Rather than adding new players, the challenge for Arsene Wenger at Arsenal this summer was always going to be holding onto the luminous talents of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil.
No news has been good news so far this summer for Wenger. Neither Sanchez, who is at the Confederations Cup in Russia with Chile, or Ozil have budged from Emirates Stadium.
But that doesn't mean they won't go if a better offer arrives through the letterbox. The Daily Mail reports that Arsenal has offered Sanchez and Ozil pay rises of around 20 percent in order to retain its two best players.
There's a catch, however. Sanchez and Ozil will only get that extra money should Arsenal regain Champions League football next season, having missed out in 2016-17 by finishing fifth.
It seems like a cute incentivised deal, though the logic falls down if either of Sanchez or Ozil knows he can play Champions League football in 2017-18 and get paid the £300,000-plus a week he reportedly wants.
Missing out on the Champions League isn't a good idea, kids.
Elsewhere Diario Gol in Spain claims that now Jose Mourinho definitely isn't signing Cristiano Ronaldo for Manchester United, he will turn his attention to a younger, potentially even better version.
United tried to sign Barcelona's Neymar in the summer of 2014, when Louis Van Gaal became manager—the Brazilian said so in the autumn of 2015.
Now apparently United is back in, though it will understandably have to pay a world-record price for the 25-year-old.
Lionel Messi isn't going to be around forever and Neymar has long been the heir apparent. And you can desire something, or someone, without ever getting anywhere close to having them. But in the crazy world of transfers, never say never.
Yesterday Alvaro Morata's wife apparently signalled his transfer to United by following the club on Instagram. Today The Mirror reports that Ross Barkley, the Everton midfielder, has deleted his Instagram account.
Sure enough, Barkley's page takes you to a broken link. The newspaper reckons that may be because Barkley's future is up in the air. He has yet to sign a new deal at Goodison Park amid links with Tottenham Hotspur.
Barkley has been something of an enigma through his short career so far, but if anyone can squeeze the undoubted talent out of him it may be Tottenham's taskmaster of a manager Mauricio Pochettino. With new midfield signings coming in at Everton, it looks like Barkley may indeed be on his way out.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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