Cancelo deal close?

That’s the suggestion in the last hour or so and there does seem to be supporting evidence.

Missing?

Earlier, I’d read that Danilo hadn’t been spotted travelling with the rest of his teammates to Wembley to take on Liverpool in this afternoon’s Community Shield; a player linked with our attempts to sign Joao Cancelo.

Early rumours over the summer were that we were simply trying to find a club for Danilo to join so that we didn’t leave ourselves overloaded in the right-back department. However, it now appears that we were in negotiations with Cancelo’s current club, Juventus, to take our right-back as part of the deal – that’s what’s being strongly suggested this morning.

In fact, some figures have now been nailed to that potential deal from some sources, such as Danilo + £32M will go to Juventus rather than us giving the Italian club a straight £53M…and THEN trying to find Danilo a new employer.

The deal, apparently, may be all complete by Monday. We shall see…but from what I’ve seen whilst researching the Portuguese defender the whole time we’ve been linked with a move for the ex-Inter, Valencia & Benfica man; it’ll definitely be an upgrade on Danilo and should serve to make Kyle Walker ‘up his game’ after a sustained period of decline in the England man’s form.

Indeed, if Joao does join us in the coming days, I can see him being our main right-back / right wing-back this season.

Oh...and now the Nathan Ake link has surfaced once more and...TA-DAAAAA! I've been waiting for it all summer. As with the last 4? 5? 6? summers, we've been linked again with a late bid for...Isco!