‘SEMI-RETIRED’ LIGUE 1 STAR ‘WOULD GO’ TO MAN UTD OR NEWCASTLE THIS SUMMER ON ONE CONDITION

Paris Saint-Germain forward Neymar would be open to a move to Man Utd or Newcastle if either club were prepared to “accommodate his wage demands”, according to Ligue 1 expert Jonathan Johnson.

Man Utd are in the market for at least one new forward this summer with Tottenham’s Harry Kane and young strikers Randal Kolo Muani and Rasmus Hojlund on their radar.

Despite having his injury problems this season, Neymar still managed to produce 34 goal contributions in 32 matches in all competitions for PSG.

And there have been reports in France that Man Utd and Newcastle are interested in bringing the Brazilian to the Premier League with L’Equipe claiming a couple of weeks ago that the Red Devils were in ‘advanced talks’.

But Johnson thinks it is unlikely that Neymar will end up in the Premier League unless Man Utd or Newcastle were prepared to break the bank.

Johnson wrote in his Caught Offside column: “If the offer was serious from Saudi Arabia for Neymar and the desire to bring him in was there, then it’s potentially a real possibility. I just find it difficult to imagine any club being willing to spend a lot of money on him while he’s coming back from surgery. It’s almost a non starter.

“A lot of the chatter at the moment linking Manchester United is because intermediaries have been told to sound out potential landing spots for him. Obviously, he would go to the likes of Manchester United, Newcastle United or some of the big names where there is the kind of money available to potentially accommodate his wage demands.

“The difficulty is that PSG will have to compromise and probably accept that there’s unlikely to be an immediate fee in it for them. For Neymar, he might have to accept he has to leave Paris to get back to playing football regularly, and he might have to make a move away from the Champions League.

“If some of these big name players are going to Saudi Arabia and there’s suddenly a massive influx of talent, then perhaps being part of that wave of talent might appeal. If you’ve got the likes of Messi and Benzema, potentially going to Saudi Arabia then that would be in line with the Saudi league plan to raise the profile of the competition.

“To be honest, I find any club any Premier League club taking a real interest in Neymar is difficult to imagine because of how fragile he is and how often he gets injured.

“Injuries have been a big problem over the last couple of years, and there is very little probability that he will go through another season without any major injuries. Then there’s his behaviour away from the pitch. I think that will be a massive put off for a number of these Premier League clubs.

“Given the financial cost it would take to bring him in, and the question marks over both his physical state, his mentality and motivation at this stage of his career, it’s a huge risk. I don’t think that there are that many clubs willing to just spend money without asking the questions and doing the due diligence.

“Clubs are more switched on transfer wise these days, and we won’t see as many clubs in the future spending silly amounts of money on a player who let’s face it, at this moment in time, based on what we’ve seen from him on the pitch over the last couple of years, is past his best. And just look at his social media.

“I think the last football related update came a couple of months ago. He’s now apparently, planning some boat cruise around Christmas time that’s going to be another one of his massive parties.

“It seems like he’s almost semi-retired from from top level football based on a lot of the stuff that we sort of see from him at the moment. It’s quite shocking, but equally I think it probably reflects on the pressure of expectation on him that was built up in the early years of his career and how that’s taken a toll on him both personally and professionally.”

2023-06-02T09:37:13Z dg43tfdfdgfd