MAN UNITED SCOUT DEMBELE
‘MANCHESTER UNITED sent a scout to watch Celtic’s Moussa Dembele – only to be left waiting until the second half __with the striker not handed a start against Ross County,’ begins the report in the Daily Record. Presumably Manchester United will now buy Leigh Griffiths instead. After all, he has scored eight goals in total this season and could hardly be worse than Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the first half of United’s win over Manchester City on Wednesday night.
Assuming Stephen McCarthy watched the entirely of Celtic’s 4-0 win over Ross County, he would have finally been rewarded for his journey as Dembele did actually come off the bench for Celtic to score his 15th goal of the season.
Zinedine Zidane said this week: “I do understand now that the biggest clubs in Europe are being linked __with him and that will be his destination eventually – but my advice now is ignore it all. He can progress well at Celtic, at a great club who are in Europe, and under a very good coach. I know his time will come but he needs to make good decisions – and his next at least one or two seasons should be with Celtic.”
PSG WANT GRIEZMANN
It’s the obvious move. They need a superstar, very publicly missing out on Neymar, and Antoine Griezmann is at least French. PSG’s new sporting director Patrick Kluivert has – according to reports in Spain – made signing Griezmann his priority as the Qatari-owned club are lacking some wow factor after the departure of Ibrahimovic to Manchester United. The problem is that he would likely cost a world-record fee from Atletico Madrid.
Edinson Cavani has scored 13 goals so far this season but at 29, he is not seen as the future of the club. And nor would he walk into any other elite European side; and that’s clearly the level PSG yearn for.
SAKHO OUT OF LIVERPOOL?
‘Mamadou Sakho is finally ready to leave Liverpool after accepting he has no future at Anfield under Jurgen Klopp,’ says the Daily Mirror, who probably saw it first in L’Equipe. Sakho played for Liverpool’s Under-23 side against Everton on Sunday night and is reportedly ready to exit the club in a quest to play some actual football. Lille are said to be interested but Liverpool would have to help with the French centre-half’s £100,000-a-week wages.
Sakho has not played for Liverpool’s first team since April and was sent home from the club’s pre-season tour for disciplinary reasons before rejecting a late loan move to Stoke.
AND THE REST
Nabil Bentaleb will make a permanent switch from Tottenham to Schalke next summer…Champions Leicester are lining up Leeds full-back Charlie Taylor…West Brom are monitoring Cologne’s 28-year-old striker Anthony Modeste and Sporting Lisbon midfielder Adrien Silva…Arsenal and Everton are tracking Hull’s 17-year-old Josh Tymon.