Manchester United
Daley Blind’s agent says Manchester United are yet to launch a bid to sign his client.
Blind is understood to be on Louis van Gaal’s transfer shortlist, but the Manchester United manager has not made a move for the Ajax utility man, according to his representative Rob Jansen.
“At this moment Manchester United have not been in touch with me or Ajax about Daley and I’m not sitting here waiting for the call,” Jansen told talkSPORT.
Van Gaal knows Blind well from his time in charge of the Dutch national side.
The 24-year-old son of former Holland international Danny Blind, can operate at left-back or in central midfield, where United are in desperate need of reinforcements.
United expect to complete the record £59.7 million (Dh363.9m) transfer of Angel di Maria from Real Madrid on Tuesday, and more signings are expected thereafter.
The 20-time English champions have been linked with a move for Blind’s Holland teammate Nigel de Jong, but Press Association Sport understands the AC Milan midfielder, who used to play for Manchester City, is not under consideration.
United could make a move for Arturo Vidal, although the club have reservations about the state of the Juventus midfielder’s right knee, which was operated on in May.
Central defence is another area where Van Gaal needs to strengthen before the transfer window closes, even though he bolstered his back line with the £16m acquisition of Marcos Rojo from Sporting Lisbon last week.
AS Roma
Arsenal are set to miss out on the signing of Kostas Manolas with the Greece international set to join Roma.
Media reports in Italy claim the 23-year-old centre-back arrived in Rome’s Fiumincino airport from Athens on Tuesday morning and will undergo a medical later in the day.
Roma have reportedly agreed with Olympiakos a EU€13m (Dh50.4m) transfer fee for the highly-rated defender, who still has two years left in his contract with the Greek giants.
Manolas, who played four games at the World Cup for Greece this summer, attracted the attention of top European clubs, including Arsenal, following a solid 2013/14 campaign with Olympiakos.
He made 25 league appearances last season and scored three goals while he also featured in seven Champions League games for the Piraeus-based club.
Brighton & Hove Albion
Brighton have signed Aston Villa midfielder Gary Gardner on loan until January.
Gardner, 22, is in line to make his club debut in their League Cup second round game at Swindon Town on Tuesday night after completing a medical.
Gardner has suffered two serious knee injures while at Villa and was on loan at Sheffield Wednesday last season.
Manager Sami Hyypia told the club’s official website: “Gary is a quality midfielder who we have been aware of for some time. When we knew he was available, we wanted to bring him here as he will give us another quality option in the middle of the park.
“There are areas of the squad where we would like more options, and midfield was one of those areas. We have Dale Stephens out injured, but more importantly, given the considerable demands of the Championship, I want to be able to rotate the squad.
“Gary has had a tough couple of seasons due to injury, but he showed during a spell with Sheffield Wednesday last season that he is over those problems. We hope this loan spell will benefit everyone: Gary, us and Aston Villa.
“He is the type of midfielder who is active and mobile, but very importantly he has real quality on the ball – and is also capable of producing things from set-pieces.”
Fulham
Fulham owner Shahid Khan has given his backing to under-fire manager Felix Magath and says the German is the “ideal” man to lead them back to the Premier League.
The club’s promotion bid has not got off to the best of starts, with fans calling for Magath to be sacked after four straight defeats left them rooted to the foot of the Championship.
Magath, 61, took over at Craven Cottage in February but could not prevent Fulham’s relegation and his record currently stands at three wins from 16 games in charge.
Nevertheless Khan, who has already dispensed with the services of Martin Jol and Rene Meulensteen since buying the club last year, is not about to make it a hat-trick of sackings.
“We chose Felix as we wanted somebody with experience of dealing with the threat of relegation,” Khan told the Evening Standard.
“Even then, we knew we might not be successful and if, God forbid, the worst happened how would we deal with it.
“We knew the Championship was more physical. You’ve got to have a Plan A (to avoid relegation) and a Plan B (for promotion). Felix was the ideal person to execute both plans.”
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