Does Louis van Gaal’s genius know no bounds?
After reinventing Dutch football with a 3-5-2 system stolen from Martin O’Neill’s Leicester City side of the late 1990s, he has managed to get Robin van Persie scoring headers from outside the box and transformed Dirk Kuyt into a hard-running tactically astute left-back. The stone-faced Dutchman has even got Arjen Robben admitting he dives after a decade of feigned injuries and faux innocence. Van Gaal is now so confident in his powers of transformation he has set about addressing the chronic deficiencies in the Manchester United midfield. He plans to resolve the lack of steel, creativity and running power in Old Trafford’s central areas in one fell swoop by submitting a £48m bid for Juventus’s Arturo Vidal.
The Chilean action man, who is also interesting Real Madrid and Arsenal, has apparently told Ed Woodward he has a preference to enjoy a season off from the Champions League. Encouraged by Vidal’s apparent lack of money motivation, United are prepared to offer wages of £250,000 a week to land their No1 target. Van Gaal also wants Feyenoord’s Stefan de Vrij to partner Thomas Vermaelen in a new look defence.
Arsène Wenger believes Sami Khedira can help bring the best out of Mesut Özil, and will submit a £23m offer to Real Madrid for the man whose generous personality is said to bridge the Dortmund-Bayern divide in the Germany team.
Keylor Navas is World Cup flavour of the minute after his heroics in 10-man Costa Rica’s penalty shootout win over Greece, and the goalkeeper’s stock rose even further once his agent let it be known he has a £6.5m buyout clause in his Levante contract. Liverpool and Arsenal are keen to exploit this information.
Manchester City would prefer to spend the spare change everyone puts aside for a bargain basement No2 stopper on Málaga’s Willy Caballero. The Argentine would cost £7m.
And Filipe Luís is so determined to secure a move to Chelsea he has turned off his phone and is refusing to answer the door until Atlético Madrid free him into the loving arms of José Mourinho.
