Wenger turned down England job offer

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Sam Allardyce may be about to officially named as England’s new manager, but only after Arsene Wenger turned it down. That’s according to a report in the Daily Telegraph, which claims that Allardyce was only the Football Association’s second choice, with Wenger offered the job beforehand.

‘Wenger was the first man approached by the FA with promise that the England job was his if he wanted it, but the Frenchman was not prepared to break the final year of his Arsenal contract,’ the story by Matt Law reads.

‘It is unclear whether or not the FA were prepared to wait 12 months for Wenger, but the 66-year-old’s reluctance to commit forced Ashworth, Glenn and Gill to look elsewhere and interview Allardyce, Steve Bruce and other candidates.’

With Wenger ruling himself out of the running prior to the interview stage, that left Allardyce as the clear favourite. The Sunderland manager interviewed last week, with Steve Bruce also seen on Monday.

After that, the Football Association made their decision over which of the two was the tallest dwarf, with Allardyce winning out.

ENGLAND

• Pep Guardiola wants to sign Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos who he managed at Bayern Munich, and has tabled a 50 million pounds bid.
• Liverpool have agreed a 25 million pounds fee for Newcastle midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum.
• Joe Allen close to Liverpool exit after Stoke City opened talks over 13 million pounds   deal for Wales star.
• Arsenal have entered the race to sign fellow Newcastle midfielder Moussa Sissoko.
• Swansea have offered in excess of 10 million pounds for Tottenham midfielder Nacer Chadli.
• Chelsea boss Antonio Conte is prepared to go in with a third offer for Real Madrid’s Alvaro Morata.

SPAIN

• Rubin Kazan have reached a provisional agreement to sign Alex Song from Barcelona, the Russian club have announced.
• Spanish newspaper Marca are claiming that Raphael Varane has rejected a move to Manchester United.

ITALY

• Marko Pjaca has arrived in Turin for a medical ahead of his move from Dinamo Zagreb to Juventus.
• Mauro Icardi has moved to bring an end to speculation linking him with a move away from Inter Milan this summer by saying he is happy with the Nerazzurri.
• Manchester United are the latest club to express interest in Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci, with club sources saying  the 29-year-old’s name was brought up in negotiations over Paul Pogba.
• .Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has revealed that he rejected a bid of 60 million Euros plus two or three players from Atletico Madrid for striker Gonzalo Higuain.
• Sampdoria sporting director Carlo Osti has confirmed that Antonio Cassano is going to remain with the Genovese club this season.

GERMANY

• Manchester City are close to completing the 42 million pounds  signing of Schalke forward Leroy Sane  who will sign a four-year 100,000 pounds -a-week deal.

Sources: DailyMail, BBC, SkySports, soccernet.com, football365.com