Manchester City have completed the signing of Croatia midfielder Mateo Kovacic from Chelsea.
The treble winners have announced the 29-year-old has signed a four-year contract at the Etihad Stadium after the clubs agreed an initial fee of £25million, with a potential extra £5million in add-ons, last week.
Kovacic joins Pep Guardiola’s side after five years at Chelsea, where he won the Champions League and Europa League and made 221 appearances.
He is City’s first signing of the summer and his arrival compensates for the departure of captain Ilkay Gundogan, who joined Barcelona on a free transfer on Monday after seven years at the club.
Kovacic said: “This is a brilliant move for me and I cannot wait to get started with City.
“Anyone who h…
Knowing that they had the chance to briefly climb to the top of the Premier League table, Manchester City pounced on that opportunity as they claimed a 1-0 victory away at Leicester on Saturday lunchtime.
While the defending Premier League champions might not have been at their clinical best here, Pep Guardiola s superstars were dragged over the finish line thanks to Kevin De Bruyne s stunning second-half free-kick.
Leapfrogging Arsenal ahead of the Gunners showdown against Nottingham Forest on Sunday afternoon, the Sky Blues also brought an end to Leicester s eye-catching October boost.
Managing to claim maximum points without their new attacking icon among their squad here, we have taken a look at the main talking points from Saturday s battle at the King Powe…
Cameroon international Samuel Eto o claims his transfer to Anzhi Makhachkala was motivated by more than his reportedly enormous salary.
Eto o, 30, finalised his move to Russian Premier League club Anzhi from Serie A side Inter Milan after passing a medical on Wednesday, with the fee involved estimated to be 18.4 million pounds.
Details of the striker s salary have not been confirmed, but some reports claim he is set to earn as much as 21.8 million pounds per season, making his base salary one of the highest of any professional sportsperson.
Wages aside, the transfer appears an unusual move for a player at arguably the peak of his career and widely regarded to be among the best centre-forwards in Europe.
Eto o joins an Anzhi squad that do not reside in M…
Paris Saint-Germain came from behind to beat Caen 4-2, while Bordeaux picked up a crucial win over Ajaccio in Ligue 1 on Saturday.
PSG had made a shock exit from the Coupe de la Ligue at the hands of Dijon on Wednesday, and they briefly appeared set for another slip when Thomas Heurtaux prodded Caen in front from a corner after 13 minutes.
But Caen s goal proved just the impetus for PSG s big-money signings to spark to life, and they received a helping hand when veteran Caen midfielder Benjamin Nivet was sent off for conceding a 20th-minute penalty.
Brazilian striker Nene equalised for the capital club from the spot, though Caen dug in to deny PSG a second in the first half.
But the away side s resolve ran out on 56 minutes, when Javier Pastore and Kevin…
that Arsenal are keen on signing Tottenham Hotspur defender Vlad Chiriches on loan when the transfer window reopens next month.
The North London club are looking to send the Romania international out on a temporary basis in January and their fierce rivals are set to throw their hat into the ring as they look to solve their defensive crisis.
Full backs Mathieu Debuchy and Nacho Monreal are currently out injured, leaving manager Arsene Wenger just four fit senior defenders at his disposal for tomorrow evening’s match against high-flying Southampton.
Chiriches moved to White Hart Lane from Steaua Bucharest last summer and has gone one to make twenty-seven appearances for the club in all competitions, scoring his one and only goal so far in a 2-1 league win ove…
Real Madrid are on the verge of completing a deal for Valencia goalkeeper Diego Alves, .
Los Blancos already have two excellent shot-stoppers at their disposal, but with Iker Casillas and Keylor Navas enjoying a strained relationship, the club officials plan to offload one of them.
As a result, they have stepped up their interest in long-term target Diego Alves, who has been putting in some excellent performances for Valencia this season.
According to Superdeporte, Real Madrid have all but reached an agreement with los Che, and they are expected to wrap up the deal even before the New Year.
Diego Alves, 29, has largely impressed since joining Valencia from Almeria in the summer of 2011, making 78 La Liga appearances.
The interesting thing is that…
Sergio Aguero has been backed to secure Champions League redemption by Manchester City team-mate Fernandinho.
City are tasked with overturning a 1-0 quarter-final deficit against Tottenham after Son Heung-min struck 12 minutes from time in a tense and frantic first leg in north London on Tuesday.
Aguero passed up a golden chance to give City an early advantage and an away goal when Hugo Lloris palmed away a 13th-minute penalty, denying the Argentina striker his 30th goal of the season in all competitions.
It was the 30-year-old s 11th penalty miss for City and sixth in Champions League matches, including a pair of failures in the qualifying round against Steaua Bucharest in 2016, when he shrugged off those disappointments to claim a hat-trick by full-time.
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Former Manchester United goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard says the world-record transfer of Paul Pogba proves the club is now built on different values .
Pogba signed a five-year deal with United this week after Juventus accepted a bid reportedly close to £93million for the 23-year-old.
The transfer, which eclipses the previous record fee paid by Real Madrid to lure Gareth Bale from Tottenham in 2013, has taken United s spending to upwards of £150m in the current window alone, following the signings of Eric Bailly, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and the free transfer of Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Lindegaard, who spent five years at United and now plays for Preston North End, says the change in mentality of his old club is indicative of the state of the modern game.
This is d…
Mikel Arteta believes triumphs like Arsenal s 2-0 FA Cup semi-final win over Manchester City can convince Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to stay after the striker answered his critics with a match-winning performance on the big stage.
Aubameyang produced excellent finishes in each half as City failed to prevail in a domestic cup tie for the first time since February 2018.
The 31-year-old former Borussia Dortmund star has one year remaining on his Gunners contract and Arteta acknowledged experiences such as the one his players enjoyed on Saturday only enhance the prospects of their forward sticking around.
Everybody has good and beautiful moments, they are better than the bad ones, Pep Guardiola s former assistant told a post-match news conference.
The way I …
The situation between Mauro Icardi and Inter Milan has been strained, to put it mildly, for a long time now. His current contract, signed two and a half years ago, runs until the summer of 2021 and apparently has a buyout clause of €110 million. However, since the deal that saw Neymar move from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 for €222 million, Inter deem Icardi s clause should be doubled at the least, or even removed completely.
They have therefore been keen for a new contract to be put into operation, but the negotiations between the club and the player haven t exactly gone smoothly. Icardi has recently been stripped of the captaincy and he has been excluded from the squad for the time being.
Spanish outlet have expressed their belief that the Argentinian…