Exclusive: Conte’s future, Chelsea exit, plus Mitoma to Arsenal or Man Utd? – Fabrizio Romano

caughtoffside

·19 March 2023

Exclusive: Conte’s future, Chelsea exit, plus Mitoma to Arsenal or Man Utd? – Fabrizio Romano

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Arsenal

Arsenal fans are understandably concerned about the William Saliba injury. Honestly injuries are not my area, so I prefer not to comment on things like the Saliba case until I have 100% info. It’s better to wait for Arsenal’s statement. The upcoming international break will help in this sense, but I think Arsenal will fight for the title at the best level in any case. They’ve coped well with injuries all season and so I don’t expect another setback to have a huge effect.

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Barcelona

Ronald Araujo is not hiding that he’d love to see Lionel Messi back at Barcelona: “I’d love Messi to return. He is the best player in the world and Barcelona is his home. His return would help us to try to win another Champions League. I hope there are every chance to have him again. We all want him by our side.”

Brighton

Kaoru Mitoma is the latest name being linked with the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United, but Brighton will not sell the whole squad! We always have rumours on their players, I think it’s most likely to see at least one midfielder gone as they will try to keep Mitoma, who is really appreciated by Roberto De Zerbi.

Kaoru Mitoma in action for Brighton

Official, signed. Brighton confirm Solly March has signed a new contract that runs until June 2026, as announced in an official club statement. There will be also an additional one-year option for the club. Good news for Brighton as the 28-year-old continues to be a key performer in Roberto De Zerbi’s side, with seven Premier League goals this season.

Ukrainian centre-back Mykola Matvienko is set to sign new contract with Shakhtar Donetsk valid until June 2028. Brighton had a €20m bid rejected last January, when Shakhtar were asking for a €30m fee, and my understanding is that Brighton remain among the clubs still tracking Matvienko ahead of summer. We’ll have to see how this new deal affects his situation, but it looks like suitors will still be there for this talented defender.

Chelsea

Denis Zakaria is not a regular starter so honestly I think there were never many chances of him staying on permanent deal. For sure Chelsea will go for new midfielder in the summer; I really appreciate Zakaria, I think he’s underrated but probably Chelsea want something different to play next to Enzo Fernandez.

Mason Mount has now appointed Neil Fewings as new agent, agreement done weeks ago — understand it’s very likely that he will leave Chelsea in July. Fewings will now help Mount in talks.

Fulham

Marco Silva sounds committed to Fulham despite links with Tottenham: “I’m really pleased and happy in this football club, I’m happy with Fulham project. We have the ambition to do better, to improve, we want this club to keep growing. I trust this project.”

Liverpool

I’ve had Liverpool fans asking me about Jose Enrique’s surprise comments, when he seemed to ‘leak’ the fact that Ryan Gravenberch would be joining the Reds.

Honestly I’m not aware of this deal. Bayern wanted to keep Ryan Gravenberch in January despite lot of interest and nothing has changed at this stage, we will see in the summer. He’s a fine player who surely has a big future, but it’s too early to say right now where his future lies.

Manchester City

Another hat-trick for Erling Haaland as Manchester City thrashed Burnley. An unbelievable player in the form of his life!

PSG

Lionel Messi already received a proposal from PSG to extend the contract — Leo didn’t ask for the same salary as other players, despite some reports to the contrary. But Messi wants to understand more about how the PSG project is going to look before making his final decision, after initially agreeing a verbal pact in December.

Real Madrid

Carlo Ancelotti: “Eder Militao’s the best centre back in the world. He’s not perfect because sometimes he is not 100% focused, also he is not that handsome!”

Carlo Ancelotti on his future: “The club has to decide. I’d really love to stay at Real Madrid for my whole life, but it’s impossible. I want to continue here. If they want me to stay 3 months, I’ll enjoy 3 months. If they want 3 years, I’ll enjoy 3 years.”

Shakhtar Donetsk

Tottenham

It’s very clear – Antonio Conte was furious after yesterday’s game and he didn’t hold back with his statements against the players. He said the players needed to stop their excuses, and that they had no fight or desire. Conte was already furious weeks ago and this is one of the reasons we’ve had rumours about his future, but he never had any concrete or advanced negotations over a new contract.

Antonio Conte

It’s up to Tottenham, but for sure the feeling around sources is for Conte not to be Spurs coach next season – it was already like this after AC Milan UCL clash. It’s also partly because of personal reasons, as well as his expectations of the players. He’s not happy with many decisions, he wanted to decide at the end of the season but the feeling now is that he won’t still be their manager next season, the plan is to change. We’ll have to see when he will communicate this, or if the club will decide something before then.

I’m not sure there are issues with the ownership, he’s not happy with the players and their attitude more than the ownership. He wants to see different attitude, this is why he’s really unhappy with the current situation.

A reminder of some of those explosive Conte quotes again:

“They are used to it here at Tottenham. They don’t play for something important. They don’t want to play under pressure, under stress. It is easy in this way! Tottenham story’s this for 20 years, there’s the owner but they never won something. Why?”