This article was originally published on Fabrizio Romano’s Daily Briefing, a subscription service. If you would like to receive Fabrizio Romano’s exclusive articles via email ahead of publication on caughtoffside.com, please sign-up for the service here: thedailybriefing.io
Clubs can make their plan at any point on timing, for now there’s nothing really concrete or advanced to say which deal is gonna be the first one to happen.
Toney, Osimhen and Gyokeres are all players who could be part of the domino but we are not at the negotiations stage yet and I’m not going to invent stories.
Rumours appear to be continuing on David Moyes but at this stage I’m not aware of decisions made about him by West Ham.
The club are fully focused on the Premier League and European football, so everything that comes next will be discussed later.
I think many times we heard that Moyes was almost gone and he’s still there.
Nothing is decided yet.
The structure will include Omar Berrada as the new CEO and then Dan Ashworth.
Now it’s time to understand about the compensation fee and the timing between Southampton and Man United to make the Wilcox deal happen, but he’s already resigned.
Reports about Liverpool are not true from what I heard. Jason Wilcox is not going to Liverpool and never had a concrete negotiation with them. Liverpool have different ideas and Jason Wilcox only wanted Manchester United.
He’s the former Head of Academy at Manchester City, he did an incredible job with people like Joe Shields and many others, but now full focus is on Manchester United the future with INEOS.
So, a work in progress but trust me, it’s only a matter of time.
Sticking with Man United, the negotiation with Newcastle is still ongoing for Dan Ashworth.
It’s not been easy, as expected, but Man United are still working to have Ashworth and Jason Wilcox as soon as possible.
This delay can of course make the process slower in terms of the club’s strategy, but the vision will always be there thanks to the co-owners and new people at the club.
I told you multiple times already – in September, in October, in November – that Man United scouts have been regularly following João Neves and they will keep following him.
They were at Benfica’s last game and they will return again in the final months of the season. Now, with crucial games coming up, Man United will follow the player closely, waiting for the decision on how much they want to invest in the midfielder – but he will be expensive.
His clause is now €120m but Benfica will try to put a higher clause into his contract. In any case, he’s going to be a very expensive player.
Also, João Neves has been scouted by Manchester City too and Bayern, and these two clubs have sent their scouts multiple times to follow him, so let’s see what’s going to happen there.
Honestly, I’ve nothing on Barca and Iraola so far.
Barcelona have clear intentions in any case. Laporta wants to wait for Xavi, hoping for him to change his mind. Barca will wait again for Xavi, for sure.
Then if he decides to confirm that he wants to leave Barca will consider other candidates, but they’re not advancing in talks with any other coach as they want to wait for Xavi.
Thibaut Courtois will return at the beginning of next season, Real Madrid are waiting for him.
Andriy Lunin is doing fantastic and the club are super happy with him. He’s with Jorge Mendes now as his new agent, and there is a negotiation ongoing over a new contract between Lunin and Madrid. They want him to stay and are waiting for the player’s green light.
Kepa will return to Chelsea, he will not stay at Madrid. There’s no intention to keep the player and also Kepa wanted to play more obviously. He’s super respectful of Real Madrid but wasn’t expecting this kind of situation.
At the moment there’s nothing decided at all about Kepa’s future, it’s too early. Let’s see what Chelsea will decide to do next, but this is something for the end of May/June.
Let’s see how will things will be by the end of the season for Ciro and then Spalletti will decide whether or not to take him to the Euros.
I don’t think Ciro’s poor form will have an impact on Italy’s aspirations as it’s part of football. Some managers have different ideas and Spalletti will have his own reasons for that.