Thursday's transfer news and rumours ahead of the summer window
All the day’s 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. Finally, Chelsea face an uncertain summer due to their current transfer ban, but one thing they know is that Eden Hazard will be heading for the exit after expressing his desire to join Real Madrid.
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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 the latest on Eden Hazard's future, so without further ado, off we go.
Eden Hazard has made it abundantly clear that he will be leaving Chelsea.
The Belgian was the star of the show as he scored twice in Chelsea's 4-1 demolition of Arsenal to win the Europa League, and afterwards he spoke openly and honestly of his desire for a new challenge away from the Blues.
After first confirming that he has informed the club of his preference to join Real Madrid - either this summer or next year when his contract expires - he revealed that all will be confirmed in the next few days.
After listening to Eden Hazard express his desire to leave, Chelsea teammate David Luiz paid tribute to his club colleague and friend and admitted that he deserves to move on after giving his all for the club.
Luiz also offered his thoughts on who Chelsea will replace Hazard with, and given they are facing a transfer ban through to next summer, he came up with a rather sensible option - only after hinting that it "can only be Messi or Ronaldo".
News in the north-west suggests that a transfer battle could be on between Manchester United and Liverpool as the race to sign Lille's Nicolas Pepe heats up.
The Ligue 1 club have already confirmed that Pepe is likely to leave the club this summer, and the Premier League has been touted as the destination of his choice.
The Ivory Coast international has attracted interest from United and Paris Saint-Germain, but the Daily Star reports that Liverpool are considering a £70m offer for the 23-year-old winger.
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.
Inter Milan have sacked Luciano Spalletti, paving the way for Antonio Conte to take over at the San Siro.
Inter have targeted Conte for a while, meaning they have had to be ruthless with Spalletti.
After consecutive seasons qualifying for the Champions League, it is considered a harsh move by the Nerazzurri.
But their ambition is to challenge Juventus and Conte may well give them their best chance.
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, but last night's Europa League defeat looks to have hurt their chances.
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 were ready to move for Meunier this summer - but the failure to secure Champions League football has hurt their chances of landing him in the summer.
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