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Manchester United are open to offers for Chris Smalling

Rooney is off. Varela’s loan won’t be made permanent. United players are talking up Griezmann’s move.

Ajax v Manchester United - UEFA Europa League Final Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images

The biggest United-related transfer story of the day concerns Wayne Rooney, who all but admitted that he is likely to leave the club this summer in search of regular football. We covered that story here. Rooney says that he has “lots of offers on the table, both in England and abroad,” but makes it clear that he doesn’t plan to play for a third Premier League club. So it’s either Everton, MLS, or the head-spinning riches of the Chinese Super League.

United are open to offers for Chris Smalling, according to reports. These stories emerged before Smalling’s excellent performance in the Europa League final, but if Mourinho has decided that he would rather persist with Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo (in addition to at least one new center back), it would be hard to argue. Smalling has been largely unreliable during his time at the club, and one good showing against an over-matched team of kids should do nothing to change that.

Reports in Portugal say that United are keeping an eye on Benfica goalkeeper Ederson in the event that they need to replace David de Gea this summer. How about we just give De Gea a new contract instead, and stop “monitoring” and “keeping an eye on” all these lesser players.

Guillermo Varela’s loan to Eintracht Frankfurt will not be made permanent, because Guillermo Varela has done an exceptionally stupid thing. Days before the DFB Pokal final, Varela got a tattoo against the wishes of the club. Varela then developed an inflammation, and as a result has been ruled out of the final. Frankfurt quickly washed their hands of the player, and we can only hope that United can find another club interested in his services.

After Antoine Griezmann admitted that there was a 6 out of 10 chance that he join Manchester United this summer, Juan Mata and Ander Herrera have been talking up his qualities to Cadena Ser. Griezmann’s good friend Paul Pogba also may have dropped a cheeky hint on social media.

In non-transfer news, United and City donated combined £1 million to a fund for victims of the Manchester bomb attack, via the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund.