by Tim Stannard

1) Pique’s promise fails to quash never-ending Neymar rumors

It’s Day 8 of the now annual Neymar-to-PSG saga.

In theory, there are only two ways the story will finally end. Three if you count a giant comet collision. Which could be merciful.

The first is for Neymar to talk about what his plans are – which he isn’t and won’t. The second, is for everyone else to stop talking about it, as that is the primary cause of the whole saga in the first place – megalomaniac football players demanding attention and adoration from fans and media on an annual basis.

Anyway – the evidence in the ‘Neymar-staying’ camp is the footballer being included in the squad for Barcelona’s friendly match on Saturday and Gerard Pique boasting that the footballer is staying through the means of a tweet from Gerard Pique. Yep. Slim pickings really.  

The going-to-PSG evidence is the usual. Stories of meetings with the footballer’s father who manages to be in Barcelona, New York and Paris all at the same time but nothing completely concrete.

But if you haven’t completely lost the will to live on this summer saga then tune into the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT for the latest news live from the Neymar camp up in the Tri-State area.

2) PSG losing out on Alexis as Man City pick up Mendy

Staying on a PSG note, reports suggest that talks between the French club and Alexis Sanchez have broken down over the Chilean’s wage demands, which appear to be quite extravagant, judging by the number of clubs unwilling to move for the Arsenal forward.

Done Deal! It’s been about 24 hours since Manchester City have forked out zillions on a fullback. So that’s why Monday saw the announcement of Benjamin Mendy joining the Premier League club from Monaco for a fee of around $60m.

Another big move is on the cards with Federico Bernardeschi in Turin for a medical with Juventus ahead of a $50m transfer from Fiorentina. And a particularly wild and wacky week in the life of Antonio Cassano continues. After an eight-day period that saw the footballer retire, join Verona, unretire, Verona have sacked the forward. “This guy’s head isn’t right,” said Verona president Maurizio Setti.

For more tales from silly season, tune into the live TRANSFER TRACKER on the beINSPORTS USA Facebook site at 12:30PM ET / 9:30AM PT for 15 minutes of mayhem.

3) Mexico break CONCACAF bank with Gold Cup exit

So, the Gold Cup will end as it was always supposed to. With the USA taking on Mexico on Wednesday in…what with the what now! CONCACAF won’t be happy about that. Apparently, Mexico lost to Jamaica. The 1-0 defeat was a bit of a shock to the system coming in the final minutes through a direct free-kick. But while the story will largely surround the future of beleaguered Mexico coach, Juan Carlos Osorio, props to Jamaica who are now in consecutive Gold Cup finals, after defeating the USA last time around.

Tune into Tuesday’s edition of the XTRA with special guest, Jimmy Conrad, in studio to look ahead to the final in Santa Clara.  

4) Spieth and Froome are weekend winners

There was a whole bunch of other sport going on this weekend, if that is grammatically correct. Jordan Spieth came out winner of golf’s Open Championship and Chris Froome won the Tour de France for the fourth time, and even fancies going for a fifth and sixth.     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.