The Daily Telegraph - 24.07.2019

By James Ducker

Inter Milan have been warned they

are running out of time to secure a

deal for Manchester United striker

Romelu Lukaku.

United rejected a £54 million bid

from Inter for Lukaku last week,

but with manager Ole Gunnar Sol-

skjaer indicating he would want a

replacement if the Belgian de-

parted, the club do not want to be

left without time to recruit one.

With the Premier League trans-

fer window closing a fortnight

tomorrow, the clock is ticking for

Inter to put together a package

that might tempt United to sell

Lukaku, whom they value at up to

£90 million.

As reported by The Daily Tele-

graph more than a month ago, In-

ter’s hopes hinge on offloading

Argentina forward Mauro Icardi,

whom they are struggling to sell de-

spite interest from Juventus.

United have announced that

Nicky Butt has vacated his role as

head of the club’s academy to take

up a new position as head of first-

team development that will mean

the former England midfielder re-

porting directly to Solskjaer.

Butt will help smooth the transi-

tion to the first team for youngsters

considered ready to make the jump,

as the likes of Mason Greenwood,

Tahith Chong, Angel Gomes and

James Garner are now doing.

It will be a hands-on coaching

and mentoring role that United

hope will strengthen the club’s

long-standing success in blooding

youth-team players into the first XI.

Nick Cox, formerly academy^

operations manager, will take over

from Butt as head of the academy.

United’s search for a technical

director began once Jose Mourinho

was sacked in December and the

club had planned to fill that role af-

ter the end of the season. However,

with work on transfers already well

under way, the club are prepared to

bide their time. An appointment is

expected this year.

Inter warned

to act soon

to tempt

United

into deal for

Lukaku

Guardiola

hits back at

China claims

of ‘arrogance’

By James Ducker

Pep Guardiola has hit back at claims

that Manchester City have adopted

a “disrespectful” and “arrogant”

approach to their troubled pre-

season tour of China.

Chinese state media launched a

withering attack on City over their

trip to Shanghai and Nanjing for the

Asia Trophy and accused the Pre-

mier League champions of visiting

the country only for the money.

The government-owned Xinhua

Agency criticised Guardiola’s atti-

tude on the tour and claimed City’s

“lack of enthusiasm and the indif-

ferent treatment of their hosts” was

in stark contrast to the behaviour of

Wolverhampton Wanderers, New-

castle United and West Ham United,

who have also been competing in

the Asia Trophy.

The article accused City of being

in China only to “win wallets, not

hearts and minds” and comes as an

embarrassment to the club, who

have strong links with the country.

In 2015, City’s Abu Dhabi owners

sold a 13 per cent stake in the City

Football Group to China Media

Capital and, five months ago, they

added a Chinese third-tier team,

Sichuan Jiuniu, to their global net-

work of clubs. City played games

against West Ham in Nanjing last

Wednesday and Wolves in Shang-

hai three days later and are now in

Hong Kong before their tour of Asia

concludes in Tokyo.

But Guardiola insisted the allega-

tions were “far away from the real-

ity”.

The City manager added: “I

should say I don’t agree and also

that it’s false. We had an incredible

time in Shanghai. We were commit-

ted to the cooperation you have to

do in China. The people from the

hotel, all the people asking us to do

things – we were ready to do that.

“To come to Asia and experience

the culture ... It’s amazing to get to

know other people. That’s why I

can’t understand what people are

saying – maybe one journalist is a

bit upset, I don’t know why – but it’s

far away from the reality.”

City’s trip to China ran into prob-

lems before they had even arrived

after their flight from Manchester

was twice prevented from taking off

in the space of 24 hours following

an administrative error by travel

company Thomas Cook Sport.

“So we came here 23 hours late,

we travel two hours by train to play

in Nanjing then back to Shanghai,

now here [in Hong Kong], and al-

ways with the biggest smile,” Guar-

diola said. “We don’t sleep too well,

but even so we make good training

sessions for all the guys.”

On the defensive:

Pep Guardiola

insists City were

fully committed to

their China tour

ble disappointment, vows Alli

The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 24 July 2019 *** 9

РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS