Exclusive: De Gea still waiting, no Malen/Sancho swap and much more

Posted Sunday, December 10, 2023 by Caughtoffside.com

De Gea still waiting for opportunities

Unfortunately guys there’s still nothing to report on the future of David de Gea, nothing concrete so far.
Lots of rumours including Newcastle but, at the moment, they are giving a chance to Dubravka as they trust him.

It’s not clear if this situation will change, and so Newcastle will decide one way or the other what they want to do in the next weeks.

For now, De Gea is still waiting for the right opportunity to restart his career.

Pep confirms Kalvin Phillips will leave Man City

Pep Guardiola mentioned the situation of Kalvin Phillips in his press conference on Friday, confirming once again that the player will leave Manchester City in the January transfer window.

Guardiola said how sorry he felt because Kalvin Phillip’s behaviour is always perfect. He’s a great guy, great player, but Pep has a different vision for Manchester City and this is why the player will leave. He needs to play to be considered for the Euros, it’s really crucial for him.

Newcastle could take him but there are also other clubs interested in the player. For sure this is one to watch for the next few weeks, and there could be a really, really interesting opportunity for Kalvin Phillips.

Victor Boniface continues to enhance his reputation

Exclusive: De Gea still waiting, no Malen/Sancho swap and much more

Another one to watch is Victor Boniface. The Bayer Leverkusen ace has completed an incredible achievement for the fourth time in a row. He’s the Bundesliga’s Rookie of the month – again!

August, September, October and now also November. Victor Boniface has 20 goal and assist contributions in 20 official games this season and is doing a really incredible job at Leverkusen along with Xabi Alonso.

Keep an eye on him for the summer – not for January – because many important clubs from Italy and from England are travelling regularly to keep an eye him. There’s a lot of interest in this boy, so I’m sure he’s going to be one of the names that will be mentioned in the summer.

No swap deal between Donyell Malen and Jadon Sancho

A couple of days ago Donyell Malen changed agents. He’s now with the SEC group, a really strong Dutch group on the transfer market, and we’ve already started to hear rumours about the player and Manchester United.

United and SEC have done many deals together so the relationship is very good, and from what I’m hearing Malen is one of the options that Manchester United are discussing internally.

It’s not a negotiation at this stage because we know there will be new people in charge at United for the January transfer window, so it will take some time before anything concrete happens. Erik ten Hag even said he doesn’t expect any movement in January.

Malen is not happy with Dortmund and he’s not happy to play on the wing because he wants to play as a central striker. United know this but there’s also Timo Werner at Leipzig, Serhou Guirassy with a €17.5m release clause in his contract with Stuttgart – so there are multiple possibilities.

There have been many questions on a swap deal with Jadon Sancho but at the moment guys, I’m told that there is no contact between Dortmund and United so it’s very quiet.

The Sancho situation is still not resolved and so we need to wait. Let’s see if something is going to happen in January, but as of now; Malen discussed internally – yes, swap deal – still not something concrete at the moment.

Bayern still want Joao Palhinha but Arsenal appreciate him

Joao Palhinha had an interview with DAZN Portugal and he was asked about Bayern, if he was still thinking about that collapsed transfer from the summer, and his answer was a simple “no, I’m moving on and focused on Fulham now. Then, we will see what happens in January.”

From what I understand, there’s very good conditions for Joao Palhinha to leave in January and sources at Bayern are very clear that they still like the player – but they won’t pay crazy money for him. Just to specify too that Bayern’s idea is not to invest something like €70m-€75m, they want a different price. So let’s see what’s going to happen.

The deal is still there to be done and this is an open race because Arsenal also appreciate the player. As I told you, Arsenal are looking at midfield and their top target is Douglas Luiz from Aston Villa, but Villa are doing wonderful and so it will be very difficult for Arsenal to convince Villa to sell.

That’s why there is a complete possibility for Arsenal to move onto other targets. Palhinha is appreciated but also very expensive, and so not an easy deal to do either. From what I’m hearing, another topic is that Arsenal want younger players, but let’s see what they can find on the market.

Chelsea have absolute trust in Pochettino

Let’s see also what’s going to happen with the future of Mauricio Pochettino. At the moment the position is still very clear though there have been a lot of questions after a disappointing performance against Manchester United.

Chelsea directors and owners still have the same feelings. They trust and support Mauricio Pochettino. Christopher Nkunku and other injured players could be back in the squad very soon and the hope is that this will prove to be positive in changing the current situation.

So, Chelsea are not discussing anyone else internally, they’re not speaking to other managers or to representatives of different managers, because they trust Pochettino and want everything to remain positive.

Erik ten Hag believes Mason Mount is the future of Man United

One former Chelsea player who is having a difficult time at Manchester United is Mason Mount, and an injury has complicated his position in recent weeks. But guys, it’s important to say that in public Erik ten Hag confirmed again that he really wanted the player. That he trusted his analysis.

Of course there has been a difficult beginning to the season in general for Man United and for Mason Mount, but obviously he can still be an important player for the club and Erik ten Hag believes he is part of the future for Man United.

He’s happy with the behaviour of the player off the pitch, including trying to recover in the best and quickest way possible. Obviously the club are expecting different things in the next month, but they want to wait for him and don’t want more pressure from the media regarding his selection or form.