By Tim Stannard

French paper, L'Equipe, reports that Barcelona are lining up Laurent Blanc as the club's next coach 

It seems that Barcelona president, Josep Bartomeu, has gazed across at Real Madrid, taken a shine to a World-Cup winning, stoic, cool-as-ice Frenchman and declared 'get me one of those on the Barca bench.' 

Wednesday's edition of L'Equipe is declaring that Barca has chosen a brand new manager for the brand new season, and it's Laurent Blanc, who ticks off a vast amount of boxes for the Camp Nou club and also adds a bit of French 'force majeure' into next season's LaLiga title race. 

The 54-year-old has a lot working in his favor. The former defender has won the World Cup as a player, in the same team as Coach Zizou in 1998. Like Zidane, Blanc turned out for the biggest teams in the world - even one season with Barcelona between 1996 and 1997. 

And as a coach, Blanc has won four league titles for two different clubs - Bordeaux and PSG - and will have a considerably more heavyweight presence in a Barcelona locker room where former Barca president, Sandro Rossell, declared on Tuesday that the "squad leads too much."

Quique Setien could be returning to cow-tipping in August while Blanc does the real work ahead of the new season - keeping Lionel Messi happy. 

The Sports Burst live show will look at whether Laurent Blanc is the right fit for Barcelona. Tune into our Facebook page at 12PM ET or our beIN XTRA channel. 

Mbappe pledges next season to PSG as Neymar makes more friends

Flitting back a little bit to Laurent Blanc's PSG and Kylian Mbappe has declared his immediate future for his club, which is handy considering the new season in France starts in a month's time but there are still two cup finals and a Champions League to wrap-up from the old campaign. 

"I'm here. I am in the project for a fourth year," declared Mbappe after Tuesday's 4-0 warm-up win over Celtic. The third year continues on Friday with the Coupe de France final against Saint Etienne that is live, live, live on beIN SPORTS. 

Also speaking after that match was Celtic boss, Neil Lennon, who had great praise for Mbappe, but not so much for Neymar. "He is infuriating but he knows it," on Neymar's particular skills in annoying opposition players.

The former third part of this PSG striking trident, Edison Cavani, has been linked with a whole new club. The Uruguayan forward, who is currently a free agent, is coveted by Leeds United, newly promoted to the Premier League, with owner Andrea Radrizzani, talking fondly about the player to Sky Sport Italia. 

Milan change mind on new coach at San Siro 

Over in Italy, and AC Milan has made a bit of a stir by deciding not to sack a coach, which is a rarity at San Siro these days. 

Stefano Pioli was expected to be moved on and replaced by former Red Bull strategic head type thing, Ralf Rangnick, however, an unbeaten run since Serie A's restart has caused a rethink. Instead, Pioli has been handed a deal lasting to 2022, while Rangnick admitted that "we have decided that I will not take a role at the club."

However, one item was missed off the checklist - telling the news to the real head of the club. "You learn something new here every day," declared Zlatan Ibrahimovic when being informed after Tuesday's Serie A win for Milan against Sassuolo.