that they had intended to spend on Lukaku, before they were out-manoeuvred this week by United.“
A marriage of convenience in which both parties settle for second best? At least it’s a preferable scenario to going into the new season with only a player your manager dumped via text message available up front.
DUTCH COURAGE FOR U19s
England’s summer of excellence in youth football continues unabated with the Under-19s on the verge of reaching their European Championship semi-final following a 1-0 win over Netherlands yesterday, their second win in two games in Georgia. Nottingham Forest striker Ben Brereton was the hero against the Dutch, scoring with five minutes remaining to build on a 2-0 win over Bulgaria earlier this week.
After the Under-20s won the World Cup, the Under-17s lost on penalties in the final of their European Championship and the Under-21s lost on penalties to Germany in their Euro semi-final, it does feel as there’s some kind of bizarro competency developing in the younger reaches of English football. Long may it continue.
IN OTHER NEWS
There is a long and honourable tradition of footballers turning up for pre-season with a bit of extra timber. Back in the days before players like Alexis Sanchez and Marcus Rashford posted videos of their holiday workouts on Instagram, a summer break was just that. Marbs, cigs and shots. Players wouldn’t see a ball for the first week of pre-season as they worked off their spare tire.
So it’s with a pleasingly retro feel that Henrikh Mkhitaryan appeared to be showing off an extra inch or two in a promotional shot for United’s new kit – only for the club to delete it following an adverse reaction on social media. We’ve all de-tagged ourselves from an unflattering Facebook photo after a few hours of contemplation: the difference is that millions had already seen this. And laughed.
IN THE CHANNELS
The real story of the transfer window is not the obscene levels of spending which have seen English clubs part with almost £500m already; nor is it the devilish handsomeness of Alexandre Lacazette. No, it is the Twitter arms race which has seen football clubs try to outdo each other with increasingly creative ways to ‘ANNOUNCE’ their new signings.
Thankfully, though, a trend which threatened to culminate in Arsene Wenger flying a plane over North London with a banner reading ‘#MahrezIn’, all on Facebook Live, may have been brought to a premature conclusion, because no one will be able to top Swansea‘s effort to ANNOUNCE ROQUE MESA. Will they?….
RETRO CORNER
Romelu Lukaku went on a school trip to Stamford Bridge in 2010. This is what happened.
How have Chelsea let this happen? Seriously??
COMING UP
Zilch. Nada. Nowt. Lucky for you there’s some reliably entertaining Tour de France action, live on Eurosport from 11am. Oh, and the small matter of Aljaz Bedene, Heather Watson, Jo Konta AND Andy Murray all in action at Wimbledon today.
Sky sources understand reports of Adam Hurrey’s move to Manchester United are premature, and that he is still expected to write Monday’s Warm-Up.
