Wednesday transfer news, rumours LIVE: Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs latest plus gossip and deals
All the day’s latest news, rumours, gossip and done deals
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Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and more are set to be busy in the summer transfer window.
Arsenal are set to push on with their first signing of the summer with a bid for Bournemouth’s Ryan Fraser set to be lodged following this week’s Europa League final. A new centre-back is high on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s priority list at United with Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly and Leicester’s Harry Maguire both options. Crystal Palace’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka is another on the Norwegian’s radar.
It won’t just be incomings at Old Trafford, however, with Paul Pogba a high-profile target for Real Madrid and Alexis Sanchez on his way out with Inter Milan and Juventus fighting it out for his signature – if he drops his wage demands. And Liverpool could be active too as they look to go one better after failing to win the Premier League title by just a single point.
Review all the day’s transfer stories:
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Good morning and welcome to today's Independent transfer live blog.
The summer window is upon us with the Premier League’s biggest clubs set to spend, spend, spend as the sales re-open.
We'll bring you all the latest news plus all the done deals and the juiciest gossip throughout the day right here so don't touch that dial.
We start this morning with a major development on Neymar's future, so without further ado, off we go.
Just two years into his Paris Saint-Germain career, Neymar could be heading back to Barcelona.
Catalan outlet RAC1 is reporting that Barca have opened negotiations with PSG that also involve Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele, with either of them offered to the Ligue 1 side in a cash-plus-player deal to bring the Brazilian back to the Nou Camp.
Neymar joined PSG for a world-record €222m in 2017 and remains the most expensive footballer in history, and although the reports adds that talks are in their early stages, officials at Barcelona are increasingly confident of Neymar's return this summer.
The clearout at Manchester United is ready to get underway after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer met with the club's board to lay out his transfer window plans.
Solskjaer has made it apparent that he wants the players who are not part of his long-term plan sold by the summer of next year, according to the Manchester Evening News, and that will allow him to bring in the targets he's identified as key to rebuilding the United squad (more on that shortly).
However, it looks like it'll be more than just the fringe players who will be leaving Old Trafford...
That's because reports in Italy are strongly linking striker Romelu Lukaku with a move to Inter Milan, so much so that the Belgian is ready to take a pay-cut.
The 26-year-old is facing an uncertain future at United after losing his first-team place to Marcus Rashford under Solskjaer, and Gazzetta dello Sport claim that Lukaku is willing to accept less than the reported £200,000-a-week salary that he is currently on.
Inter are currently in the process of appointing Antonio Conte as their new manager, and once the former Chelsea boss is in place, it's expected that they will press on with their attempts to sign Lukaku.
Arsenal manager Unai Emery is keen on a reunion with Belgium full-back Thomas Meunier.
Emery worked with the 27-year-old while manager of Paris Saint-Germain and believes he may be the answer to solving Arsenal's weakness in defence.
PSG are understood to be open to negotiations as they look to strengthen their squad in an effort to address their poor Champions league form, and France Football are reporting that Arsenal are ready to move for Meunier this summer - as long as they win the Europa League final to qualify for next season's Champions League.
Matthijs de Ligt remains Manchester United's No 1 target this summer.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is set for a major revamp of his squad this summer with the 19-year-old a key part of it.
Barcelona remain seriously interested but United are said to have made a big money offer to try and turn his head.
De Ligt, for his part, says all the talk over his future should be taken with a "pinch of salt".
Paulo Dybala knows what he wants next year - and it's a stay at Juventus.
Manchester United have been linked with a move for the Argentine with the departure of Max Allegri as manager seen as potentially the trigger for an exit this summer.
But Dybala is keen to stick around.
“[Juventus director of sport Fabio] Paratici knows what I want to do next year – to keep playing here,” he said.
“Paratici knows that next year I want to continue here. Then it doesn’t depend on me.
“Juventus must make its choices with the coach that will come. But society knows it – next year I want to stay here.
“I have a lot of respect for this shirt and for these fans, and because of this I will only talk about Juventus, not about other teams, because that seems to me a lack of respect.”
With Petr Cech on his way into retirement this summer Arsenal are in the market for a new goalkeeper.
Could that goalkeeper be Gianluigi Donnarumma?
Well they've made initial contact at least, according to reports in Italy.
Still a long way to go before a deal is done, however, with the 20-year-old one of Milan's most-prized assets.
Both Manchester United and Manchester City are interested in England defender Harry Maguire.
The centre-back is viewed as the ideal replacement for Vincent Kompany at the Etighad Stadium, but United have a long-running interest in the Leicester City defender and hope that he would be the answer to their issues at the back.
With the 26-year-old currently on international duty with Gareth Southgate's side ahead of the Nations League finals, any development in his future is likely to be put on hold until the back-end of next month, and he has spoken this week of his happiness with wherehis career currently is that helps him to ignore the speculation over a move to the north-west.
Napoli are in pole position to sign Kieran Trippier from Tottenham Hotspur this summer.
The England right-back will be allowed to leave White Hart Lane for the right offer, and the Italian side are confident of reaching a deal for a fee of roughly £25million.
Trippier has three years left on the contract he signed in the summer of 2017, but at 28 years old he is keen on the prospect of a move abroad and the deal on offer from Napoli.
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