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Manchester United favourites to sign Burnley's Michael Keane

Manchester United are ahead of the competition in the race to sign Burnley's central defender Michael Keane

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Crystal Palace v Burnley - Premier League
Just Keane, thanks
Photo by Steve Bardens/Getty Images

Ajax's boss, who is apparently Peter Bosz, has dismissed Jose Mourinho's worries about the fixture demands placed upon him. Mourinho should have built a bigger squad, especially with the chance to stock up on one or two players in the winter, but fixtures are no longer concerned. There are no more meaningful games until the Europa League final, so there should be no further problems.

In the Telegraph is a story saying that Paul Pogba is expected to miss the next two league games, as he deals with the death of his father, which is completely understandable.

A double piece of good news for United. One, Chris Smalling is growing disillusioned with life at United, which he should be, because he is held in contempt by his manager and the fans. Bye, Chris, thanks for never learning anything. And secondly, he should be replaced by Michael Keane, who is at Burnley. United have a sell-on clause to provide them with a discount, and he presumably would like a return to his boyhood club. It's not clear how much rests on Champions League football, with the World Cup looming.

Manchester United are paying a £18.3m dividend to themselves this year. Thank God for all their hard work, or who knows where we would be without them - better off, probably. Still, they'll have to leave eventually, and they will probably sell to somebody even worse.

Manchester United have a big ground. Other people now have big grounds. They should have an even bigger ground. Seeing as ticket revenue is dwarfed by television revenues, it hardly seems worth it in terms of return on investment, which is all the Glazers will care about, but there's presumably little harm in giving more people the chance to get tickets when demand continues to sustain sales.