Atletico Madrid submit €25M transfer offer for Barcelona star, ace open to sealing summer switch

Atletico Madrid submit €25M transfer offer for Barcelona star, ace open to sealing summer switch

Posted by James
May 31-2019

Atletico Madrid are said to have put in a €25M transfer offer for Barcelona and Portugal defender Nelson Semedo, a player who’s had a mixed time with Barca thus far.

Semedo has been in and out of the Blaugrana’s starting XI following his move from Benfica in the summer of 2017, with manager Ernesto Valverde opting to start Sergi Roberto over the 25-year-old more often than not.

And it seems like Semedo could be about to call time on his stint at the Nou Camp if this report from Don Balon is anything to go off.

As per the report, Atletico have put in a €25M bid for Semedo, with the player himself open to sealing a move to the Wanda Metropolitano.

Atleti could definitely do with boosting their options at right-back, especially given the fact that Juanfran is now 34 and fast approaching the end of his career.

Atletico have made their move for Barcelona and Portugal star Semedo

Semedo has been decent for Barca since his arrival just under two years ago, with the Portuguese international clocking up a total of 82 appearances for the club in that time frame.

Despite this, Semedo has often found himself starting games from the sidelines due to Valverde’s want to play Roberto over him, and should the 25-year-old have had enough of this, we wouldn’t be surprised to see him leave the Nou Camp this summer and move to Los Rojiblancos.

Mikel obi to leave Middlesbrough's

Mikel departure

James

08:16 31/05/2019

TRANSFERS CHAMPIONSHIP MIDDLESBROUGH AFRICAN ALL STARS

The Nigeria international has not been offered a new deal following the expiry of his contract with the Smoggies

Championship side Middlesbrough have confirmed the departure of John Obi Mikel from the Riverside Stadium.

The Super Eagles captain signed a short-term deal with the Smoggies in January after leaving Chinese Super League side Tianjin Teda.

The 32-year-old impressed during his short stay with the side and made 18 appearances, helping Boro to keep seven clean sheets, and scoring one

Despite the effort of the former Chelsea player, the Smoggies missed out on a place in the play-off by a point after finishing seventh on the table.

Mikel has not been offered a new deal following the expiry of his contract along with three other players.

“Stewart Downing, Dimi Konstantopoulos, Andy Lonergan and John Obi Mikel are set to become free agents this summer," read a statement from the club website.

“The quartet are all out of contract and have not been offered new deals to stay on.

“Mikel and Lonergan joined on short-term deals last season, but Downing and Konstantopoulos are both long-serving players.”

Mikel has been included in Gernot Rohr’s 25-man provisional squad to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, which kicks off on June 21.

Three-time African champions, Nigeria have been drawn in Group B along with Burundi, Guinea and Madagascar.

Lyon president Aulas thanks Chelsea for beating Arsenal

Lyon president Aulas thanks Chelsea for beating Arsenal

By  James  May 31, 2019

After Victory in Baku (woo!), Chelsea are now 2-for-2 in Europa League trophies. Of course, ideally, we would never have to care about the Europa League, and just constantly live our best Champions League lives, but if we’re saddled with the secondary competition, we might as well win it. Getting Sarri his first major trophy and beating Arsenal on the way made it extra glorious, keeping the Gunners out of the Champions League altogether as a result made it extra amusing.

We’re not the only ones celebrating this triumph however, as it turns out. Over in France, fans of Olympique Lyonnais were celebrating just as wholeheartedly, including club president Jean-Michael Aulas, who went on Twitter afterwards to thank the Blues.

Jean-Michel AULAS

✔@JM_Aulas

@OL @lequipe @Le_Progres @WYN_Chelsea_ Bravo à Chelsea pour cette belle victoire en EUROPA League merci à N’Golo et Olivier qui nous ont donné le bonheur de participer à la phase de groupe de C League . Bravo et Merci à Bruno pour cette formidable performance 3/4 CL#génésio

10:33 PM - May 29, 2019

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Bravo to Chelsea for this beautiful victory in the Europa League, [and] thanks to N’Golo [Kanté] and Olivier [Giroud] who gave us the happiness to participate in the group phase of the Champions League. Bravo and thanks to Bruno for this tremendous performance.

Lyon, under since-sacked coach Bruno Génésio, finished third in the league behind PSG and Lille, which meant that they would’ve had to participate in the qualifying round of the Champions League in the summer. But with Chelsea already qualified for the groups through our third place Premier League finish, OL get bumped up one spot and are thus into the group stages directly as well, taking the spot that was being held for Arsenal as winners of Europa. Except they didn’t win, so it’s not being held anymore. HA-HA!

Also benefitting from Chelsea’s victory are the runners-up from Turkey (Demba Ba’s İstanbul Başakşehir) and Austria (Linz ASK), both of whom get bumped up to the third qualifying round instead of the second, saving them from having to play two extra games this July.