United consider new Eric Dier bid

Manchester United are leaning back in their reading chair, carefully removing their glasses, taking a long, slow pull on their pipe, and considering a new bid for Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Eric Dier. Having made little progress in their quest to extract Nemanja Matić from Chelsea, United have returned their attention to Dier, for whom they had a bid rejected earlier in the summer.

Any negotiations for Matić are likely to be further complicated by the fact that United appear to have stolen a march on the Blues for their primary transfer target.

Spurs’ chairman Daniel Levy is a notoriously tough negotiator, but Tottenham are still a selling club, and the latest reports suggest that a £50million bid should be enough to get the deal done. That is an outrageous amount of money for an above average player who can’t get in the team ahead of Victor Wanyama, but he would at least represent a younger and more mobile alternative to United’s current defensive midfield options.

Wayne Rooney’s exit is all but done. Rooney has agreed to the terms of his transfer to boyhood club Everton, and an announcement is expected in the coming days. United have agreed to waive a transfer fee, and Rooney has also allegedly lowered his wage demands in order to facilitate the move.

Ricky Sbragia has been named as United’s new U23 manager. Sbragia, who was previously at the club from 2002 to 2005, fills a role that had been temporarily filled by Academy head Nicky Butt