Round-Up: Jose Mourinho calls Neymar transfer 'absurd'

Jose Mourinho says that talk of Manchester United buying Neymar for £175m or so is 'absurd'. He's hardly like to say anything else until progress is made, and we should assume for now that any talk of Barcelona selling what will soon be their best player is fanciful. However, United are one of the few clubs where spending that kind of money is doable, so don't rule anything out yet.

Manchester United are in the habit of chucking cash about it seems, as they prepare to offer David de Gea a huge payrise. Given he wants to leave Manchester - if he wants to leave at all - because of his girlfriend and family, not because of money, then it seems a bit daft. You would imagine the chance of actually winning stuff is the only thing that might tempt him to stay at the club. Either way, it's no disaster should he leave.

Gary Neville has been praised by perennial underachiever Michael Carrick, who to his credit, has been irreplaceable since he was bought by United. That says more for United's transfer policy than it does for the quality of Carrick, but that is hardly his fault.

Oh, eff. Paul Pogba's injury has not yet healed, and he'll miss the game against West Brom. While he's been disappointing this season, he remains our best player in theory. There are more injuries to worry about, too.

The Manchester Evening News wonder if Alexis Sanchez could be a decent replacement for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but it's hard to see why Ibrahimovic would stoop to Arsenal. Oh, wait.