According to reports in The Independent, Manchester United are targeting a summer move for Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic if the Blues sign Tiemoue Bakayoko from Monaco.

Antonio Conte is keen to significantly strengthen his side over the course of the next few weeks as he looks to retain the Premier League title and prepare for the group stages of the Champions League, and he is keen to bring in a new central midfielder.

The story suggests that the Italian is closing in on a £42m deal for Bakayoko, which could see Mourinho make a move for Matic having managed him during his time at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea supporters were quick to have their say on the rumour via social media, with many believing it is time for the Serbian to go and that the Blues must demand £40 for the 28-year-old seeing as they would be selling him to United.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

It doesn’t seem as if Southampton will be announcing any in-comings at St. Mary’s until they resolve the future of manager Claude Puel.

The Frenchman, who led the club to their first major final since 2003 and recorded an 8th placed finish in the Premier League, has lost the majority of the fan base and looks unlikely to be in his role come the start of pre-season.

However, that hasn’t stopped club officials going about the business of selling players, and it looks as if a Championship side will now be the beneficiaries of the Saints’ esteemed academy.

The club announced yesterday that defender Jason McCarthy, who spent last season on loan with Walsall, has joined Barnsley for an undisclosed fee.

The 21-year-old, who captain the U21 Premier League Cup winning side in 2015, has made just one appearance for the first team, a three minute cameo against Crystal Palace in 2014.

Despite his lack of experience in a Southampton shirt, plenty of fans on the south coast, who have an eye for young players, were upset by the news…

According to reports in the Daily Telegraph, Tottenham Hotspur are ready to step up their interest in Bournemouth forward Josh King, but the Cherries could demand £30m for the Norway international.

Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino is looking to sign a versatile attacker this summer, and that need is even more important with both Erik Lamela and Son Heung-Min likely to miss the start of next season following hip and arm surgery respectively, according to the Daily Mirror.

King enjoyed an outstanding season for the south coast outfit last time out, scoring 16 Premier League goals in 36 top flight appearances, and Pochettino obviously feels he can make an impact in north London.

Tottenham supporters were quick to have their say on the rumour via social media, and while some would be happy to sign the Norwegian forward, others say that he isn’t “good enough” and that the club should be targeting a higher calibre of player.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

According to Bild, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool are all considering making a move for Bayern Munich attacker Thomas Muller in this summer’s transfer window.

What’s the story?

Muller, 27, has spent his entire career with Bayern – scoring 161 times for the German giants and winning 16 trophies during a glittering career at the Allianz Arena.

The German’s best scoring season with Bayern came during the 2015-16 campaign, when he managed 32 goals in all competitions, cementing his reputation as one of the best forwards in the world.

Muller had a difficult 2016-17 season with Bayern, however, only managing nine goals in all competitions, five of which came in 29 Bundesliga appearances.

It is the first time in the attacker’s career that he has faced question marks, and according to Bild, Premier League trio Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool are closely monitoring developments as they consider a move in this summer’s transfer window.

Would Bayern really sell?

Manchester United were strongly linked with Muller during Louis van Gaal’s time at Old Trafford, but it is understood that Bayern rejected a world-record bid for the forward.

Muller, who is rated at £42.5m by transfermarkt.co.uk, is contracted to Bayern until 2021 – which places the German champions in a strong position – but the attacker’s role in Carlo Ancelotti’s team next season is undecided.

The arrival of James Rodriguez on loan from Real Madrid has cast more doubt over the future of Muller, and with Robert Lewandowski now expected to remain at the Allianz Arena, it could be another season of frustration for Muller if he decides to stay at Bayern.

It would be fair to say that Muller would not be short of suitors should he decide to move on, and at just 27 years old, there is an argument that his best football is ahead of him.

A record of 37 goals in 85 caps for Germany is another indication of Muller’s credentials, but his relationship with Bayern does seem to have gone a little sour, and it is difficult to imagine the Bundesliga champions rejecting a sizeable bid in this summer’s transfer window.

Leeds United have placed a £20m price tag on Chris Wood after the striker attracted interest from Premier League clubs, according to The Mirror.

What’s the word?

There were rumblings last season that Wood caught the eye of a number of top-flight clubs for his performances up front.

The New Zealand international was a pivotal part of the Whites’ campaign, which just fell short of the Championship playoffs.

The striker, who has two years remaining on his contract, netted 27 goals and ended the season as the division’s top scorer.

The Mirror reports that Swansea City, Southampton and Stoke City have all kept tabs on Wood.

The publication claims that Leeds have come to the £20m valuation after Middlesbrough paid £15m to sign Britt Assombalonga from Nottingham Forest.

Should Leeds consider selling?

In short, no. Swift changes have been made following the arrival of new head coach Thomas Christiansen.

Since Andrea Radrizzani took full control of the Championship club and appointed the Dane as Garry Monk’s successor, seven new faces have come through the welcome gates at Elland Road.

The signing of Samuel Saiz adds firepower to Leeds’ forward line, but he should be seen as an option alongside Wood.

The problem that Leeds face is the possibility of the New Zealander getting his head turned, particularly if Premier League clubs come calling.

At the age of 25, Wood has plenty of years left to play at the top level, so it would make sense for the striker to give Leeds at least one more season to try to make it into the top flight.

Dimitri Payet did not leave West Ham United on the best of terms when he rejoined Marseille in January.

The Frenchman forced his way out of the club by refusing to play for Slaven Bilic’s side.

Payet, who in the 2015-16 season scored nine goals and registered 12 assists in 30 Premier League appearances, was shunned to the reserves before a deal with Marseille was struck.

The 30-year-old, who signed for the Premier League outfit in 2015, was arguably West Ham’s best player at the time, but his actions left a sour taste in the mouths of Bilic and the team.

The club’s co-chairman David Sullivan has opened up about his feelings on the fallout, and has claimed that he would have kept Payet at the club and let him rot.

In an interview with talkSPORT, Sullivan said:

“We knew Dimitri was flawed, and that’s why we got him for £10.5million. It was a fantastic buy, but we knew we bought a flawed individual and someone who could well go on strike – he had done it all before.

“That’s why he never reached his full potential as a player and why big clubs have steered clear of him. But, I’ve got to say he was a fantastic servant for the club. He gave us 18 wonderful months, particularly the first 12 months.

“Personally, I would have made him stick it out for six months and given him a hard time, but if the manger says he’s unsettling the whole camp, you’ve got to support the manager.”

Since the businessman’s quotes got aired, West Ham fans have had their say on Twitter, and there have been differing views.

As reported by The Mirror, West Ham United have not yet given up their pursuit of Portuguese international midfielder William Carvalho.

What’s the story?

West Ham’s season has started poorly but with some time still left before the transfer window shuts at the end of August, supporters will be hoping that the club can take a dip back into the transfer market this summer.

One player they continue to pursue is Sporting Lisbon midfielder William Carvalho. That’s according to The Mirror, who say that despite the Hammers having a £22m bid rejected for the 25-year-old, they have re-opened talks on a potential £30m switch to the London Stadium.

Described by Sky Sports journalist Kaveh Solhekol as potentially ‘one of the best deals of the summer’, it certainly seems to be a transfer story that Irons supporters can get excited about.

Midfield controller

There’s no doubt that with the acquisition of Javier Hernandez that the Hammers now have someone capable of sticking chances away and what they arguably need now is a midfielder that can really get their foot on the ball and dictate the tempo of a match.

That’s the kind of thing that Carvalho has offered for Sporting and Portugal in his career so far, playing top-flight football at the club since 2013 and winning 37 caps for his national team.

At 25 he’s coming into his prime and appears ready for the step up to one of Europe’s big leagues. Can he be the midfield maestro that Slaven Bilic is looking for to bring the Irons to the next level?

When the Premier League comes back at the weekend, one of the biggest subplots to keep an eye on will be the potential return of players who spent the summer angling for moves away from their clubs only to have been forced to stay.

There are three who stand out given their clubs’ very public stances on blocking their moves away. Virgil van Dijk at Southampton, Alexis Sanchez at Arsenal and Philippe Coutinho at Liverpool. It will be interesting to see if they start for their clubs next weekend; after Sanchez’s appearance at Anfield last week and Coutinho’s goal for Brazil during the international break, you get the feeling that they are two who will play some part for their clubs after the international break.

But perhaps the club in the best position with regards to their erstwhile wantaway player is Liverpool, who held onto Coutinho despite interest from Barcelona this summer.

All through the window, the will-he won’t-he nature of the transfer saga was shot down with monotonous regularity from Liverpool’s powers that be: they insisted once a week that their player would not be sold for any kind of money, and despite reports of a desperate £140m bid just before the transfer window closed in Spain (a day after it closed in Britain), the Reds held firm.

There was another trope of the summer, though. And that was the insinuation that none of these players would be able to sulk for the rest of the season if their clubs blocked their sale. We were told that, since this season falls just before a World Cup year, players would have to play hard or face the ignominy of missing out on their countries’ squads for the trip to Russia next summer.

And yet, for all apart from Coutinho, that might all be mood. Virgil van Dijk’s Netherlands side may not even qualify for the World Cup anyway, and won’t as it stands. They will face Sweden in what looks like the crunch final game of the group, and even then it looks to be only for a play-off place.

For Arsenal, you get the feeling that no matter how badly Alexis Sanchez plays this season, he will still be picked for Chile anyway. The South American champions aren’t packed out with world class names like the Arsenal star, and given he is such a talisman for his national team, he won’t be dropped simply for sulking – though it’s never easy to simply turn on the form when it comes to a major tournament.

Coutinho, meanwhile, isn’t in the same position. His country have already qualified for the World Cup after an efficient qualifying campaign where they topped the South American qualifiers, and he’s certainly not the best player in the squad. He needs to have to a good season to justify his place, certainly in the starting XI. In that regard, Liverpool are not in the same position as the other two clubs.

But it’s not entirely clear what it means for Liverpool.

Jurgen Klopp can now pick one of his best players for the rest of the season – or at the very least until January – and in Coutinho, he has an attacking option at his disposal that no other player in the squad brings to the table. But on the other hand, finding a position for the Brazilian will not be as easy as it might have appeared a year ago.

Coutinho doesn’t seem to fit with the dynamism of Liverpool’s front three – something that became obvious at times last season when he was unable to provide the spark Liverpool needed in the absence of Sadio Mane. Nor does the Brazilian seem to be a natural fit for the heavy-pressing midfield three who have played with energy and verve so far this season.

So although selling him after publicly proclaiming that he would not be sold meant Liverpool had to stick to their guns, and although bagging the money would not have guaranteed being able to invest it in the current market (just look at Barcelona’s own struggles in attempting to replace Neymar), it does seem as though Liverpool could have done without the Brazilian in a way that might not have been the case had they lost, say, Sadio Mane.

And yet, Coutinho is still one of the team’s best players and still brings a very different attacking option to the table, something Klopp will probably be thankful of given the Reds will play more matches this season than they did last year, and will come up against all sorts of opposition along the way; some willing to come out and attack, others happy to sit deep and defend.

That’s when having a player like Coutinho, having to hit form in a World Cup year will come in very handy indeed.

So of the clubs whose players have been on strike this summer, it’s Liverpool who have come out of it in a much stronger position to Arsenal and Southampton.

To celebrate 25 years of the Premier League each week in Football Fancast we’re going to be looking back at a memorable game that took place on the corresponding date. This time out we revisit a provocative goal celebration that nearly sparked a riot.

Given this game’s contentious and convoluted back-story it was always going to generate a great deal of headlines. Even a scrappy, largely uneventful 1-0 would have dominated the news cycle for a good few days. As it was, six goals and Emmanuel Adebayor half-stamping, half-raking his boot down a recent team-mate’s face were all buried below the fold, shunted into almost insignificance by a crazy, unforgettable goal celebration.

It was September 12th 2009 and newly minted Manchester City sat atop of the Premier League having undertaken a summer shopping spree the likes of which English football had never before witnessed. Determined to launch themselves into the top four manager Mark Hughes had been afforded limitless funds and from the moment the window opened he wasted little time in hoovering up the best domestic talent available. Gareth Barry arrived from Villa. Roque Santa Cruz hobbled across from Blackburn. The problem lay in that some players weren’t strictly available in the traditional sense. A protracted squabble eventually secured the signature of Joleon Lescott from Everton but prompted ill-feeling from Merseyside. The same went with luring Carlos Tevez over from Old Trafford though that spat was thoroughly embraced by the blue half of Manchester. Running concurrent with all this was a major feud brewed up with Arsenal after Hughes decided the club needed more firepower in the form of Adebayor despite already boasting Tevez, Craig Bellamy, Benjani, Robinho, and Santa Cruz in their attacking ranks. A hefty fee in the region of £25m unsettled the player and caused acrimony between Wenger and Manchester City, a tension that still bubbles away to this day.

As far as the player was concerned whatever grievances the Togolese striker held towards his former employers all came spilling out on this Saturday afternoon. Together with the always industrious Craig Bellamy he forged a strike-force of fierce intensity for City that day that the Gunner’s back-line simply couldn’t compete with and by the time the highly controversial incident occurred, City were 2-1 up and threatening to pull away. Indeed, by the time it happened Adebayor had already raked his studs across Robin Van Persie’s grounded face, attempted similar on Fabregas, and had allegedly slapped Alex Song.

In the 79th minute Shaun Wright-Phillips turned his full-back and was fouled in the process. Referee Mark Clattenberg played an excellent advantage and the diminutive winger looked up to consider his options before pinging an inch-perfect delivery onto Adebayor’s head. From the instant that the ball nestled into Almunia’s net an exorcism took place within the towering forward; an outpouring of joy and belligerence that propelled him into arcing his celebratory run away from the nearby City contingent, out-sprinting the attentions of his team-mates as he did so. Then he was away, haring down the pitch at a speed no-one believed possible. It took a few seconds to cotton on to what was happening and where he was going. He was going to incite, to gloat. Throughout the game the away end had sung defamatory claims about his mother and insisted his dad ‘washed elephants’. Now it was pay back.

We have all, at one point or another defended a footballer’s folly. It’s a passionate game with emotions running high so of course there will be occasions when a player does something silly; lashes out. Yet there were 17 full, ticking seconds from Adebayor scoring his fourth goal in four games for City and enacting an exaggerated knee-slide right in front of 3,000 cage-rattled Gooners. 17 seconds is long enough to come to your senses and when the consequence of his actions brought ripped out seats and wanton antagonism his punishment was expected to be severe.

It wasn’t. In fact the forward’s three-match ban that was soon-after dished out by the authorities was solely for his assault on Van Persie and nothing more. For inciting a near riot and doing more damage to north/south relations than Cersei Lannister there was merely a fine equivalent to a quarter of his weekly wages along with a suspended two game ban.

What happened next

Adebayor finished the season with 14 league goals but it wasn’t enough to propel Manchester City into the Champion’s League. That had to wait for another year.

The Gunners endured a frustrating campaign ultimately ending up 11 points adrift of champions Chelsea. The knives began to sharpen for Arsene Wenger.

Tottenham Hotspur are willing to discuss the possibility of a new contract for Harry Kane following reported interest from Real Madrid, according to The Gambling Times.

What’s the word?

Kane has been hitting the headlines of late for his prolific form, which has seen him score 13 goals for club and country in September alone.

The 24-year-old has proven that he can stand out on the European stage as well as domestic by netting a hat-trick – his sixth in 2017 – during a recent victory over APOEL in the Champions League.

It seems that Spanish giants Real Madrid have taken note, and according to Don Balon, the club are prepared to splash £177m on the striker.

The Gambling Times report that this has caused Tottenham to rethink their position and are even considering opening talks over a new contract with Kane, despite the forward putting pen to paper on a fresh five-year deal just 10 months ago.

Will wages be a problem?

It is well known now that the North London club pay fairly modest wages compared to the so-called ‘big’ clubs of the Premier League.

The London Evening Standard claims that Kane and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris are the highest earners among the Spurs squad on around £100,000 per week.

It is highly likely that Madrid would offer a more lucrative salary if Kane was to have his head turned.

It is worth stressing that the striker has made no public suggestions that he is considering a move to the Bernabeu, but if it came down to money, then Spurs could have a problem.

Chairman Daniel Levy is a shrewd businessman, but he may need to rethink his pay structure in order to keep the club’s best player.

Tottenham have an advantage over Madrid in that Kane worked his way through the club’s academy, therefore has an emotional connection to Spurs.

However, the hitman is ambitious and no-one could blame him for following in Gareth Bale’s footsteps in search of silverware.