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Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Chelsea 'fight United for Griezmann', Barcelona 'want £40m Mahrez', Spurs 'put Janssen up for sale'

Janssen could be up for grabs but Griezmann and Mahrez will attract the big buyers
Janssen could be up for grabs but Griezmann and Mahrez will attract the big buyers

Manchester United fans can’t say Hot Football Transfer Gossip didn’t warn them about getting prematurely excited over Antoine Griezmann.

So any Red Devils fans who danced around town centres from Kent to Devon on Friday night – celebrating the news that the Atletico Madrid star’s move to Old Trafford was “on the verge of completion”, as was reported yesterday – have only got themselves to blame.

This column predicted there was still a long way to go in this transfer saga, and today’s Sun appears to back that up. The tabloid declares that Chelsea have joined the race to sign Griezmann.

Not only joined the race, the Blues are reportedly ready to “go to war” with United to sign the Euro 2016 Golden Boot winner, which seems quite an insensitive analogy when thousands are dying every day in actual wars in the Middle East and Africa, but hey ho. We get it, this is still a pretty big development.

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Antonio Conte is “determined the Blues will not be beaten and will match any United offer”, continues the Sun. The Italian coach apparently sees Griezmann as the “perfect boost” to his attack – potentially forming a kind of Beauty and the Beast partnership with Diego Costa.

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Jose Mourinho “still believes his side are ahead” in the race for Europe’s top striker. He might want to qualify for that Champions League just to make sure though.

United are also in a tussle with Chelsea and Manchester City for 16-year-old Ajax starlet Daishawn Redan, who has opted against signing his first professional contract with the Dutch club that nurtured him (Mail). Not very nice is it.

Meanwhile, Mourinho has been spotted in Croatia watching Inter Milan midfield duo Ivan Perisic and Marcelo Brozovic, according to everyone’s favourite Croatian media outlet Index HR.

Leicester City’s four-game winning streak appears to have reminded Barcelona of the Foxes’ existence, with the Telegraph reporting that the Catalan giants are set to renew their interest in Riyad Mahrez.

The new contract the winger signed at the King Power Stadium in August contained no release clause, meaning Leicester can “name their price” for the Algerian, and that price is apparently “over £40m”.

The news that Middlesbrough have a player in the England squad appears to have caused some kind of commotion among the “big clubs”, who think they should have all the England players. Therefore, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham have all swiftly prepared bids for Boro’s 24-year-old centre-back Ben Gibson (Mail).

Elsewhere, Juventus striker Paulo Dybala is set to snub interest from Barcelona to sign a new contract with the Italian champions (Express), West Brom are keen on Gent’s 21-year-old Nigerian winger Moses Simon (Birmingham Mail) and Tottenham are planning to cut their losses on Vincent Janssen and sell the misfiring Dutch striker in the summer (Mirror). The buy one, get one free Janssen and Moussa Sissoko posters will be going up in the Spurs club shop this week.

@darlingkevin