Zinedine Zidane Plays Nostradamus With Chilling Warning For Future
Real Madrid boss threatens deadline day drama as Barcelona bask in double delight. The Sports Burst delegation casts its vote in favor of 5 tasty titbits.
By Tim Stannard
1) Zizou threatens more Pogba transfer torture as RM face-off against PSG
With one big summer transfer now done and dusted after Gonzalo ‘turncoat prince’ Higuain moved to Juventus, there is one more to go - Paul Pogba. The Higuain move that was completed on Wednesday, should be triggering a chain of events that sees the French midfielder moving to Old Trafford within days, to much relief of the world.
But no, revealed Zinedine Zidane on Tuesday night. Real Madrid are still in the hunt for Pogba and are willing to take the whole transfer tussle down to the wire for another month. A whole month. "Until August 31st anything can happen,” revealed the Real Madrid coach, perhaps forgetting that his club are not so hot on last minute deals, considering what happened with David de Gea last year.
The Madrid players that have been hanging out in Canada will be in action on Wednesday night in the US of A in a friendly match against PSG in Columbus, Ohio where Alvaro Morata is expected to feature in a 4-4-2 with Karim Benzema in what could be a most curious combination.
2) Big news days for Barca as Andres Gomes unveiled and Masche make-up session
Barcelona have been busy beavers. Both happily training away in England and also showing off their new signing Andre Gomes back at the Camp Nou. The Portuguese midfielder has completed a $38m move from Valencia and was presented under sunny Catalan skies with club president, Josep Bartomeu, beaming that “he is already a world star.”
But Barca were not done with that. The club also announced an end to the Javier Mascherano to Juventus affair by revealing that an improved deal had been struck with the agitated Argentinean that covers the next three years. Tune into the XTRA at the slightly different time of 6.30PM ET to get all the latest news from Barcelona’s big day.
3) Conte moans at mad transfer market as Man City reveal big-boned footballer ban
Poor Antonio Conte is watching all these movers and shakers in the transfer market with some distress. "This season we are seeing a crazy market. It's incredible," grumbled the Chelsea boss over the Higuain deal and Pogba transfer speculation. Conte may want to look to his team’s owner as someone who helped start off all these “crazy” figures in the first place.
In a move that might have prevented Gonzalo Higuain moving to Manchester City, Gael Clichy has revealed that Pep Guardiola bans overweight footballers from training with the big boys. “We have a few players who are not training with the team yet," admitted the Frenchman.
4) Ibra set to start work for Manchester United as Chelsea given some tough news
The King has rested. And He is ready to return. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is set to take part in His first training session with Manchester United at their base-camp in Carrington. “He is a huge character so I am looking forward to getting back, training with Him and hopefully forming a good partnership and being successful together,” said Wayne Rooney, possibly reading off a cue-card written by the Man United bosses.
Oh dear. Despite being in the same league as the aforementioned club, Chelsea are currently the most disliked team in the EPL according to a poll run in the Daily Mirror, which reveals that the country hearts Bournemouth very much.
5) More Russian athletes cleared for Rio departure as Putin attacks “discrimination”
Seeing as the IOC chickened out of making a decision to ban Russia from the Rio Olympics after accusations and much evidence of state-sponsored doping programs, individual federations have been left with the role of deciding whether competitors from Russia may attend or not. On Wednesday, it was the athletes from the fields of fencing, volleyball and triathlon who gave the Rio thumbs up.
The IAAF – International Association of Athletics Federations – has confirmed its ban on Russian track and field athletes from Rio 2016 despite appeals from Russian officials. It’s a ban that Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has branded as “discrimination” when talking on Wednesday at the Kremlin to athletes heading to Rio.
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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.