WENGER FANCIES BAYERN GIG
Arsene Wenger apparently rejected the opportunity to take over at Fulham before Claudio Ranieri was appointed. As well as being reluctant to coach another English club, it seems the former Arsenal boss had bigger plans in mind…
According to The Telegraph, Wenger has eye on the Bayern Munich job. That post may well be up for grabs in the not-too-distant future following the Bundesliga champions’ dire start to the season. They chucked away a 3-1 lead to draw with Fortuna Dusseldorf at the weekend and, if they weren’t before, club chiefs are certainly now making contingency plans for another change of leadership.
Niko Kovac won his first four Bundesliga games in charge but since then, Bayern have triumphed only twice in eight games to leave them in fifth place, nine points off Borussia Dortmund at the summit.
Wenger has been sifting through offers to return to work since leaving Arsenal at the end of last season and the 69-year-old has been heavily linked with the technical director’s job at PSG. But, Bayern would offer him the chance to return to the coalface and a decent prospect of finishing his career with some pots.
Get it done, Bayern.
NEW SPINE FOR UNITED
Jose Mourinho plainly doesn’t rate a lot of his players – and the feeling is mutual – so it’s hardly a surprise that he’s been linked with loads of new ones. According to different reports this morning, the Manchester United boss is in for a new defender, another midfielder and a striker.
Joachim Andersen is the latest centre-back to be linked with United, though it seems unlikely that the 22-year-old Sampdoria prospect is the answer to all Mourinho’s defensive woes. According to Calciomercato, the Denmark Under-21 international is also being watched by Tottenham and is valued at around £25million, which represents a tidy profit on Samp’s £1.25million investment 18 months ago.
Mourinho’s latest midfield interest is considerably more experienced. Axel Witsel has been around the block a bit, with the 29-year-old currently impressing at Borussia Dortmund after returning to Europe from China in the summer. According to ESPN, Mourinho’s trip to Belgium last week was to watch Witsel in action, which sounds more plausible than the cover story the United boss concocted last week. Apparently, Mourinho wanted to sign Witsel when he moved to Dortmund for £18million in the summer, when United instead spluffed £52million on Fred because he’s younger.
Mourinho would probably run into similar problems in convincing the board to sanction a bid for another 29-year-old, Marko Arnautovic. According to The Telegraph, it seems United are pacifying Mourinho by saying they will monitor the West Ham striker before deciding on any possible move next summer. Sneaky, Ed.
AND THE REST
AC Milan don’t want Chelsea centre-back Gary Cahill but Gennaro Gattuso has not ruled out signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic… Chelsea have been watching Brescia’s 18-year-old midfielder Sandro Tonali… Everton are Man City interested in Lyon midfielder Tanguy Ndombele… Arsenal and Inter are tracking Galatasaray centre-back Ozan Kabak… Torino want Chelsea full-back Ola Aina on a permanent deal… Inter Milan want Man City defender Eliaquim Mangala.
