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All good things must come to an end, and so too must Marouane Fellaini’s career at Manchester United. Even José Mourinho accepts now that he cannot delay the inevitable this time and is preparing to bid a tearful farewell to the towering Belgian this summer, when, apparently, Fellaini will join Galatasaray. This has not been a vintage season for Fellaini at Old Trafford – hampered by injuries, he’s only picked up one yellow card, compared to 14 yellows and a red last term – but Mourinho can reflect with pride on the fact that he brought the best out of Fellaini, a man whose deftness of chest contrasts so oddly with his clumsiness of elbow.
With Michael Carrick also set to leave United at the end of this season, Mourinho is on the prowl for new midfielders and has reportedly whittled his shopping list down to six names: Real Madrid’s Toni Kroos, Chelsea’s Willian, Tottenham’s Victor Wanyama, Lazio’s Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Nice’s Jean-Michaël Seri and Napoli’s Jorginho, who is also being monitored by Liverpool. They all have their qualities but none really have that Fellaini-esque pow factor, although Wanyama has his moments.
Two players whom Mourinho is still fighting to keep at Old Trafford, apparently, are Anthony Martial and Marcos Rojo, and the fact that neither has yet been offered an acceptable new contract is among the 67,434 things that make Mourinho sulk. Another of those things, reportedly, is Alexis Sánchez: the Daily Star claim the player and manager have been embroiled in a “furious bust-up” and the manager is already having second thoughts about the wisdom of signing him.
Arsène Wenger’s eventual successor at Arsenal is not yet known – let’s face it, he probably hasn’t even been born yet – but some names are being tossed around again on Wednesday. Alongside the likes of Leonardo Jardim and Brendan Rodgers (note: there is no one like Brendan Rodgers), Carlo Ancelotti has been mentioned, and so too Shakhtar Donetsk’s Paulo Fonseca. Meanwhile on the pitch, Wenger has got to thinking he could do with some new defenders: Atlético Madrid’s José Maria Giménez is the latest player tipped to be put to Kipling’s If test, pitched into the Arsenal rearguard and asked if he can keep his head while all about him are losing theirs.
Arsenal are also competing with Barcelona, Juventus and Manchester City, not for silverware obviously, but for the signature of 17-year-old PSG prodigy Yacine Adli, who has been hailed as the new Ryan Sessegnon. Adli was born more than two months after the Fulham veteran. Sessegnon, by the way, is said to be attracting ever stronger interest from Spurs. And there are fears that Adli will be often be confused with a popular supermarket by hasty typists.
Manchester City, meanwhile, plan to tie Phil Foden to a long-term contract as soon as he turns 18, which will be in May, a whole day before Adli.
(GUARDIAN)
