Global football is currently on pause for the most part, but the Premier League announced today, a restart that begins on June 17. The bulk of the first set of matches are to be played June 20-21, all of which televised, and behind closed doors.
So now he have a specific date to count down to when it comes to Project Restart. Until we get there, and actual football is back, we still have plenty of transfer talk to cover and analyze. So let’s take a spin through the Manchester United rumor mill in cyberspace.
For today’s United news and notes round-up go here. We start today with the latest on the United’s secondary target this summer transfer window (primary is Jadon Sancho, obviously), Aston Villa Captain Jack Grealish.
Former Villans striker Darren Bent believes Grealish is worth around £80 million ($98m), and it’s interesting how he came to that specific valuation. He cited United’s deal last summer transfer window for their current captain, Harry Maguire, which broke the world record for a defender.
“Listen, Harry Maguire went for £85m, a world record fee, so you look at Jack Grealish and you’d have to say Jack Grealish has had a better season than Harry Maguire,” Bent said to Football Insider.
“He’s been absolutely brilliant, he’s carried Aston Villa, I’m sure if it wasn’t for him, Aston Villa would have been relegated ages ago if it hadn’t been for Jack Grealish carrying the team.”
“£80m sounds about right, I don’t think that’s too expensive and I don’t think that will put off anybody.”
Of course, this is going to be a really strange transfer window, unlike any we’ve ever seen before, as the coronavirus has hit hard the finances of football clubs everywhere.
Spending will likely be down across the board, and individual player fees will often be much less than one would normally expect.
Now it’s time for our daily check-in on the Odion Ighalo saga.
It appears that a breakthrough has finally been reached, and we could soon see a u-turn in the overall story arc here.
According to a Sky Sports report, Chinese Super League side Shanghai Shenhua will allow the Nigerian to continue his dream stint a little while longer.
According to the player’s agent, they are close to an agreement that will allow the on-loan striker to stay with United until January.
Finally, a couple days ago it was thought, by about half of United fan Twitter that the club has signed Angel Gomes to an extension.
Where this all came from, well, who knows, but it hasn’t happened yet. And today the Daily Mail claim the club made an offer of £1.5 million a year to the diminuitive youngster. The 19-year-old’s contract at United expires on June 30 after he rejected a new offer of £20,000 a week in January. Chelsea FC remain interested and ready to scoop him up.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for Chicago Tribune.com, on Twitter and his cat on Instagram.