The line-ups of Man Utd vs Crystal Palace have been announced.
Man Utd XI: De Gea, Fosu-Mensah, Shaw, Lindelof, Maguire, McTominay, Pogba, Fernandes, James, Rashford, Martial.
Subs: Henderson, Bailly, Wan-Bissaka, Fred, Van de Beek, Ighalo, Greenwood.
Crystal Palace XI: Guaita, Ward, Kouyate, Sakho, Mitchell, McArthur, McCarthy, Schlupp, Townsend, Zaha, Ayew.
Subs: Hennessey, Inniss, Kelly, Milivojevic, Eze, Meyer, Batshuayi
Lyon fans are optimistic Barcelona and AC Milan target Memphis Depay will stay at the club after he was handed a new shirt number.
The Dutch forward wore the No 10 shirt for the first time on Friday night as Lyon’s poor start to the Ligue 1 season continued with a goalless draw at home to Nimes.
New arrival Tino Kadewere has been given Depay’s old No 11 shirt.
Lyon fans interpreted the switch as an indication Depay isn’t on the move, the logic being that he wouldn’t request a change of number if he was planning to leave.
The former Manchester United player, 26, has been linked with a move to Barcelona, where compatriot Ronald Koeman has taken over as manager.
But Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas claimed that his counterpart at Barcelona, Josep Maria Bartomeu, told him they can’t afford Depay’s £28million asking price.
Koeman has been told he must sell players to raise the funds to sign him.
And Spanish newspaper Diario AS reported that Milan have consequently overtaken Barcelona in the race for Depay.
Stefano Pioli’s side are interested in bringing Depay, who is in the last year of his deal, to the club in exchange for Lucas Paqueta.
Depay has no intent on extending his current deal which expires in July 2021, while Paqueta is currently under control until 2023.
However, the shirt number switch, which comes about with previous owner of the No 10 shirt Bertrand Traore on his way out, suggests Depay could see out the final year
Tottenham have reportedly received some bad news about Gareth Bale just as the Welshman is about to make his long-awaited return to the club.
The 31-year-old, along with full-back Sergio Reguilon, have both been at Tottenham’s training ground on Friday as they finalise a move to the Premier League club.
Bale however has been suffering from the effects of a minor knee problem he picked up on international duty with Wales earlier this month.
And Marca have now reported that Spurs fans ‘will have to wait a month’ to see Bale make his return in the Tottenham shirt.
It would mean that Bale would miss an intense run of fixtures for Jose Mourinho’s side over the coming weeks.
Bale will be put on an intensive personalised fitness programme to get him up to speed due to the injury and his lack of recent matches, having played just 215 minutes of football for club and country since February.
The winger had long fallen out of favour at Real Madrid with manager Zinedine Zidane and was often left on the bench.
Spurs will prepare a meticulous schedule to get him 100 per cent fit as soon as possible.
Bale, who underwent medical tests in Madrid, arrived to a hero’s welcome from jubilant supporters when he arrived at the club’s training ground, seven years after leaving to join Real Madrid in a then world record £86 million transfer.
The Wales international, 31, agreed a season-long loan earlier this week, with Real Madrid subsidising at least half of his £500,000 per-week wages.
The deal, which as revealed by Sportsmail will cost Spurs £13m in wages, does not include an option or obligation for Spurs to buy Bale though they will have an option extend the loan for a second year.
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez is keen to retain an option to bring Bale back to the Bernabeu next summer, despite the player’s fall-out with manager Zinedine Zidane.
Spurs have also finalised the capture of Real left back Sergio Reguilon. The club have agreed a £27.5 m deal with a further £4.5 m due in add-ons.
He has signed a five-year deal, with Spurs agreeing to Madrid’s demand for a £36.5 m buyback clause — a demand Manchester United refused in their pursuit of the player — which can be activated in the next two years. Neither deal was completed in time for the pair to be involved in their trip to Southampton.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has revealed Manchester United remain in the market for further reinforcements after missing out on Gareth Bale.
United were linked with a move for the Real Madrid winger, as an alternative to Jadon Sancho, but he now looks set to complete a move to top-four rivals Tottenham.
Reports have suggested that United are becoming increasingly frustrated with their pursuit of Borussia Dortmund star Sancho, with the two clubs still way apart on valuations.
The Germans have slapped a £108million price tag on the England forward, a value that the United hierarchy feel is too high in the current climate.
With their Premier League opener on the horizon, Solskjaer has got just one deal over the line, with Donny van de Beek signing from Ajax for £40m.
And while Solskjaer is delighted with that transferl, he still believes more players are needed for the team to develop.
“Of course, we’ve done some business with Donny, very happy delighted to get him in, an exceptional smashing lad that’ll give us something,” he said in his pre-match press conference.
“I can’t say anything about other clubs’ players though, can’t speculate.
“We understand to get further we need to develop what we have and strengthen the team but let’s wait and see if we manage to bring anyone in.
“I’ve been in dialogue with the club, we’re always discussing and let’s see if we can bring anyone in.”
Fans have become increasingly frustrated with United’s perceived failures in the transfer window but Solskjaer claims they are still working hard on arrivals, with the October 5 deadline looming.
He added: “Fans will always want the best possible team to watch, the best possible Man United team and that’s the passion we want and the history we have.
“We want to take a step forward and we can go into the new season with confidence but we’re looking to give the group a boot and we’re working on it.”
Tottenham fans were left frustrated in their attempts to watch their side’s Europa League qualifying tie against Lokomotiv Plovdiv after seeing television pictures disappear.
The second-round qualifying tie in Bulgaria, broadcast on subscription channel Premier Sports, frequently cut out during the first half on Thursday for fans watching in the UK.
Fans vented their anger over the coverage of social media before the broadcast disappeared completely with eight minutes to go before half-time.
One fan tweeted: ‘I don’t know what’s worse. The performance or the Premier Sports channel.’
Another said: “Premier Sports saving us the bother of watching Spurs at Lokomotiv Plovdiv by cutting out after 35mins… not missing much I’m sure…”
After receiving a flurry of complaints, the channel released a statement via their Twitter account, apologising for the disruption.
‘We are sorry for the picture break up on the game,’ it read.
‘There is an issue with the host broadcasters satellite uplink that is affecting all international takers. We are working with the supplier to resolve.’
‘Mes que una moció’ has gathered over 20,000 signatures, well above the threshold required to force a vote of no confidence against Barça’s president.
Josep Maria Bartomeu faces a vote of no confidence from Barcelona members after a campaign group seeking to oust the LaLiga club’s president gathered the necessary number of signatures on Thursday to force the vote.
‘Mes que una moció’ (More than a motion), a group of members supported by candidates for next year’s presidential election, said they had gathered 20,731 votes by Thursday’s deadline, comfortably clearing the required 16,520 to trigger the vote.
The signatures must now be examined and counted over the next 10 days by a three-person panel comprising of a representative from the club, the Catalan soccer federation and the campaign group proposing the vote of no confidence.
Provided at least 16,520 votes are valid, the club’s statutes state it must hold a referendum within three months, with 66.5% of the club’s 150,000 members needing to vote against Bartomeu and his board to force their removal.
Should the motion of censure go ahead, Bartomeu will be the third president to face a vote of no confidence after Josep Lluís Núñez in 1998 and Joan Laporta in 2008, with the vote failing to pass on both occasions.
Bartomeu’s time as club president is coming to a close regardless of whether the vote goes ahead, as he will be unable to contest the elections that will be held in March after serving two terms.
The motion of censure was filed by presidential candidate Jordi Farré on 26 August, the day after captain Lionel Messi had declared his intention to leave the club.
Messi, Barça’s all-time top scorer, later announced he is staying at the club for this season as he did not want to face a legal battle with the club.
Resentment against Bartomeu has been growing in the last year due to the club’s worsening finances and the team’s decline on the pitch, which came to a head with their 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals in August.
Bartomeu, who became president in 2014 when then incumbent Sandro Rosell resigned, also faced criticism for the ‘Barça-gate’ scandal after the club hired a social media monitoring firm which was accused of seeking to undermine other presidential candidates as well as former and current players.
Club member Agustí Benedito tried to trigger a vote of no confidence against Bartomeu in September 2017 but only managed to gather 12,504 votes, 4,000 less than required.
On the same day that Barcelona members brought a motion of no confidence against Josep Maria Bartomeu and his board, Quique Setien has revealed that he is taking legal action against the club. He wasn’t officially sacked until this Wednesday, he claims, while he hasn’t been paid his contract and his coaching staff are being kept on without a role. Barcelona are something of a shipwreck right now.
It has been a tough summer. Shortly after Real Madrid won the 2019/20 LaLiga Santander title, Barcelona suffered their toughest ever Champions League humiliation. While Real Madrid announced that they wouldn’t be making signings this summer, Barcelona wanted a serious shake-up of their squad and yet it is Real Madrid who have raised 125 million in sales so far this window. Meanwhile, Barcelona let Ivan Rakitic go for 1.5m euros and had what was essentially a swap of Arthur (70m euros) for Miralem Pjanic (60m euros) in order to balance their books.
There’s even a comparison to be made with the Gareth Bale and Luis Suarez situations. Real Madrid are about to move Bale on even though he has been saying for the past year that he’ll stay, whereas Barcelona don’t yet know if Suarez will be staying or not – even though he has already been told that he’s not being counted on by Ronald Koeman.
Real Madrid gave up on the idea of signing Eduardo Camavinga, while Barcelona are still acting as if they can sign Lautaro Martinez when all of Europe knows they can’t afford it unless they sell players. Even Bartomeu has admitted this, according to Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas. Real Madrid have decided to look ahead and are now playing to try to make a move for Kylian Mbappe next year, whereas Barcelona may have only managed to delay Lionel Messi’s exit for a year – potentially at the expense of a transfer fee that could have solved many problems.
Because there are many problems at Barcelona. The Espai Barca project has been halted, at the same time as Real Madrid have advanced with the redevelopment of the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu and posted a profit of 320,000 euros for a season in which there was a global pandemic. Barcelona have losses of 98m euros. While Real Madrid have tackled this crisis with excellent economic management, Barcelona have not. They even announced publicly which players they want to sell, devaluing them in an instant.
“The truth is that there has been no project or anything for a long time, they juggle and cover holes as things go by,” is what Messi said of the situation in his famous interview with Goal.
Some say Messi was too harsh on Bartomeu, but it’s the long list of folly that is tough for Barcelona fans to accept. The crux of the Blaugrana’s sporting project is Messi. Sporting directors come and go and the big signings don’t work. The veterans are making the most of the institutional weakness to secure contract extensions above market value. There aren’t many youth teamers coming through and even when an Ansu Fati does emerge, they don’t back him and instead consider bringing in competition such as Memphis Depay.
Barcelona need something new and they need it urgently. The next president will be facing a titanic challenge because Barcelona are a shipwreck right now.
FIFA announce new world ranking, Portugal into top five & Russia up six places
After more than six months of disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, international matches have finally recommenced.
With the exception of Uzbekistan’s 2-1 friendly victory over Tajikistan, the countries back in action have all been European. The successful staging of these games was nonetheless encouraging for teams from other confederations as they seek to resume international fixtures in the weeks ahead.
Meanwhile, the 54 UEFA Nations League games that took place across Europe at the beginning of September had an immediate impact on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, which had remained unchanged since 9 April.
While there has been no movement among the leading quartet – in descending order: Belgium, France, Brazil and England – Portugal (5th, up 2) have moved into the top five thanks to victories over Croatia (8th, down 2) and Sweden (18th, down 1).
Other countries moving in the right direction are Spain (7th, up 1), Italy (12th, up 1), the Netherlands (13th, up 1), and Germany (14th, up 1), with each gaining one place in the global classification. Wales (21st, up 2) climbed two rungs but remain just outside the top 20.
Russia, hosts of the last FIFA World Cup™, are further back in 32nd but had the biggest gain in this edition this, ascending six places courtesy of wins over Serbia (31st, down 2) and Hungary (52nd, unchanged).
Despite not playing, IR Iran (30th, up 3) moved into the top 30 after Serbia and Turkey (32nd, down 3) dropped points.
The method used to calculate positioning in the World Ranking is explained HERE.
The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 22 October 2020.
While the Jadon Sancho transfer saga rumbles on, Manchester United continue to be linked with more names across the continent.
United’s pursuit of the England man is still yet to be resolved, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been able to add to his squad in the meantime, bringing in Ajax midfielder Donny van de Beek at the start of September for a reported £35million.
With Solskjaer’s men beginning their 2020/21 Premier League campaign on Saturday against Crystal Palace, it seems certain that negotiations over a number of targets will continue in the early weeks of the season ahead of the October transfer deadline.
Here’s the latest on some exciting potential arrivals… as well as one departure.
Manchester United ’s winger search has been one of the main stories surrounding the club this summer, and now a new name has emerged.
According to the MEN, United have been in contact with Atalanta over Amad Traore, a teenage prospect who made his Serie A debut last season and is the brother of Sassuolo winger Hamed Junior Traore.
The 18-year-old is not regarded as an alternative to more established targets such as Jadon Sancho, according to the report, but the interest from Old Trafford follows interest from other Serie A clubs over a loan move for the 2020/21 season.
Traore scored on his Serie A debut last October, becoming the youngest player to do so, after replacing Josip Ilicic during a 7-1 victory over Udinese.
He made two further substitute appearances, against Juventus and Parma, and travelled with Gian Piero Gasperini’s squad for their Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain but did not feature.
Chris Smalling continues to be linked with a move away from Old Trafford this season, with Roma and Inter Milan the two clubs mentioned most regularly.
Roma have been keen on a deal after the England international impressed on loan last season, but have been unable to reach an agreement with Manchester United to keep him in the Italian capital.
According to FcInterNews, via Sport Witness, intermediaries are working on a swap deal which could see Smalling move to Inter with Ivan Perisic making the opposite journey.
Perisic has been targeted by United in the past, and is back in Italy after a loan spell at Bayern Munich.
However, the same report suggests the Nerazzurri would only entertain such a move if centre-back Milan Skriniar leaves during the current transfer window.
Skriniar, who joined Inter from Sampdoria in 2017, is the subject of interest from Paris Saint-Germain as the Champions League finalists attempt to make up for the loss of Thiago Silva.
Manchester United look set to miss out on Sergio Reguilon, with reports suggesting the club’s reluctance to agree to a buy-back option for the Real Madrid man has given Tottenham the upper hand.
However, with a move for the Spaniard potentially off the table, United have been linked with Porto and Brazil left-back Alex Telles as an alternative.
According to A Bola (via the Star ), agent Pini Zahavi is set to offer the left-back to United as he enters the final year of his deal in Portugal.
The 27-year-old has played more than 100 Primeira Liga games for Porto, scoring 19 times, and also scored his team’s winner against Roma in the last 16 of the 2018/19 Champions League.
Telles made his Brazil debut against Panama in 2019, and reports suggest Porto have dropped their asking price given his contract situation.
MASH THE WRITER 