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Pedro Lima will be a new Chelsea player. The young right-back from Sport Recife will first go via Strasbourg, the other side of the BlueCo Group. The deal is verbally agreed for €7m plus €3.5m in add-ons, which is a record sale for the club, and the agent of the player will be in London this week to finalise the deal.

Lima was also on the list of other clubs around Europe, including some big clubs in Spain, but he will play for Chelsea in the future after first going to Strasbourg. This is partly because of Financial Fair Play reasons, so for now it’s a deal for Strasbourg but his future will be at Chelsea.

Chelsea are continuing to work on the deal for Jhon Duran. While it’s true that Aston Villa are advancing in talks with Juventus over the deal to sell Douglas Luiz and also sign Weston McKennie and Samuel Iling-Junior from the Italian club, they have also been in talks with Chelsea. The two clubs are talking, with Duran one of the names on Chelsea’s list for a new striker.

Chelsea want to bring in a new signing up front as soon as possible, they don’t want an important new addition like this coming at the end of August, so talks are ongoing with Aston Villa to find a solution. Duran is super keen on the move, but other important clubs around Europe are also interested in the young Colombian striker, so now calls are arriving after clubs became aware of the possibility to sign the player because of Aston Villa’s financial situation.

So, there is movement around the Duran situation, but Chelsea are talking to Villa, and talking on the player side – direct conversations are taking place and Duran wants the move to Chelsea. So now it’s on Chelsea to decide when and how to close this deal, with Duran the favourite for the striker position at Stamford Bridge.

Conor Gallagher, meanwhile, only wants to focus on the Euros, so at the moment it’s quiet with Aston Villa. They are still interested in the player, as well as Tottenham, but at the moment nothing is advancing as Gallagher wants to focus on England and he’s not desperate to leave Chelsea. It would have to be the right opportunity, but he’s still really happy at the club.

As reported yesterday, Erik ten Hag will be staying as Manchester United manager, and now the two parties are also advancing in talks over a new contract for the Dutch coach. What I’m hearing at the moment is that there is more than a 90% possibility to see Ten Hag extending his contract at Man United.

As for the length of the contract, discussions are still ongoing, but the conversation is about a deal until 2027, so two more years on top of the year he already has left on his current contract. The offer is on the table, and it’s a positive discussion because Ten Hag, despite all the rumours on his future and his situation, respected Manchester United’s decision to have a long review and consider all the options and take their time before deciding the future of the manager.

Ten Hag knows now that he’s staying at Manchester United, and he will be involved in discussions for the future, but now it’s about discussing his contract, and from what I’m hearing a potential new deal until 2027 is really concrete. It’s 90% confirmed, both parties want to make it happen, with Ten Hag happy to have a long-term vision together with the owners and directors, and also to avoid potential media problems after the first few games of the season. Sometimes a few bad results can lead to reports that a manager’s job is already in danger, and so Man United want to protect Ten Hag as he’s considered a really important part of their project.

Man United considered to change the manager – that’s the reality, it was a possibility for this summer but it was never 100% decided. That’s why has always been an open story with many factors. Personally, I think giving Ten Hag a new contract is important to show strong confidence in his job, this could look like a detail but in my opinion is the crucial factor of this story: a new contract for Ten Hag is a really, really important step to protect him.

There were five or six names United considered for the job, and Marco Silva of Fulham is one of them, but not the only one. As previously reported, Thomas Tuchel had a meeting and was in talks with Man United then they decided not to advance in negotiations. Marco Silva was an option discussed internally but was not so close to the job.

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Juventus are busy this summer, with the Douglas Luiz deal already mentioned, while they also have an interest in Mason Greenwood, and also Teun Koopmeiners has long been a top target of theirs.

There is one issue for Juve at the moment, however, and that’s with Wojciech Szczesny, whose move to Al Nassr has run into problems. There are issues there, not with the player, but between Juventus and Al Nassr, so at the moment there is still no green light to proceed with this deal for €5m. Let’s see what will happen there, but it will be one to follow in the next days.

Ederson – The Atalanta midfielder has responded to the links with Liverpool, but what’s the situation? Liverpool made contact with his agents weeks ago but never started any negotiation, they didn’t send a bid so far, there are no talks ongoing at this stage. We have to see if they will include Ederson in their shortlist or not, it’s really early for this and there are no meaningful changes to the situation so far. Atalanta, meanwhile, don’t want to lose both Ederson and Koopmeiners.

Raphael Varane – A free agent this summer after leaving Manchester United, Inter Miami are one of several clubs who have called Raphael Varane’s agents to ask for information about Varane and his situation. At the moment, that’s it – nothing more concrete or advanced than this, from what I heard.

Andriy Lunin – Some surprise reports have linked the Real Madrid goalkeeper with Arsenal, but Arsenal are only focused on David Raya staying on a permanent deal, I’m not aware of this Lunin to Arsenal story to be honest. Real Madrid still consider their new contract proposal to the player valid, and so it’s up to Lunin now to decide.