By Tim Stannard

1) Madrid to launch new bid for De Gea

Normally, English tabloid ‘The Sun’ is as reliable as a Barcelona bench-warmer, but the paper is probably reporting on what will turn out to be one of the big transfer stories of the summer: David De Gea moving to Real Madrid. But properly for real this time.

Thursday’s edition, says that the Spanish club will launch a second attempt to eject the considerably less famous Keylor Navas and bring in the former Atletico Madrid man for $75m, a record fee for a goalkeeper.

However, Jose Mourinho recently warned De Gea not to get his head turned by Madrid’s advances and will not be entirely happy with the concept of losing the Spanish number one to a possible Champions League rival next season.

2) Bale to swap Madrid for Manchester?

But that’s not where the saga ends…oh no…to help sweeten the deal, Manchester United are offering to take Gareth Bale off Madrid’s hands, a footballer who is to reliability what Bill O’Reilly is to a ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ book club discussion.
 

Speaking off which, the ever-wounded Welshman was back in training on Thursday for Madrid, making him potentially available for selection in Sunday’s Clasico cracker against Barcelona. Stay tuned to the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT for all the latest news on that game and hear why Real Madrid’s success this season is all about being a band of brothers.

3) United continue Champions League charge…in Europa League.

Ducking back to David De Gea for the moment, and the Man Utd man will not be action for his team against Anderlecht on Thursday. That’s because Sergio Romero is getting an outing for the Europa League quarterfinal, second-leg clash. "You always hope to be number one and it's something you work for every week," said the Argentine international, on a clash in a competition that gives a Champions League spot to the winner.

United are taking a 1-1 tie back to Old Trafford. The other match-ups on Thursday sees Genk trying to overturn a 3-2 deficit at home to Celta Vigo, Ajax defending a 2-0 lead at Schalke and Besiktas are hosting Lyon, 2-1 down, just a day after both teams were hit by a 2-year suspended sentence from UEFA due to crowd trouble in last week’s first-leg clash.

The fine people of Canada can enjoy the clashes at Schalke and Genk live on beIN SPORTS from 3:05PM ET / 12:05PM PT.

4) Internet ecstatic over Serena Williams baby bump

Now that Serena Williams has confirmed the tremendous news that he is pregnant after Wednesday’s on-off social media affair, the rest of the world of tennis appears to be very happy indeed over the concept including most of her rival players such as Carolina Wozniacki, who is pushing for the role of Aunty.

But what is good news for Serena is bad news for the sport which is set to be without the game’s greatest for the rest of the season due to understandable circumstances.

Remember that beIN SPORTS is the home of the best WTA action and is happy to bring you the slightly newsworthy return of Maria Sharapova to the sport after her doping suspension, at next week’s Porsche Tennis Grand Prix at Stuttgart. Coverage begins from the 24th April.

5) Murray loses out in Monte Carlo

A testing 2017 for world number one, Andy Murray, continued in Monte Carlo on Thursday. In the Scotsman’s continued return after a month out with an elbow injury, Murray lost out in the third round of the Masters event to Spanish 15th seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas. It was Murray’s first tournament since losing in the second round at Indian Wells.

WHAT IS SPORTS BURST?

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.