Sports Burst – Barça Deserve Better
Neymar reveals motives for mood as Old Trafford king returns?
By Tim Stannard
1) Neymar has dig at former Barca bosses
Being able to put one’s footballing feet up and pretty much coast through a season affords plenty of time for getting into media mischief.
That’s what Neymar is discovering after just a week of playing in Ligue Un, scoring goals, setting up teammates and being able to be quite the quarter-of-a-billion-dollar fancy pants.
Speaking after PSG’s 6-2 win over Toulouse which was dramatic for a good couple of minutes, Neymar wanted to have a bit of a dig at his old Barcelona bosses who are in quite the pickle of unpopularity. Mainly because of Neymar himself.
"When I arrived, everything started well but then... at Barcelona, there are directors that shouldn't be there," explained Neymar, revealing that the reason for buying himself out of his contract and causing a Camp Nou kerfuffle were apparent ethical concerns over the institution rather than self-enrichment and having a French bully-pit in Paris.
While Neymar is off spending his Monday at those French classes – maybe – Barca are working on reinforcing their squad. So far, no new news on Philippe Coutinho or Ousmane Dembele, but maybe some action with Nice midfielder, Jean Michael Seri, although the French club appear to be playing hardball with the Ivorian’s transfer fee. Thanks Neymar!
Tune into the Locker Room from 7.30PM ET / 4.30PM PT for a look back at the weekend’s winners and losers. Neymar is probably in the former group.
2) The return of the King to Old Trafford?
Manchester United might well be making some waves on Monday with the announcement that King Zlatan will be rejoining the club in January. The Swede is currently on the road to recovery from a cruciate ligament injury from the end of last season and Jose Mourinho would love to give the footballer another spin at the Old Trafford wheel.
Meanwhile, Manchester City are in action with a home clash against a solid-looking Everton. La Liga also has some business to take of two with two matches on Monday. Carlos Bacca may well return to action in Spain with Villarreal taking on Levante live on beIN SPORTS at 2PM ET / 11AM PT. That clash is followed by Malaga kicking off their campaign against the mighty Eibar.
Tune into the XTRA from 7PM ET / 4PM PT for the best highlights of the day.
3) Mbappe throws Monaco toddler tantrum
Oh dear. Monday is seeing some potentially unsavory stories over Kylian Mbappe whose shining star is being eclipsed somewhat by a moon of doom. Topical, eh! Being quite good for six months has given the French forward some ideas above his station at Monaco – a club he is doing his level best to leave. That behavior includes disrupting training it would appear.
L'Equipe is reporting that Mbappe was sent off during a training game on Tuesday, refused to leave the field to force everyone else to move to another pitch. Whether or not the footballing toddler stole the ball as well has not been confirmed. Mbappe was left off the weekend’s roster for Monaco, who defeated Monaco 1-0 thanks to a goal from the grown-up Radomel Falcao.
4) Nasri leaves City to talk Turkey
TRANSFER TRACKER!
Manchester City have managed to ditch another Pep Guardiola cast-off. Sami Nasri is off to the Turkish Super Lig – exclusively on beIN SPORTS – to join up with Analyaspor. Meanwhile, Inter midfielder, Geoffrey Kondogbia, is joining up with Valencia, on a season-long loan.
Milan are looking at bringing in Claudio Marchisio, who is ‘reportedly’ unhappy at Juve. Right.
More on this stuff and nonsense on our lovely Facebook site from 12:30PM ET / 9:30AM PT with the daily Transfer Tracker show.
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The life philosophy of Sports Burst is that if you are not upsetting someone, then you are not trying hard enough. SB is a daily trawl and troll through the morning's sports news to bring you fact-nuggets to make you both smile and swear. Hopefully at the same time.