Transfer Special : Manchester City complete Otamendi signing.

Nicolas Otamendi, a long term target for both the Manchester sides, United and City is finally said to have a deal agreed with Manchester City. The Argentine international will flew out to England and was officially announced as the club player on Thursday.

City have signed Otamendi for a reported fee of 28.5 Million Pounds. Otamendi would be an ideal signing for the Eastlands club as they are looking to take their defence to a whole new level. Mangala, who was roped in by City from Porto last summer for a hefty fee of 40 Million Pounds, was expected to go out.

Thomas Muller wants Manchester United move?

German World Cup winner and Bayern Munich star Thomas Müller is reported to be interested to follow his German and former Bayern compatriot Bastian Schweinsteiger to the English giants.

The Manchester United manager, Louis van Gaal has kept no secret in trying to bring another of his former employees to Old Trafford. However, according to John Richardson of the Express, the German international has “confided in friends that he is interested in a move to United alongside Schweinsteiger, who has been delighted with his Old Trafford welcome.”

If Muller is to come at United, he is expected to demand a very high wage rate though Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said the Bavarian side would be “out of our minds” to sell the 25-year-old. Whether Bayern are ready to lose two key players to United in one summer is a new topic up for debate, but talks are said to be ongoing between the two sides.

United have shown their urge to bring in a new striker and a few names have been on their wish list, Muller was certainly among them. Van Gaal is a big fan of the German stalwart and luring him to Old Trafford would be one of the biggest moves of this summer’s transfer window. Also the number 9 kit is vacant in the Red Devils dressing table and they are yet to disclose their ‘secret signing’. With this news of Muller wishing a move away from Bavaria, some fans have started to believe that Thomas Muller could be the one to solve their striking woes.

Muller has played under van Gaal during his reign at the Munich club, rather it was at this time when he had flourished himself as one of the best players at the Allianz arena, after disappointing loan switches to other names in the German Bundesliga. So if he really makes this move to England, there should not be any problem in settling down as he knows the tactics and the gameplay preferred by the Dutch boss. He could use some help from Bastian Schweinsteiger to get himself comfortable among the Red Devils.

Louis van Gaal with Muller and Schweinsteiger at Bayern Munich.

In my opinion, it would be a big mistake made by Pep Guardiola to let go two of his finest and most experienced players leave for the same club, in the same window.

Can Falcao revive his career at Chelsea?

The most awaited Premier League 2015/16 season has begun, and it will be the defending champions Chelsea who would be grabbing the attention from all the fans as they look to be the first team to lift the Premier League crown twice in row, since Manchester United’s hat trick  between 2007-09. The focus was on the new recruits brought in by all the teams this summer to strengthen their squads for a better season, and surprisingly the Londoners have added only one big name to their squad – Radamel Falcao. The Colombian stalwart played for Manchester United last year but it was a very dull season for him, as he could find the net only 4 times throughout the season.

Rival teams and possible title challengers Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City have all got at least a big name signed, who have had a good season last season around. Petr Cech moved to Arsenal after winning the league with Chelsea, United signed 4 big names – Darmian, Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger and Depay, City got Raheem Sterling and are on the verge of wrapping up Kevin De Bruyne anytime soon and finally, Liverpool roped in Christian Benteke, James Milner and Roberto Firmino.

Questions were raised on Jose Mourinho’s plans when the club announced to have signed Falcao on a season long loan from Monaco. Falcao had a far from average Copa America earlier this year, thus his move to the newly crowned champions was a surprise to everyone. It was considered as a risk by some of the fans and his ability to cope up with English football was again a talking point.

Having played with the Red Devils for a year, Falcao had lost the spark for which he is known for. Considered as one of the best strikers in the world at a time, he could not even become the best among the United players. The reason behind his failure has had a lot of opinions from the people lately. While some say that he should have been given more game time and picked up over Robin Van Persie more often, others say that Van Gaal’s style was not suitable to him. The Dutch boss preferred to play with a two strikers up front, but Falcao had always played as a lone forward which was a major change to his role on field.

At Chelsea, Mourinho prefers to let his strikers play with some wide open spaces and wingers who’ll support him from the flanks. With both Falcao and Mourinho having similarities in this case, there’s a good chance that the ‘El Tigre’ would be able to revive his goal scoring form. Though for getting back to be known as one of the best finishers, he needs to be picked up more often over Diego Costa and should be given some time to settle himself in, else nothing would go in the right direction for him and would yet again be deemed as a flop.