Vinicius Junior has informed Real Madrid president Florentino Perez that he is not of a mind to extend his Real Madrid contract beyond 2027 owing to his fraught relationship with manager Xabi Alonso.<\/p>\n
After shaking his head in disgust and muttering \u201calways me, I\u2019m leaving the team\u201d<\/a><\/strong> after being substituted in the 72nd minute of El Clasico last month, his exit may in fact come sooner than that, with The Athletic revealing<\/a><\/strong> that tensions between Vinicius and Alonso \u2018have only grown\u2019 as the season\u2019s gone on \u2013 \u2018it is a topic of daily debate inside and outside the club.\u2019<\/p>\n The question Vinicius and his representatives must now be asking is which clubs in world football could offer the \u00a3150m likely required to sign him, at least match his \u00a3350,000-per-week wages and be comfortable with the reality of him having to be\u00a0The Man at their club for fear of him throwing a hissy fit if that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n The smart money would be on the mad money coming from Saudi Arabia, but what about his Premier League options? We\u2019ve ranked the Big Six on their chance of signing him.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 6) Tottenham<\/strong><\/p>\n Oh to be a fly on the dressing room wall as Thomas Frank explains to Vinicius the importance of timing his runs to get on the end of long ball flick-ons that Richarlison never wins.<\/p>\n \u201cCan\u2019t we play through the lines, gaffer?\u201d Vinicius says, to suppressed chuckles from the Spurs masses.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, but look at our stadium,\u201d Frank replies.<\/p>\n READ MORE: 16 Conclusions on Arsenal 4-1 Tottenham: Eze, Rice, Frank and the Premier League title<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 5) Chelsea<\/strong><\/p>\n A Brazilian front three at Stamford Bridge would be fun, but\u00a0spending big on ready-made stars isn\u2019t part of a Chelsea plan based largely upon resale value and the key difference between Vinicius, Joao Pedro and Estevao is the Blues pair\u2019s outstanding work off the ball as well as on it.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also a very good and highly amusing possibility that the Blues hierarchy may deem Vinicius a bit too old for them. At 25 he would be the fifth-oldest player in the squad.<\/p>\n Would be well worth it purely to see Vinicius\u2019 reaction to teammate and compatriot Estevao winning the Ballon d\u2019Or ahead of him<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n MAILBOX: Estevao touted as new Neymar as Maresca hailed for keeping him on a leash<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 4) Manchester City<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cVinicius is\u2026 wow,\u201d was a Pep Guardiola press conference snippet that\u2019s predictably been cited as evidence of the Manchester City manager\u2019s interest in signing the Brazilian by some outlets.<\/p>\n But it was midway through an answer on the excellence of Jeremy Doku and how \u201cincredible\u201d Liverpool right-back Conor Bradley endured a nightmare against him in the recent 3-0 City win over the Reds<\/a><\/strong> having coped very comfortably indeed with the problems posed by Vinicius a few days.<\/p>\n Guardiola did say in that same press conference that Doku \u201cwill never be a top, top scorer\u201d and City could really do with some goals from their forwards beyond Erling Haaland\u2019s contribution that Vinicius would provide. It could happen under Guardiola, but strikes us as a far more post-Pep panic move from a state-owned football club looking to sell shirts as they suffer a legacy boss comedown.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 3) Liverpool<\/strong><\/p>\n It would\u00a0very\u00a0New Liverpool for Richard Hughes and Michael Edwards to look at their alarming issues in defence, their stunning dip in midfield dynamism and the general lack of cohesion in a squad on the back of signing \u00a3420m-worth of big-name talent and think the best fix to be signing a famously stroppy, high-maintenance winger to play on the left over someone to play on the opposite side\u00a0to replace their in-situ stroppy, high-maintenance winger.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 2) Manchester United<\/strong><\/p>\n Any teenager would think it mad that Vinicius Junior would even consider a move to Manchester United. Most of them won\u2019t remember the last time they won the Premier League title in 2012 and will be relying on tales of their exasperating greatness from parents, grandparents or millennial friends and family in order to fathom why members of an Amazonic tribe are still wearing Nike AIG Cristiano Ronaldo No. 7 shirts.<\/p>\n Vinicius would have just turned eight when Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez were leading the line for United in the 2008 Champions League final win over Chelsea. They weren\u2019t just one of the biggest teams in world football then, they were actually one of the best. Chances are they would have been somewhere near the top of a Vini Jr dream football club list.<\/p>\n Amid reports that a sponsor will \u2018cover the cost\u2019 of his transfer for Manchester United the immediate thought is that INEOS are doing things a bit differently to their predecessors. No whopping contracts for quick-fix superstars.\u00a0Not buying British but buying British based at least; achieving some success in doing so with Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo.<\/p>\n But we must never discount the nagging Manchester United need to occasionally prove to the world that they are indeed Manchester United and can still attract the very biggest names in football, even when they\u2019re not what they need in any way and are actually quite likely to undo the slight and evidently brittle improvements<\/a><\/strong> they\u2019ve made under Ruben Amorim.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 1) Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t reflect at all well on Vinicius that a team as impeccably well-drilled and brilliant as Arsenal has to be able to cope with having him in the team. While the quality he would provide in attack may not be enough to offset his lack of contribution in defence for others in the Premier League, Mikel Arteta\u2019s side may just be at a stage in his \u2018process\u2019 where they can afford a defensive passenger who can make such a difference in the final third. They\u2019re ready to \u2018break the bank\u2019 as \u2018favourites\u2019 to sign him<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Riccardo Calafiori has looked very comfortable on that left side of defence for Arsenal and Declan Rice can always shift across and defend when necessary as an all-round midfield master.<\/p>\n Leandro Trossard was given his dues in the form of people who haven\u2019t given him his dues saying others haven\u2019t given him his dues after his excellent performance against Tottenham, but let\u2019s be absolutely clear, Arsenal are still very much in the market for a new left winger.<\/p>\n And with eyes on the Champions League either on top of the Premier League in 2026 or after it in 2027, it would be useful to have a guy who\u2019s won it twice and scored in both of those finals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vinicius Junior has informed Real Madrid president Florentino Perez that he is not of a mind to extend…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":408245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[5407,461,18754,204,215,216,3782,50,106181,220,221,62,11131,67,132,68,41608],"class_list":{"0":"post-408244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-arsenal","9":"tag-chelsea","10":"tag-f365-features","11":"tag-front-page","12":"tag-liverpool","13":"tag-manchester-city","14":"tag-manchester-united","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-popular","17":"tag-premier-league","18":"tag-soccer","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-tottenham-hotspur","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-vinicius-junior"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115621512021817094","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}