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Despite some transfer rumours recently about Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, the player Napoli plan to sell this summer is not him, but Victor Osimhen. Napoli expect Osimhen to leave the club in the summer transfer window, with the Serie A giants including a €120m release clause in his new contract earlier this season.
It is not the same with Kvaratskhelia – yes, they want to offer him a new contract, with a salary increase, and to discuss the possibility of a release clause, but not for him to leave this summer. It would be for Kvaratskhelia to potentially leave in 2025 or 2026, but not now.
There was interest from Paris Saint-Germain and also from English clubs – many top clubs enquired about Kvaratskhelia, but for now Napoli and their president Aurelio de Laurentiis have no intention to negotiate for the player.
We’ve also been hearing a lot about Mason Greenwood and about Chelsea possibly enquiring about the out-on-loan Manchester United forward. However, what I’m hearing is that Chelsea are not working on the Greenwood deal, this is not something confirmed.
It will be an important summer for Chelsea, and they’ll be busy with many things, but for the moment Greenwood is not a concrete topic, he’s not something they’re discussing. Man United’s aim with the player also remains the same – they want to sell him on a permanent transfer and make profit on the player so they can reinvest that money, which will be important for Financial Fair Play.
Let’s see what will happen, because Getafe have made it clear they’d like to have Greenwood on loan again, but before agreeing to that United want to try to sell Greenwood anyway. Whether that’s in England or abroad, the important thing is that they want to sell and bring in important money for the player.
Staying with Chelsea, Mauricio Pochettino may have raised some eyebrows with his recent comments about his future, but the reality is this: Chelsea are happy with the team’s recent performances, but also Pochettino knows any decision was always going to be made close to the end of the season. This is something the club has always confirmed even in difficult, really difficult moments months ago. So that remains the case.
Kylian Mbappe has announced he’ll be leaving Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the season, sending a message to the club’s fans in an official video. The plan, as has been the case for some time, is for Mbappe to move to Real Madrid next, and I wanted to confirm that he never entered into negotiations with Premier League clubs.
We’ve long had stories about Mbappe and the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal…still, the reality is that Mbappe never wanted to entertain any discussions with English clubs, first of all because his focus was on Real Madrid, and also because he didn’t want to create any more problems with Florentino Perez, the president at the Bernabeu, when he decided to turn them down and sign a new contract with PSG in 2022.
On that occasion, Mbappe negotiated for a long time with Madrid before changing his mind, and so this time he didn’t want to create any problems. There’s been nothing in recent times – the most recent thing was when Liverpool asked about him in 2022, but then the financial package was absolutely impossible. Then in 2023 and 2024 there was nothing with English clubs, because his obsession was to join Real Madrid.
One final point on Real Madrid and on Luka Modric’s future after his agent spoke to the media. His agent was telling the truth – nothing has been decided for Modric, but the next few days will be important as Modric and Toni Kroos will meet Florentino Perez to decide on their future. So we will soon know more on both Kroos and Modric.
Nico Williams – I’m not aware of talks so far but Nico has really many suitors. Barcelona, English top clubs and not only… there’s lot of interest. I’m still told all the clubs are waiting to understand the financial package wanted by the player in terms of commission and salary. Barca appreciate him but it’s still early stages.
Richarlison – We had reports about Saudi clubs in January and nothing happened. The truth is that in Saudi they still don’t know the budget they will have for the summer; it will be huge of course but single clubs are still waiting to understand how much they can invest. Tottenham are not desperate to sell Richarlison, only in case they receive a very good proposal.
Theo Hernandez – Linked with Bayern recently, but I have currently no updates on this one. The interest in Hernandez is not new but there are no contacts taking place or talks between clubs. We will see only when Alphonso Davies decides in his future at Bayern; now it’s still early.
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