Today’s fluff is playing 5D chess
With rumour constituting nine tenths of the news in this slow-moving transfer window, the Mill has had to up its game. And where better to start than with the Saudi Pro League, where Al-Nassr are looking to tempt Casemiro and Aaron Wan-Bissaka to form a Manchester United old boys club with league propagandist Cristiano Ronaldo. As a 32-year-old on £375,000 a week, Casemiro fits the profile of the sort of player United want to offload and the Saudi league has tended to snap up, so perhaps it’s a goer? The Daily Mail reports that United’s director of football, John Murtough, has flown to Riyadh to run various sales up SPL clubs’ flagpoles. Wan-Bissaka is also in the mix after Al-Nassr had a £20m bid for Tottenham’s Emerson Royal rebuffed.
As for possible incomings at Old Trafford, United’s current targets reportedly include the Bayern Munich forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, who at 34 is even older than Casemiro, and Sporting’s English winger Marcus Edwards, 25. United are also in pole position to sign the Dutch striker Joshua Zirkzee from Bologna but Arsenal are sniffing around as well.