Manchester City
Paul Pogba will be a record British transfer if Manchester City pay the fee cited in an English report for the Juventus star.
According to the Mirror, City are preapred to pay £71 million (Dh260.8m) to Juve for the former Manchester United youth, who starred for the Italian side as they made a memorable run to the Champions League final last season, where they were defeated by Barcelona.
Pogba scored 10 goals and assisted on another six across all competitions for Juventus. He has been closely linked to Man City for some time, seen as a natural midfield replacement in the event of a Yaya Toure departure.
Read more: The National's Transfer Talk page
At £71m, Pogba would shatter the British record £59.7m United paid for Angel Di Maria to Real Madrid just last summer.
Manchester United
According to a report in The Guardian, Robin van Persie has agreed personal terms to leave Manchester United for Turkish Super Lig side Fenerbahce.
Van Persie has declined from the rarefied air he occupied at his move to United from Arsenal. After 30 league goals in 2011/12 for Arsene Wenger’s side and 26 in 2012/13 – a title-winning season in his first year with the club – he has socred just 22 combined league goals in 43 matches the last two seasons, beset by injuries often times and perplexing bouts of ineffectiveness at others.
The Netherlands international would be the second former Arsenal target man to arrive in Turkey this summer, with Lukas Podolski signed for Galatasaray.
The Guardian's Saturday report was backed up by a post from turkish-football.com, saying a four-year deal would be signed, but added "the transfer fee and the final details" were left to be worked out.
A subsequent Mirror report said Van Persie "will seek talks with manager Louis van Gaal before making a decision on his future" and wanted the club to pay him the full wages of the final year on his contract before he would agree to leave.
Galatasary
Lukas Podolski has left Arsenal to sign for Galatasaray, the Turkish champions announced on Saturday.
The 30-year-old German international has signed a three-year contract with the Istanbul giants, who said they will pay a transfer fee of €2.5 million (Dh10.2m).
Podolski, whose deal includes an option for a fourth season, posted a picture of himself on his Twitter account holding a Galatasaray scarf after arriving at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport.
The move brings to an end a disappointing three-year association with Arsenal, where he never really established himself in Arsene Wenger’s side.
The former Cologne and Bayern Munich forward even spent the second half of last season on loan in Italy with Inter Milan.
Galatasaray will appear in the group stage of next season’s Champions League after winning a record 20th Turkish title by a margin of three points from Fenerbahce, their bitter city rivals who hail from the Asian side of the Bosphorus.
*Agence France-Presse
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