Mpira

Leeds United have been in contact with Sporting CP over a potential move for Matheus Nunes, according to reports in Portugal over the last 48 hours. The Lowdown: Nunes profiled Nunes, labelled as ‘very fast’ by former teammate Goncalo Santos, is 23 years of age and can play as a defensive, central or attacking midfielder. Valued at a career-high £31.5m by Transfermarkt, the Portugal international is under contract until 2026 and has made 99 appearances for Sporting, contributing to 15 goals. He has been linked with the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and Wolves this summer, and it seems as if Leeds are also admirers of the midfielder. The Latest: Leeds enquiry MOT Leeds News relayed an update from Tuesday’s edition of Record regarding Leeds and Nunes. The newspaper believe that the Whites have been monitoring the midfielder and have recently made an enquiry after remaining in the Premier League. The report cites a €50m (£42.4m) fee but state that another year in Portugal currently looks li...

Manchester United new boy Tyrell Malaca admits his character changes as soon as he steps across the white line. The former Feyenoord full-back is often all smiles in training and has quickly integrated into the set-up at the club, following his move ahead of Tour 2022. However, he becomes a different animal on matchdays and is known for his tigerish tackling and non-stop work up and down the left flank. Little wonder he is known in some quarters as 'The Pitbull', even though the 'Rotterdam Rottweiler' might be a more appropriate nickname! We asked Tyrell about his nickname and personality during Tour 2022 and he replied: "I've always been like this. I'm always smiling and, yeah, that's just me.  "But, when I'm on the pitch, I'm a different person. "Yes, yes [I am able to turn it on and off when I am playing]." Malacia looks set to appear in either Saturday's game against Atletico Madrid, in Oslo, or the home match with Rayo Va...

Hannibal Mejbri is set for a loan move in the next week according to Sky Sports. The 19 year old has been among Erik ten Hag’s squad for the pre-season tour but has been used sparingly and in unfamiliar positions. With the depth of options for the attacking midfield role, it is now expected that Hannibal will leave on loan to seek regular playing time. Sky Sports reports a number of clubs are chasing his services “with Birmingham, West Brom, Millwall and Middlesbrough all interested in signing the youngster.” A possible move outside of England could also be on the cards with “Braga and two clubs in Spain also keen on the midfielder.” Already a full senior international for Tunisia, with 16 caps, Hannibal has reached the stage where regular senior football is vital to continue his development and it is unlikely to come at Old Trafford. Missing large portions of last season due to international duty, the youngster only made 14 appearances across the age groups for Manchester United. An a...

football.london takes a look at the moments you may have missed from Chelsea's defeat to Arsenal in Florida Chelsea brought their tour of the USA to an end against Arsenal, and by the end of the 90 minutes in Florida will have been pleased to do so. Thomas Tuchel's side looked off the pace for the duration of the match, and opened the game with a series of sloppy passes and fouls to allow the Gunners the upper hand. Misplaced passes from Trevoh Chalobah and Edouard Mendy allowed Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard in to put Mikel Arteta's men 2-0 up at half time. Bukayo Saka and Albert Sambi Lokonga added to that in the second period in a match where Chelsea produced little in front of goal. For many, Chelsea's loss to the Gunners will be a match they look to swiftly forget, but  football.london takes a look at some of the more interesting moments you may have missed: Thomas Tuchel's fury The German coach's activity on the sideline is common place at Stamford Brid...

Defeat to start pre-season. Real Madrid  0-1 Barcelona .  Here is the immediate reaction to the first pre-season game. Up next: player ratings and a ManagingMadrid Las Vegas podcast. El Clásico was deemed a suitable choice for the very first pre-season outing for Real Madrid, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fans flocked to the Allegiant stadium in huge numbers, and would not have been disappointed by either line-up. Barcelona fielded Robert Lewandowski amongst a whole host of senior players. For Madrid, new players Antonio Rüdiger and Aurélien Tchouaméni started - whilst Eden Hazard was deployed as a centre-forward. The rest of the line-up can be found below. Lucas Vázquez captained the team for this one. The first half could easily be split into two segments. I was impressed with the intensity and some of the quality on show during the opening 25 minutes or so - with Rodyrgo Goes and Eduardo Camavinga looking particularly sharp whenever the ball came their way. Madrid matched Barcelona...

Karim Benzema, frankly put, is living the life right now. The man just won a Champions League – his fifth, a record shared by multiple Real Madrid players – he’s also going to win the Ballon d’Or, the UEFA Men’s best player, Fifa’s The Best award, and is about to start this season off very soon, when he meets up with his Real Madrid teammates in LA. Now, the backup to Benzema is an interesting thing to talk about. Being a backup to the best striker in the world is tough, because you’re not going to play unless Benzema gets injured. For those positions, you can’t really rely on a young striker, can you? I mean, young players need to play as much as possible for their development, and if they don’t get minutes at Real, they will leave. Playing Eden Hazard or Rodrygo there could work. Still, the goalscoring side of things would always remain questionable, and you never really know what you’ll get from Rodrygo at striker, because he is not a striker. But, you can get a veteran to do the jo...

Reliable journalist Fabrizio Romano has suggested another addition in the middle of the park, such as Sporting CP midfielder Matheus Nunes, could be extremely beneficial to Liverpool. It seems as though The Reds are holding out for England international Jude Bellingham next summer, as Borussia Dortmund are currently unwilling to sell due to the recent sale of Erling Haaland to Manchester City. Romano has said, via @caughtoffside, “I think another midfielder could help Liverpool, a player like Matheus Nunes, a talented 23-year-old from Sporting Lisbon, would be a smart idea. But Liverpool always think long-term and I’m sure they will invest in a midfielder in 2023.”  This suggests that Jurgen Klopp would not be interested in a stop-gap and wants a player for the future of the club. As a result, Bellingham next year likes far more likely. Nunes has played 99 games, whilst scoring 7 times for the green and whites. The No.8 joined from Estoril in 2019 for a fee of £500,000. He took the...

Chelsea have three top targets to be the central defender to follow Kalidou Koulibaly to the club now that a deal for Nathan Ake seems dead. Here, we break down Presnel Kimpembe. Presnel Kimpembe has been a solid starter for PSG for many years now – including during Thomas Tuchel’s spell at the club. Unlike Josko Gvardiol and Jules Kounde who we’ve also looked at, Kimpembe is a much more solid presence at the back for his team, with less attacking flair. According to FBRef Stats, he’s in just the 69th percentile for progressive passes, despite being in one of the most dominant teams in Europe compared to their domestic competition. PSG get attacked so little by the teams in Ligue 1 that their stats are really skewed – he’s only in the 39th percentile for tackles in the top 5 leagues despite being one of the most physically dominant and aggressive defenders out there.

We are entering Jorginho’s fifth year as a Chelsea player, and the last of his current contract with the club. The question of an extension has been reduced to a background role amid the ownership transition and transfer market activities, but it is an issue that will need to be addressed sooner rather than later. Having turned 30 in December, Jorginho has reached the age of the (unwritten) rule of single-year contracts only, though whether that policy will be continued by the club under Todd Boehly remains to be seen. Either way, Jorginho himself wants to stay as long as possible. “Of course [I would stay longer], I love Chelsea. I feel very well here and of course, I’d like to stay. But you know, a lot is going on and we don’t know. I have a contract and I love to be here. So I don’t think about moving anywhere.” “Every single year [there’s speculation]! I don’t think like this. I just think about where I am and focus 100 per cent.” The vice-captain may be growing older, but he remai...

Arsenal have made a £6.4m offer to sign Alex Grimaldo from Benfica and are now in negotiations with the Portuguese club about the proposed transfer, according to reports. A Bola , as quoted by The Daily Express, is claiming that the Gunners have now firmed up their interest in landing the 26-year-old full-back this summer as Mikel Arteta searches to bring in cover for Kieran Tierney in his squad. Reports in recent days claimed that the Gunners were considering making an offer for the Spaniard – and now it would appear that the north Londoners have made their interest in the player concrete by submitting a bit. The story claims that Arsenal are now in negotiations with Benfica as they look to strike a deal to bring the defender to The Emirates ahead of next season. According to the same article, Arsenal were initially keen on bringing Ajax defender Lisandro Martinez in this summer but the Gunners have not been able to settle on a price with the Dutch club and are also facing competition...

Ajax have dropped a bombshell on Man Utd that has left Lisandro Martinez angry and his transfer to Old Trafford in serious doubt, per a report. Erik ten Hag has instructed Man Utd to pursue a series of transfer targets he is familiar with this summer. Tyrell Malacia has already arrived from Feyenoord and is well known to Ten Hag through his time managing in the Eredivisie with Ajax. Christian Eriksen trained with the Amsterdam club during his recovery from cardiac arrest, while Frenkie de Jong is a fellow Dutchman. Elsewhere, Manchester United have lodged bids for Ajax’s Lisandro Martinez and are chasing Brazilian team-mate Antony. Regarding Martinez, United’s latest bid reportedly totalled £43m. That was the figure the Red Devils were led to believe was Ajax’s valuation. However, according to 90min, the Dutch side have raised the bar at the last minute. Their report claims Ajax are determined to extract as much as they can from Martinez’s sale and are perhaps spurred on by the potenti...

Manchester United face Liverpool tomorrow at the Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok. At 2pm BST Erik Ten Hag will have his first chance to see how his players fare taking his instruction out onto the pitch. Under normal circumstances, we may have predicted a heavily rotated side featuring academy graduates such as Charlie Savage. However in front of 51,000 fans and a host of cameras, we predict a strong line-up to avoid a repeat of the 9-0 aggregate defeat United suffered against the Merseyside club last season. With Ronaldo away (on family reasons or otherwise), Ten Hag has little choice but to offer Anthony Martial a chance at redemption. Behind him, Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes and Jadon Sancho is – on paper – a strong group, with the former in particular having a lot to prove. In midfield, Fred and Scott McTominay would probably offer too many groans for a first outing, so we have opted for Donny van de Beek, who will be looking to recapture his Ajax performances under Ten Hag at t...

Uncertainty about Cristiano Ronaldo's future at Man United is causing concern about where the goals will come from. The prospect of Manchester United starting the 2022/23 Premier League campaign without Cristiano Ronaldo is not something that is likely to have crossed the minds of too many United supporters until recently. The five-time Ballon d'Or winner — who is yet to report back for pre-season training — spoke glowingly about Erik ten Hag before last season had even finished, outlining how excited he was to start working with the highly-rated Dutchman. Less than two months on, Ronaldo wants to leave Old Trafford, leaving United in a perilous position with around a month until the new season starts. As reported by the  Manchester Evening News  earlier this week, the 37-year-old is disappointed by United's slow start to the summer transfer window and is "upset" by the fact that the squad has been forced to accept a 25 per cent reduction in their salaries. He is ...

Tottenham have sold Steven Bergwijn to Ajax in a £28million deal, with the Dutchman becoming the club's first major departure of the summer.  Bergwijn, 24, completed a medical in Amsterdam on Wednesday and will wear the number seven shirt for the reigning Eredivisie champions.  Ajax offered to waive some of the fee owed by Tottenham on their Davinson Sanchez transfer as part of the negotiations. Tottenham have sold Steven Bergwijn to Ajax for £28million after he completed a medical The Colombian defender swapped the Johan Cruyff Arena for north London in a £42million deal in 2017.  For Bergwijn, it brings to an end his two-and-a-half-year stay at Spurs following his move from PSV in January 2020.  He scored on his debut in a victory against Manchester City, but never nailed down a regular starting spot at the club.  The winger started only four Premier League matches last season - three of which came under former boss Nuno Espirito Santo in August - and all thre...