Which side of Manchester for Gianluigi Donnarumma?

The UEFA Super Cup is tomorrow, and Gianluigi Donnarumma won’t be playing in it. Just a few months after he was the hero of Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League campaign, the club has chosen not to register him for the game. The Italian goalkeeper has 1 year left on his contract, and with the two sides nowhere close on contract terms, it appears he’s very much for sale this window. Rumored fees have been in the €25-30m range.

You will be unsurprised to hear that Manchester United is interested, as they’ve been regularly linked to Donnarumma for a while now, and Andre Onana has caught a ton of criticism for his recent performances. Quite a bit more surprising is that Manchester City is interested, with Ederson having been regularly linked to a move to either Turkey or Saudi Arabia.

I had the thought that neither United or City should be spending a lot of money on an old player, but Donnarumma is, astonishingly, still just 26 years old. It just feels like he’s been around forever because, well… he has. He was first choice for AC Milan when he was 16 years old. But he’s entering what should be a normal goalkeeper’s prime, and if he was handed a 5-year contract, should theoretically not be in a decline phase yet by the end of it if he follows a normal goalkeeper aging curve.

If you’re wondering why PSG want to move on from Donnarumma after he was so incredible in Champions League, it’s because he was pretty bad over the larger sample of games in Ligue 1. He was a below league average shot-stopper, with a couple of genuine howlers contributing to this — he even let in a 0.01 psxG shot 🙈 

But the previous season, he was the best shot stopper in Ligue 1, while still being slightly above average in Champions League.

So I’m not buying any argument about him being secretly sneaky bad, or declining sharply. He’s a good goalkeeper. I think it’s smart to buy low off of a weird down year. He’d probably be better than Onana for United. He can’t replace Ederson’s play with the ball at his feet for City, but who can?

From City’s perspective, these moves make sense if they can come out ahead financially. Ederson vs. Donnarumma is probably a push production-wise, so if they can get a big fee for Ederson, it’s a sensible move. Man United are obviously not going to get more for Onana than they’d pay for Donnarumma, but the upgrade in quality is probably worth the difference.

The Premier League kicks off this week, and we’ve got a season preview looking at all 20 teams in detail. It has contributions from Ted and I, plus a slew of other brilliant people. We wanted to be able to pay those other people fairly, so it’s £10, and you can get it here. Click the far right option on PC/bottom option on mobile, and make sure the button at the bottom says £10. This sub will get you access to the whole thing: All 30,000+ words, with stats and data viz you won’t get anywhere else.

Once you’ve bought it, all of the previews live here. Links to each team’s preview are in the predicted table. You’ll need to be signed into the website with the email address you subscribed with to access them.

More transfer rumours

• Alexander Isak really does not want to play for Newcastle again. Liverpool have had a £110m bid rejected, and are apparently leaking they’re willing to pay £120m. He’s not showing up for work on Tyneside until Liverpool tells him they’re not interested anymore. I imagine this goes down to the deadline, and I have no idea which way it turns.

• In other Newcastle news, they’re interested in Jacob Ramsey, which is a bit confusing to me. He’d be quite expensive for an Anthony Gordon backup, and he hasn’t played anything but left wing recently.

• A day after we learn Tottenham are in for Savinho, more reporting comes out that they’re very interested in Eberechi Eze. Sensing that Arsenal are dragging their feet and unwilling to meet Palace’s demands, Eze is now willing to go to Spurs. My position on this is the same as earlier in the summer: Good player, but Spurs should not pay £50m+ for 27-year-olds.

• After he scored 10 La Liga goals on loan last year, Wolves think they can cash in big on Fabio Silva. Roma, Leipzig and Dortmund are all interested, with Wolves holding out for £30m+. I can’t imagine they get it.

• Brentford are looking to rebuild their attack with Arnaud Kalimuendo and Dango Ouattara. I wasn’t high on Kalimuendo earlier in the window, but Brentford have earned the benefit of the doubt that they might see something I haven’t. I really like Ouattara, though. I don’t like what’s happening to Bournemouth.

• AC Milan have replaced Malick Thiaw with Koni De Winter at half the price. W.

• In other Milan W news, they might get €30m+ from Nottingham Forest for Yunus Musah. I do not think he’s a very good player and I would criticize Forest for signing him on a free.

• Rodrigo Muniz wants to move to Atalanta, but Fulham have already rejected a bid of about £35m. I guess it’s just negotiation tactics because they think Atalanta will come in with an improved bid, but I’d be happy to get that much for him.

• Dominic Calvert-Lewin has sacked his agent after failing to get a contract before the Premier League season starts. Still not sure why he didn’t just re-sign with Everton.

• Sorry it’s mostly Negative Nancy stuff today, but I’m not sure why I’m seeing stuff like “Southampton want £30m for Mateus Fernandez” and “Atlético Madrid are interested.” Anyone want to tell me what this guy does?

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