Reports in England claim Manchester United are set to follow Liverpool not to rival Chelsea as the Blues are poised to match Timo Werner’s £53million release clause.

According to the Evening Standard, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is a big admirer of the RB Leipzig striker, who has agreed a move to Stamford Bridge, but United are prioritising other targets after securing an extension to Odion Ighalo’s loan deal.

Jadon Sancho remains at the top of Solskjaer’s wanted list – even after the financial impact of coronavirus forced him to review their spending this summer.

Werner was among a list of striker targets drawn up by United’s transfer committee, along with Moussa Dembele and Erling Braut Haaland. But Solskjaer believes the deal to keep Ighalo at the club until January has alleviated the need to bring in a top-class striker when the window eventually opens.

He also wants to see how Mason Greenwood develops over the next six months to see if the teenager can establish himself as genuine competition to Anthony Martial at the point of United’s attack.

United are continuing to monitor strike targets, but have opted against launching an official move for Werner, who now looks set to join top four rivals Chelsea for around £50million.

Chelsea have agreed a £54million deal for RB Leipzig star Timo Werner.

According to The Sun, the striker looks set to sign a five-year contract after Frank Lampard made it clear he is ready to meet the German’s release clause.

Werner will pocket around £200,000-a-week, making him one of Chelsea’s top earners.

But there is still the danger of Liverpool making a last-gasp bid.

Lampard’s men have already signed Hakim Ziyech from Ajax in a £37m deal.

And the presence of Werner up front could give Chelsea the extra edge they need in pursuit of a sixth Premier League title.

The highly-rated forward, 24, has scored 31 goals in all competitions this season, taking his total Leipzig tally to 92 in just four seasons.

Liverpool were hoping to sign Werner despite already boasting Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino in attack.

Ethan Ampadu has returned to training at RB Leipzig after being sidelined by injury.

The Welshman, 19, impressed at centre-back in Julian Nagelsmann’s side’s 1-0 win over Spurs in the Champions League in March, but was dropped to the bench for the second leg.

Since then the defender – who often plays defensive midfield for Wales – has been nursing a back problem.

Alongside pictures of the Chelsea loanee training, RB tweeted: “Good to see you!”

Great to see you back, @ethanamp4 👋🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

The @ChelseaFC loanee has returned to training, and will be eased into action following his back problems.

🔴⚪️ #DieRotenBullen pic.twitter.com/WfmDYKajio

— RB Leipzig English (@RBLeipzig_EN) June 4, 2020

Diego Costa has been handed a six-month prison sentence for tax fraud in Spain.

As highlighted by El Mundo, the former Chelsea star will not spend any time behind bars as he has agreed to pay a fine in its place.

The prison sentence was replaced by a 12-month fine whereby the player would have to pay a rate of €100 per day over the course of a year, totalling in the region of €36k.

The decision was confirmed in a Madrid court on Thursday with the 31-year-old pleading guilty to defrauding the Spanish state of €1.1m by not declaring payments of more than €5.15m of his 2014 switch to Stamford Bridge.

Costa already reimbursed the Treasury a few months ago of the €1.1m that he evaded during the 2014 financial year.

The Spanish Treasury has also decided that Costa did not fully pay the advertising contract that he signed with Adidas to the value of €800k, relating to his image rights.

There is no evidence, according to Football Espana, that the player has used ‘off shore’ companies or other schemes to hide his image rights, with instead a ‘strict’ reading of the rules declaring he had declared as a British tax payer for the relevant financial year when he had spent six months living in Spain.

Reports in Spain claim that Barcelona have signed Sao Paulo’s teenager Gustavo Maia after activating their option to sign him.

The details are outlined in Brazilian media outlet Globoesporte, via Diario Sport, who say that the Blaugrana have paid the additional €3.5m clause to seal the deal.

Football Espana report that the Catalan giants held a deposit of €1m to have the first choice on the teenager’s future and have now paid the remaining amount to secure the transfer.

Maia is known as a pacey forward with strong finishing ability and an eye for a pass and it now appears likely that he won’t play professionally in Brazil before his switch to Europe.

“We are sure that Barcelona will complete the transfer,” the player’s agent Danilo Silva told an interview with Radiotransamerica this week, reported via Marca.

“The signs from the club are good, and Maia has already started Spanish lessons to prepare for the move.

“Other clubs were interested, but we had no doubts he wanted to go to Barcelona.”

Last month, Diario Sport cited a report from Brazilian media outlet UOL claiming the 19-year-old – who is yet to make his senior debut for the club – is close to a switch to the Camp Nou.

A recent report in Marca claimed that the teenager was also attracting interest from other clubs including European champions Liverpool and Atleti, hence Barcelona putting down a deposit to secure first option.

Photo Credit: fcbarcelona.com

Reports in England claim that Ben Chilwell has told Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers he wants to join Chelsea.

The Blues have been linked with an £85million swoop for the left-back this summer.

And their hopes may have been boosted by the player himself.

According to The Transfer Window Podcast, Chilwell has discussed his future with his manager at the King Power Stadium.

He has also admitted a move to Chelsea would interest him should any offer be forthcoming.

Multiple reports claim AS Roma, Juventus and three other are chasing Pedro who has decided to leave Chelsea as a free agent.

His contract is due to expire at the end of this season and he can therefore already negotiate a new deal elsewhere.

Mundo Deportivo reveal the five clubs chasing the Spaniard: Juventus, Sevilla, Real Betis, Valencia and Roma.

However, AS note that Roma represent ‘the priority’ for Pedro, backing up the story from Italian newspaper Il Tempo.

Roma have been working on convincing Pedro for many weeks and it looks as if that will pay off when the winger makes his decision.

There are reports in England that Chelsea could be set to swoop for for Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Arsenal have a new policy of selling any player before they reach the final year of their contract, in order to avoid the kind of scenario which saw Aaron Ramsey join Juventus for free.

And the Blues, according to The Telegraph, therefore believe they are in a strong position to sign the Gabon international.

Mark Irwin, writing for The Sun, stated that a £20m fee could be enough to force Arsenal’s hand.

While the Gunners were able to scare Barcelona away in January by quoting £50m for the striker, the current depressed state of the market means his valuation has significantly lowered.

However, he Irwin adds that Arsenal would rather let Aubameyang run down his contract than sell for a fee lower than £20m.

Serie A club Lazio director Igli Tare has confirmed he held transfer talks with Olivier Giroud in London in January.

When talks with Inter Milan broke down, Tare flew over to London on transfer deadline day in January in one last bid to get Giroud.

Tare however said he saw the renewal coming days after the striker decided to sign a new contract at Stamford Bridge.

Lazio director of sport spoke to Sky Sport Italia about that January visit, saying: “I never disguised it in January and I won’t disguise it now, we did have a chance to bring Giroud to Rome and pushed to the very end, because he is still a very strong and experienced striker at age 33.

“It would’ve been a great signing for us, I was able to meet him and recognise he is a great professional with strong motivation. However, at the same time, I had sensed his priority was to remain in London, as his family has lived there for years.

“I knew in my heart that it could be a possibility for the summer, but also that he would certainly have considered a contract renewal with Chelsea.”