Aston Villa have held talks over a move for Raheem Sterling, who is looking for a new challenge after being told that he has no future at Chelsea.
Sterling has not been at training since his exclusion against Manchester City last summer and the winger is keen to leave Stamford Bridge before the transfer window shuts next Friday.
The winger has interest from Villa, who are hoping to add another attacker to Unai Emery’s squad, although moving the 29-year-old could be a challenge given that he has three years left on a deal worth £325,000 a week. There is a sense that Villa could be open to a loan deal if a workaround can be found on the wage packet.
Sterling, who has fallen down the pecking order after the arrivals of João Félix and Pedro Neto, has expressed a preference to leave on a permanent basis and is ready to work with the club to find a solution after being informed that he is not in Enzo Maresca’s plans. The former City forward, who joined Chelsea for £47.5m two years ago, wants to be informed of potential opportunities.
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Meanwhile, Arsenal are set to complete the signing of Mikel Merino after Real Sociedad accepted an offer for the Spain midfielder worth more than £32m. Negotiations over a deal for the 28-year-old have been taking place for several weeks with Sociedad president’s insisting Arsenal must match their asking price for Merino.
Jokin Aperribay was understood to have arrived in London for further talks with Arsenal’s sporting director, Edu, on Wednesday, with a breakthrough then reached 24 hours later.
Arsenal are believed to have agreed to pay £28m up front for the former Newcastle midfielder who had one year of his contract with Sociedad remaining, with another £4.2m in potential bonuses. Merino is expected to sign a four-year deal having been left out of Sociedad’s first game of the season, a 2-1 defeat at home against Real Vallecano on Sunday. He had made no secret of his desire to join Arsenal after rejecting the offer of a new contract.
“Merino was clear that he didn’t want to say he was renewing and then leave. It wasn’t a surprise to us,” said Aperribay. “Unfortunately, one of the teams we didn’t want to show up showed up.”
Elsewhere, Liverpool have sold Bobby Clark, one of the young stars of last season’s Carabao Cup final victory, to RB Salzburg in a £10m deal.
The 19-year-old midfielder made 12 appearances for Jürgen Klopp’s team last season and was highly regarded by the former Liverpool manager and his assistant, Pepijn Lijnders.
Lijnders is now head coach at Salzburg and, with first-team opportunities appearing limited for Clark under Arne Slot this season, pushed for a reunion with the England Under-20 international, who is the son of former Newcastle midfielder Lee.
Liverpool will receive up to £10m for Clark plus 17.5 per cent of any future sell-on fee. The club also has a matching price agreement should they wish to bring the midfielder back to Anfield.
Clark is not the only young Liverpool player who could leave this week with Dutch defender Sepp van den Berg wanted by Brentford and Bayer Leverkusen. The 22-year-old is considering his options before a potential £25m exit. Liverpool are the only Premier League club not to have made a signing so far this summer and have also sold Fábio Carvalho to Brentford in a deal worth up to £27.5m.
Manchester United are willing to wait until transfer deadline day to try to sign Manuel Ugarte. There does not have to be any outgoings to finance the deal, although Paris Saint-Germain’s £51m valuation of the Uruguay midfielder is deemed too high by United and there is belief that the French champions may reduce it as the deadline nears.
Ugarte could be purchased now by United should PSG lower their asking price but the manager, Erik ten Hag, and the sporting director, Dan Ashworth, are prepared to bide their time to force a reduction.
United are intent on making more sales before the window closes at 11pm on August 30th. The club would listen to offers for Victor Lindelöf, Casemiro, Antony, Jadon Sancho and Scott McTominay, among others.
Fulham are interested in McTominay, having lodged a bid of about £20m at the start of the month. Yet United do not need to sell the Scot or any other squad member to finance a deal for Ugarte. It is understood that a move for Sancho to PSG either as a part of a Ugarte transfer or separately is unlikely.
Ten Hag wants the 23‑year‑old Uruguayan to enhance his options in defensive midfield. Personal terms between United and the player are believed to have been agreed and Ugarte was left out of PSG’s 4-1 win at Le Havre in the opening Ligue 1 match on Friday. – Guardian
