Bizarre rumoured Liverpool to Man City sale

El Chiringuito — yes, the lads with the viral clips that have the dramatic music and slow zoom — are reporting that Manchester City are moving for Liverpool winger Luis Diaz. Apparently they’ve already agreed personal terms and are willing to pay Liverpool £60m to sign him.

Why would a Spanish outlet have the scoop about two English teams making a move for a Colombian player who’s represented by a Portuguese agent? Well… that’s a very good reason to be skeptical of the reporting. The likes of Fab and The Ornacle will be working on confirming or rubbishing (probably rubbishing) this shortly.

In any event, you might be asking: Is Luis Diaz £60m good? And reader, yes he is. His shot creation and dribbling are elite, while his finishing, passing and defensive work rate are average at worst.

However, I struggle to make sense of this transfer from either side. Liverpool haven’t spent any money this summer and are not in any kind of financial trouble, so they don’t need to sell players to direct rivals if they don’t want to. City have a bunch of prime age wingers and it doesn’t make a lot of sense for them to spend £60m on a 27-year-old. You’d think they’d want someone who can give them a lot of backup 9 minutes to replace Alvarez.

There’s just no way, right? Surely not? Unless…

No. It’s a big fat “nah” from me. I will believe this is fake until he’s holding the shirt.

Last week, we ran three polls on who you’d sign between two rumoured transfers for a handful of clubs. First up, at winger for Leicester City, you’d much prefer the Watford youngster Yaser Asprilla to the Ajax veteran Steven Bergwijn.

The Tottenham debate is a bit irrelevant now — these were alternatives to Dominic Solanke, who Spurs ultimately decided to just pay £65m for — but it was a much closer vote. The more mobile and dribbly Jonathan David was preferred to target man Ivan Toney. I do like both of these players though, and I think they’ll both move somewhere before the window closes.

And for Man United, an absolute landslide. Our readers heavily prefer the well-balanced Youssouf Fofana to man mountain ball-winner Sander Berge. I think that Berge might be the better partner to Kobbie Mainoo, but I agree that Fofana is the better all-around player.

News and rumours

• In other Liverpool news, they’ve been informed by Martin Zubimendi that he’s chosen to stay at Real Sociedad. I have nothing against the fine city of Liverpool, a place with better weather and more culture than my current place of residence, but: I would not leave San Sebastian either. I’d mop the floors at the Anoeta for minimum wage and a decent studio apartment.

• Marseille are acting awfully strange this window. They’ve spent a lot on players with meh track records, and they’re now backing out of more deals after they were reportedly close to done. Eddie Nketiah and Youssoufa Moukoko’s moves have both been called off after OM failed to agree to terms on them.

• Nketiah could have a potential move within England, though. Bournemouth are reportedly considering meeting Arsenal’s asking price now that they’re flush with cash, and he could replace Solanke.

• Everton are in talks with Barcelona to sign young striker Vitor Roque, who could cost them somewhere in the neighborhood of £25m. How would an Everton team in financial peril afford such a thing? Apparently by selling Dominic Calvert-Lewin to Manchester United. If you say so, Sky Sports.

• The Toffees would also like to sign Kalvin Phillips on loan from Man City, along with Fulham and Ipswich. The classic “he’ll keep you up” signing for a bottom half side, though that would require him keeping fit.

• Trevoh Chalobah has repeatedly insisted he’d prefer to stay at Chelsea, but might be accepting he should bounce after they locked him out of the first team facilities. Aston Villa, Fulham, and Crystal Palace are the teams reportedly in the running. He’d make a lovely Marc Guehi replacement for Palace at less than half the price.

• Arsenal women have signed 21-year-old striker Rosa Kafaji from BK Hacken in Sweden. I wouldn’t call her a direct Vivianne Miedema replacement — she doesn’t have the same passing skills or elite finishing yet — but she is good at dribbling forward when she picks the ball up deep. Realistically I’d expect a bit of an adjustment period this year before she has the chance to really kick on in her second season.

• Former Manchester United women midfielder Katie Zelem has signed for Angel City FC in the US, where she’ll be a big upgrade for them as a defensive midfielder.

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