In exciting news, Blick believe Conte could sign both Swiss international full-backs: Ricardo Rodriguez and Stephan Lichtsteiner. Rodriguez was linked with a move to Stamford Bridge last week in the Mirror, where is was claimed the 23-year-old Wolfsburg defender is available for £22 million. Blick however believe that Wolfsburg may sell their player for 15 to 18 million euros. Ricardo Rodriguez is under contract in Germany until 2019 but wants to move on this summer. As for Lichtsteiner, he has lost his place in the Juventus staring XI after the arrival of Dani Alves from Barcelona. Lichtsteiner was left on the Juve bench for the club’s Serie A opener against Fiorentina. Blick think Lichtsteiner would cost around 10 million euros, however Chelsea may be able to do a deal with the Old Lady in part-exchange with Juan Cuadrado.
Tottenham would pay €11.5m to Marseille for N’Koudou and N’Jie would be loaned the other way, with the French club having a €7m buying option. The fee for N’Koudou wasn’t much less than what had been originally agreed, making the whole delay seem even more of a farce, but there had been claims Spurs secured a good sell-on percentage with N’Jie. RMC said N’Jie had already given his approval to the move, but that may well be in danger. In Tuesday’s edition of L’Equipe it’s reported that N’Jie is ‘not really sure he wants to sign for Marseille’. The delay in the move has coincided with it becoming clear that Marseille aren’t on the brink of a miracle season, having lost some of their best players again, and may well be set for a nightmare. After 2 games, Marseille are 16th in Ligue 1 with a goal difference of -1. It’s only the start of the season, but Marseille lost to Guingamp at the weekend, and despite reports of a takeover on the way, there’s no imminent guarantee of investment. L’Equipe had explained Lyon were keen on N’Jie. That’s top of the table Lyon, who have scored 5 goals and conceded none in their first two games. Lyon are also in the Champions League, and it would be understandable if N’Jie was keener on such a move. The problem is that if Daniel Levy believes he’s weighted the N’Jie deal to help the N’Koudou deal, things could get tricky. Tottenham and Lyon don’t have the best transfer relationship and with a week of the window left, Spurs will surely be crossing their fingers that N’Jie’s second thoughts disappear. L’Equipe believe he’ll make a decision in the coming hours.
According to Marca on Tuesday, Manquillo is hoping Sunderland and Atletico Madrid can wrap up the transfer negotiations soon so that he can return to the Premier League.
Germany’s SportBild report that Manchester United are ready to ‘dump’ Schweinsteiger for a transfer fee of just €2.5m. When the club bought the midfielder from Bayern Munich last summer they paid several times that, and it was still seen as a good deal. The reason for the bargain transfer fee is Schweinsteiger’s very high wages, meaning not many clubs can seriously afford to be in the hunt. Inter Milan and AC Milan have both been linked, with SportBild bringing MLS in as a possible future destination.
