Eden Hazard to PSG for £50m? : transfer rumours

Earlier this year, at a time when Manchester United were desperately trying to convince supporters that they were not run by people frazzled by the magnitude of their responsibilities, Wayne Rooney was presented with a monstrous new contract. It was shrewd work by the player’s agent. Reports at the time even claimed that the club agreed to give Rooney a say in all future transfer activity but the Mill does not believe that: for would Louis Van Gaal really have accepted the job of Manchester United manager if he was told that he had to run his recruitment policy past Rooney? And if Rooney really did have a significant input, would the Daily Mail be telling us this morning that United’s next signing is to be Mario Mandzukic, a striker currently serving an international ban for kicking an opponent in the knick-knacks? Ah.

The Mill would have no difficulty believing that David Moyes and Ed Woodward inserted a contract in Rooney’s clause whereby they would wish the player “happy birthday” every day and garnish his route to work with petals and bunting. Yaya Touré would no doubt approve, and possibly suggest that anything less would be an outrageous slur. The Manchester City midfielder is said, by his agent, to be considering leaving the Etihad after suffering the humiliation of not being given birthday greetings by the people who hand him hundreds of thousands of pounds every week. Brace yourself, Bacary Sagna, life at Manchester City is hell.
Arsenal are poised to replace Sagna with Toulouse’s Serge Aurier. Having announced that his club will prioritise “multi-dimensional” players in the transfer market this summer, Brendan Rodgers risks being accused of having a decidedly one-dimensional focus as he lines up bids for Adam Lallana of Southampton, Dejan Lovren of Southampton and Morgan Schneiderlin of Southampton. Although in fairness, Liverpool are also pursuing Bayer Leverkusen’s Emre Can, because if anyone can put an exciting spring in the club’s step, Can can.
Having hounded their club into dismissing Chris Hughton because of his functional style of play, Norwich City fans are to be invited to watch the thrill-fests in which Malky Mackay specialises. Barcelona want Gerard Deulofeu and, indeed, already have him. So the nimble winger won’t be going back to Everton next season. The Catalan club will also hold on to Rafinha Alcântara, who impressed while on loan at Celta Vigo last season.
As soon as Arsenal finish their open-top bus world tour in celebration of their FA Cup triumph, Arsène Wenger will start spending his transfer kitty of £100,000,001. Among the targets is Ángel di María, who is also sought by Manchester City, Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain. Encouragingly for Wenger, Monaco may be headed for a bout of austerity not because of the erection of a new stadium but because of the collapse of a marriage, with the club’s owner Dmitry Rybolovlev ordered to pay £2.7bn to his former wife. It has been suggested that, hellfire, awards like that may lead to the collapse of the whole institution of marriage.
PSG, meanwhile, will only move for Di María if they fail to land their No1 target, who remains Eden Hazard, for whom the club are prepared to offer £50m, a mere two-and-a-half times the amount they were fined for violating financial fair play rules.