Just before the World Cup makes its glorious return following that appalling day off, let's take a quick sconce at what is going on in the world of club football and their monied, absurd human resources.
Liverpool's botched transfer for Lyon's Nabil Fekir doesn't appear to be fully dead yet, with constant reports emanating from France to the effect that Liverpool may yet seek to resurrect the deal. Judging by reports in the media today, either a rival club are interested in signing Fekir or someone on the player's end is seeking to drum up a bit more coverage and force Liverpool into organising a deal more swiftly.
Given that the provenance of the yarn comes from Le Progres in France, we are betting on the latter. Nonetheless, it claims that Manchester United have submitted a bid for Fekir, adding that deal broke down as Liverpool allegedly tried to haggle down the price fee by five million euros owing to his medical showing a long-standing problem with cartilage in his knee.
Elsewhere in more potentially good news for Manchester United, David De Gea, long coveted by Real Madrid, has apparently been supplanted by Thibault Courtois in Florentino Perez' desires.
Marca report that Courtois is Madrid's main goalkeeping target, with the club going cold over De Gea and Roma's Allison Becker, believing the Brazilian 'keeper to be too expensive given that Roma aren't too hard up for cash given they have already swelled their coffers by selling Radja Naingollan to Inter Milan.
