Transfer gossip: Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Newcastle all want same winger; Neves battle

Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia celebrate a goal.

Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United and Chelsea scouts all turned up to watch the same winger. And two of them want Joao Neves too.

NEVER SAY NEVES

‘Benfica have no intention to open talks for João Neves in January despite Man United sending their scouts many times to track talented midfielder,’ said Fabrizio Romano on Monday as talk escalated that the 19-year-old defensive midfielder could be bound for the Premier League.

But the catch is that Neves does have a release clause – the exact same one that saw Enzo Fernandes leave Benfica for Chelsea last January – so if Manchester United come with the money in January (they won’t) then Benfica will be powerless.

Meanwhile, Manchester City man Bernardo Silva says: “If I can, I will pull strings to João Neves to go to Man City. I’d like to see João joining City instead of Man United, of course!”

GEORGIA ON THEIR MINDS

We don’t want to have to learn how to spell Khvicha Kvaratskhelia so we would rather he stayed in Italy, thank you, but 90 Min say that the Napoli winger was watched by scouts from Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United and Chelsea when Georgia played Spain on Sunday night.

Now they could also have been watching other players – 31 were involved on the night – but this report seems clear that the Georgian winger is a target for those clubs, as well as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and PSG.

But Napoli will not sell both him and Victor Osimhen in one year and it seems more likely that the Nigerian striker will be sold in the summer.

TONEY IN JANUARY?

‘Chelsea are strongly considering making a big-money offer to Brentford in the January transfer window for striker Ivan Toney, football.london understands.’

In our opinion, that would be a ludicrous move – you are paying a triple tax that should only be for the truly desperate – and we would cast some doubt on the veracity of those claims as at no point during that football.london mention Christopher Nkunku, who is expected to be back next month.

Spending £80m on Toney in January makes little sense at all, especially when Chelsea have scored eight goals in their last two Premier League games against elite opposition.

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