Hello and welcome to Sportskeeda's daily transfer news and rumours roundup for 19th March 2017. Europe’s heavyweights are all eyeing summer moves for players to add to their squad and our roundup summarises the best deals for you. Today’s roundup features Premier League and La Liga giants who are in the market for young players. Let’s head right in.
Manchester City confident of landing Messi
The biggest news today comes from the Sunday Express who report that Manchester City are confident of landing Lionel Messi with the player yet to sign a new deal at Barcelona. The Catalan club are reluctant to meet Messi’ s astronomical wage demands while City are ready to pay whatever the Argentine wants in order to lure him to the Etihad.
Guardiola will reportedly be given £200 million in the summer plus the amount he makes from sales of his current squad and is planning to raid his boyhood club for players, with Messi high on the priority list.
Verratti and/or Coutinho for Barcelona
Mundo Deportivo from Spain reports that Barcelona have their sights set on either Paris Saint-Germain’s Marco Verratti or Liverpool’s Phillipe Coutinho. The paper reports that the Catalan club are keen on both players and could either move for both or one of the pair if they cannot land the duo.
Verratti has been continually linked with Barcelona and a host of other European clubs and in all likelihood will be at a new club come next season. Liverpool have extended Coutinho’s contract this year up to 2022, so landing him could be more expensive for Barcelona but they will try to persuade the youngster to move nonetheless.
Manchester United’s Griezmann chase slowly fizzing out
Antoine Griezmann has again reiterated that he is ‘happy’ at Atletico and does not want to move away from the club. This has dealt a severe blow to Manchester United after they have seemingly failed to entice the player to move to England.
While speaking to beIN Sports Griezmann said, “As I have said so many times in the past, I have a contract with Atletico, I am happy here and so is my family.
“And besides, to leave, first the club has to want to sell me, right? I try to be happy out on the pitch and give my best for the fans. Everything's going well. Here we have sun all the year round and that is also a big help.”
Chelsea keen on Monaco pair
Premier League leaders Chelsea are planning a double swoop for Benjamin Mendy and Bernardo Silva of Monaco according to the Sunday Mirror. The Blues are planning to bid £40 million for the duo who helped in knocking out Manchester City from the Champions League.
However, Monaco will be reluctant to let the pair go after their impressive and instrumental performances for the club this season.
Wenger to stay for another year and Jose wants to stay long-term
Arsene Wenger is set to sign a new one-year contract extension after reports from the Express suggest that the ‘has reached a compromise to stay on for one more year’. Max Allegri was supposed to move to Arsenal in the summer to take over, but it now looks as though Wenger will stay on for another season.
Meanwhile, Jose Mourinho has said that he wants a long-term stay at Old Trafford. While speaking to Portuguese TV channel SIC he said, “A minimum of three years, I think I will be here, I think the club understood the necessity to give stability to all levels.
"I believe if we do that, even without a massive success, which is harder in football, even more so in England, but with some type of success, I see myself staying here if they want me to stay.”
