Dusan Vlahovic and Harry Kane ready for new adventures; Mauro Icardi, choice of the heart; Ko Itakura, it's a head-to-head between Italy and Saudi Arabia. Here are some of the main stories over the last few days of the transfer market from TribalFootball's transfer expert Rudy Galetti.
VLAHOVIC WANTED BY POCHETTINO AT CHELSEA
Dusan Vlahovic could leave Juventus this summer after only one year and a half. We already revealed about his possible move weeks ago and now that the transfer market session is getting to the heart, this option appears to be increasingly concrete with Chelsea moving towards the Serbian player.
The first contacts between the Blues and Juventus have already taken place in recent days: the Bianconeri have confirmed that the price tag of Dusan is set at around 80 million euros. In the talks of the last few days, Chelsea tried to lower this cost leveraging on a possible swap with Romelu Lukaku, but the Old Lady are not interested in the Belgian striker. New meetings are scheduled for Dusan during the week: Mauricio Pochettino considers the Serbian striker the perfect profile for his tactical idea. So, in addition to Nicolas Jackson, already signed from Villarreal, Chelsea want to complete the attacking department with another physical player, Dusan.
Despite the great interest from the Blues, let's pay attention to the competition for the Serbian player: PSG and Bayern - who are pushing hard for Harry Kane - are continuing to monitor him.
HARRY KANE EAGER TO JOIN BAYERN MUNICH
We mentioned it just now: Bayern Munich are pushing hard for Harry Kane. An interest that - as told in recent weeks - began in January and is now intensifying.
Bayern have already sent two offers to Tottenham for the English player, but at the moment Spurs rejected both the first attempt (70 million euros plus add-ons) and the second bid, increased by 10 million euros for an overall amount of 80 million. The German club won't give up on Harry: the striker already agreed personal terms months ago and now he's also pushing for the move.
Chairman Daniel Levy, for his part, is not happy about losing Kane this summer and he certainly won't give discounts to Bayern who, however, will continue working for him. Although Dusan Vlahovic is also on their forward list, coach Thomas Tuchel specifically asked for Kane: it's no coincidence that the two met a few weeks ago to talk about the Bavarian project. They shook hands, with the will to work together soon: now it's up to clubs.
Spurs are adamant on the price tag, asking for around 100 million euros to let their striker go: new developments are expected soon.
ICARDI REJECTS SAUDI OFFER TO RETURN TO GALATASARAY
Mauro Icardi is on the verge of returning to Galatasaray, this is a fact. The Argentine striker made a choice of the heart, deciding to return to Turkey where – last year – he was definitely reborn, returning to excellent levels.
In any case, one thing was clear for some time: Mauro craved to leave PSG and the French club - on its side - wanted to part ways with the forward. And so it will be, but not towards the Saudi clubs which, until a few days ago, seemed to lead the race.
Icardi was approached by Al Shabab and Al Taawon and the negotiations were well addressed. On the table there were very rich offers for a 2/3 year contract that were tempting the Argentine forward and that many players would have accepted without thinking too much. However, his will to stay in Europe prevailed and so the player agreed to return to Turkey.
Galatasaray have found an agreement with PSG for a very low amount – 10 million euros – precisely because the French club did not want to lose the player as a free agent next year. However, Mauro, before accepting, would have extracted a promise from the Turkish club: to finalise the agreement also with Leandro Paredes, his teammate at PSG and also in the Argentine national team.
Next step for Gala, therefore, is to complete the signing of the midfielder. It's just a matter of time.
HOJLUND AND RAMOS FOR MAN UTD
Manchester United are looking for a new striker, with Erik ten Hag asking for a physical player, able to finalise his tactical idea. At the moment the two names on the short list remain Rasmus Hojlund and Goncalo Ramos.
As for the Atalanta player, contacts with the Italian club are underway: the Bergamo team has already rejected a first official approach from Man Utd which could soon formulate a new offer. During the discussions on the Danish forward, Atalanta also asked for information on Mason Greenwood who could temporarily leave the Red Devils this summer and who could lower Rasmus' price tag, currently set at 60 million euros.
On the Goncalo Ramos side, however, after a few weeks of silence, the English club is ready to reopen talks with Benfica again. At the moment the position of the Portuguese team is quite adamant: the player has a release clause of 120 million euros and this value represents his price. However, Manchester United will try to figure out the room of negotiation to lower the fee. There is also strong interest from PSG in Goncalo.
KO ITAKURA - HEAD TO HEAD; ITALY vs SAUDI ARABIA
After Kim Min-jae's farewell, which will be made official shortly, Napoli are looking for a new central defender. A few weeks ago, we talked about positive sensations for Kevin Danso (Lens), but the demands of the French club continue to grow and the champions of Italy have temporarily put this track on hold.
Exploring alternative profiles, the Italian club has found fertile ground with another Asian player – just like Kim – Ko Itakura. The Japanese has opened up the possibility of playing in Italy and a new round of talks to better discuss the proposal is expected this week. However, in the race for Itakura there is also an Arab club, Al Nassr, where Cristiano Ronaldo and Marcelo Brozovic play.
The Saudi club sent a huge bid for the Japanese centre-back and the will is to speed up things also with Borussia Monchengladbach to anticipate the competition of Napoli. At the same time, the Italians want to forge ahead, reaching an agreement on both sides. It's absolutely an open race: everything will be much clearer in the next few days.
