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Backheel Breakfast: The transfer dominoes are falling
Some top players are now off the market, so business might accelerate.
Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
Juventus got the ball rolling on transfer season when they signed Paulo Dybala, and a few more dominoes started falling on Wednesday. The biggest was Liverpool announcing they’d agreed to sign James Milner, despite Manchester City offering him a raise to stay. He seemingly feels like he’ll be a starter at Liverpool, but would be a bit part player at City.
There’s also one fewer striker on the market after Inter Milan announced that they’d re-signed Mauro Icardi. And Hoffenheim have pulled off a bit of a coup, picking up Swiss international center back Fabian Schär, who’s certainly young and talented enough to play for a team that made European competition.
Anyone who wanted any of those three has to move on to their second option, and teams are probably going to start moving a bit faster now.
In the news
The managerial dominoes are falling too. Unai Emery is going to stay at Sevilla. (AS)
Dick Advocaat has been talked out of retiring and will remain at Sunderland. (Telegraph)
Jack Warner says he’s got the goods on Sepp Blatter and will totally burn him. (Guardian)
Giorgio Chiellini will not play in the Champions League final. (Juventus)
Qatar's government still insists no one has died working on the 2022 World Cup. (Independent)
Barcelona refuse to let Luis Figo represent them in a charity game. (BBC)
Sepp Blatter’s family is inventing widespread disparaging stories about them. (ESPN FC)
You should be reading
Anna Kessel on the history of the Women’s World Cup and how it’s come so far. (Guardian)
Mike Goodman on how Luis Enrique has fixed Barcelona. (Grantland)
Aaron Gordon makes a case for Mitt Romney, FIFA president. (Vice)
Fun with transfer rumors
The section in which nothing should be taken seriously. It’s rumor season, so this section will be expanded, and as the summer rolls on, it will probably be bigger than the actual news section.
One outlet thinks Manchester City is in the lead for Paul Pogba. (AS)
But another said he’ll snub City to wait for Barcelona. (Star)
Milan won’t give up on re-signing Zlatan. (Football Italia)
Manchester United, trolly smart-asses, will bid £25 million for Raheem Sterling. (Mirror)
If United sell David De Gea, they want Hugo Lloris. (Manchester Evening News)
Wednesday’s games
You can find highlights of all of the night’s MLS games here. (MLS)
Mexico's B-minus team scraped a draw against Peru. (ESPN FC)
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