Sports Burst – PSG’s Neymar Nod
Unai’s Neymar hint, Ceballos unwrapped and a biting Gold Cup
By Tim Stannard
1) A statement of Neymar intent from Unai Emery
Day four of the Neymar-to-PSG-or-going-nowhere saga! Stay with us! Pretty please!
The story is currently in the ‘mmm, maybe’ phase. Mainly because of complete radio silence from the Brazilian trouble-maker in the middle of the furor and also PSG boss Unai Emery admitting in an interview in L’Equipe from Thursday night that the club are looking to sign a Top 5 world player.
"PSG wants the best players in the world, who are in the best clubs in the world," announced the Spanish coach. We are trying to get one signed this summer."
Technically speaking that could also include Cristiano Ronaldo and Chris Wood of Leeds United and New Zealand, but Neymar is still the firm favorite. Whether or not a deal with Barcelona can be struck and PSG can find the half-a-billion dollars or so to fund a move is a whole other question for another day. Probably about another 15 of them. This is going to be a long one.
Tune into the SUMMER XTRA from 7PM ET / 4PM PT where our crack reporter, Jamie Easton, will bring you the latest on the deal / non-deal live from the Barcelona camp in New York.
2) Goodbye Morata, hello Dani!
Meanwhile back at the Real Madrid ranch, the club will be tying up the paperwork on football’s Littlest Hobo, Alvaro Morata, and his move to Chelsea, expected to be all tied up over the next day or two.
However, the Santiago Bernabeu was all dressed up for a big hello for a new Real Madrid player with former Betis midfielder, Dani Ceballos, being officially presented by the Champions League winners.
“My dream since I was young was to be here,” declared a footballer who recently had to go through an extensive job of deleting most of his Twitter feed of any anti-Real Madrid or pro-Barcelona sentiment. No word yet on whether Ceballos managed to outperform Theo Hernandez on those tricky on-pitch ball tricks.
3) Man City go rightback crazy
TRANSFER TRACKER TIME!
Juventus have confirmed the signing of Milan fullback, Mattia De Sciglio, who joins for around $15m on a five-year deal. The player will now be playing catch-up on a plane to the USA to follow the rest of the Old Lady squad.
Weirdly, that’s about all for the day. Mmm. Anyway, tune into the beIN SPORTS USA Facebook site at 12:30PM ET / 9:30AM PT for the daily Transfer Tracker show to find out if Ray Hudson can unearth anymore.
4) Biting display for US in Gold Cup as Galaxy crumbles
There was a heck of a lot of soccer being played across North America on Wednesday night including a friendly clash between Roma and PSG that ended in a 1-1. The USA passed through their Gold Cup clash against El Salvador with a 2-0 win but not without controversy and a nipple-twisting and biting incident. Of course.
And there was a whole roster of MLS games too. NY Red Bulls hammered the Earthquakes 5-1, a big clash between NYCFC and Toronto ended 2-2, while a dreadful run of form for LA Galaxy continued with a 0-1 home defeat to Vancouver Whitecaps.
Meanwhile the Gold Cup continues on Thursday with the remaining two quarterfinal clashes ahead of the USA v Mexico final. The Mexicans still have to do their duty by disposing of Honduras, while Canada faces Jamaica.
Catch up will all the best action of the past 24 hours on the SUMMER XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT.
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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.