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mirror.co.uk/sport TUESDAY 30.07.2019 DAILY MIRROR^49

PREMIER LEAGUE

Toshack: Gareth’s

silence an insult

three-year, £600,000-a-week deal at

the Bernabeu and suggested he should

forget about the money and find a club

that wants him. He also criticised his

fellow Welshman’s lack of Spanish.

“Terrible to have to take a pay cut to

£150,000 a week – how can they

manage with that?” said Toshack

(above). “It sickens and saddens me the

way this has gone. And nothing comes

out from Gareth. Nothing

“You’ve been there for six or seven

years now – you don’t speak the

language. That’s an insult to the people

you’re working for.”

Poch’s reprieve

for outcast Rose

BY LIAM PRENDERVILLE

DANNY ROSE has been recalled to the

Tottenham squad for the Audi Cup.

The left-back has missed Spurs’

pre-season to date after being told he

can find a new club this summer.

But he has failed to secure

a move and has been

reinstated by boss

Mauricio Pochettino.

Spurs had been

linked with Fulham’s

Ryan Sessegnon as a

potential replacement for

Rose (above) but the Cottagers are

confident of keeping hold of the

England Under-21s left-back.

Tottenham are set to face Real

Madrid in Munich tonight and will then

play either Bayern or Fenerbahce on

Wednesday.

Rose conceded after the Champions

League final that he may have to look

for another club this summer and was

subsequently left out of a tour of Asia.

PEPED-UP

GUNNERS

BY TONY BANKS

ARSENAL expect to compete the club-

record £72million signing of Lille star

Nicolas Pepe in the next 24 hours.

The Ivory Coast winger (above) is

due to fly into London for his medical

today, and will sign a five-year deal

worth £138,000 a week.

Arsenal are also expected to make

a third bid for Kieran Tierney. Celtic

value the full-back at around £30m,

and Arsenal are expected to increase

their previous offer of around £25m.

Pepe, 24, scored 22 goals last

season and provided 11 assists as his

side finished runners-up to Paris

Saint-Germain. His wage demands

were also understood to be lower than

Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha, who

was Arsenal’s original top target.

Striker Alexandre Lacazette has a

sprained ankle but is expected to be

fit for the league opener at Newcastle.

WE’RE ON THE

VIRG

OF GREATNESS

Van Dijk insists Reds don’t need big-money transfers

because the current squad are capable of ANYTHING

VIRGIL VAN DIJK has calmed

fears over Liverpool’s refusal

to splash the transfer cash by

insisting the current squad

has barely scratched the

surface of what it can achieve.

The centre-half points out

there is a reason they are

European champions and that is

because they have proved their

quality and spirit beyond

question.

Yet even though they

reached successive

Champions League

finals, and last

season recorded

the third-highest

points total in

the history of

the English

fact. It was quite sloppy at times

against Napoli, but there’s no

concerns from my point of view.

“Our season starts properly

next Sunday, so our focus will

be on that. Obviously we

want to win games, and

the Manchester City

game is perfect for that.

“We know If we play

like against Napoli we won’t

win the Community

Shield, it’s as simple as

that. But we have a good

week to prepare ourselves

with a friendly as well,

which is good for the boys

who are coming back. We

will definitely be ready for

City.”

Salah, Roberto

Firmino, Alisson, Keita

and Xherdan Shaqiri will

return for a training camp in

Evian this week, where Liverpool

will work on fitness and tactical

and technical details.

That will be important in

defence in particular, with

frailties at the back against Napoli

resulting in a bust-up between

van Dijk and boss Jurgen Klopp

after the Italian’s first goal.

They had an angry exchange,

with the defender seemingly

upset he was being singled out for

criticism.

He would not reveal what was

said, but added: “Sometimes you

have to tell someone the truth,

that’s how it is.”

(below, middle) – and even

Fabinho (below, bottom) – still to

play a central role throughout a

full campaign, they can get even

better.

Liverpool lost 3-0 to

Napoli on Sunday in a

friendly and asked about

the supporters’ unease

over a lack of signings,

Van Dijk fired back:

“There’s plenty more to

come from the team.

“There’s a reason we’re

European champions.

We have to stay calm, we

want to win games, and

yeah OK, Napoli was just a

little bit better than us,

but even there we

showed promising

football as well.”

The Napoli defeat made

it four pre-season

games in a row without

a win, prompting an

outcry from some fans,

especially with

Manchester City

spending again.

Yet in Van Dijk, Liverpool

have the favourite to lift this

year’s Ballon d’Or, and in Mo

Salah a previous contender for it.

“First of all we have good

players,” he said of the team’s

capacity to challenge again this

season. “That is important.

“But everyone knows the

players who are missing are

important players for us. That’s a

top flight,

the Dutch-

man believes

there is far

more to come.

He points to

them being a young team who

only really came together in the

second half of last season.

And he is convinced that with

important players such as Naby

Keita (right, top) and Joe Gomez

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BY DAVID MADDOCK

@MaddockMirror

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