{"id":11427,"date":"2026-05-21T08:38:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=11427"},"modified":"2026-05-21T08:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:38:17","slug":"xabi-alonso-eyes-leverkusen-reunion-at-chelsea-man-utd-chase-assist-king-jules-ryerson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=11427","title":{"rendered":"Xabi Alonso eyes Leverkusen reunion at Chelsea; Man Utd chase assist-king Jules Ryerson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-blocks\">\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\"><b>Thursday&#8217;s transfer rumours feature a new runner in the race for Mohamed Salah, and Xabi Alonso&#8217;s desire for a reunion with Edmond Tapsoba.<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\"><b>Mohamed Salah<\/b> is not leaving Liverpool quietly, with a thinly veiled dig at <b>Arne Slot<\/b> part of what has become a long goodbye at Anfield. Salah is still deliberating over his future after an agreement was reached to rip up his deal at Liverpool.<\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">Saudi sides remain the frontrunners, but a new name has entered the race. Caught Offside claim Fenerbahce are pushing to sign Salah, as the Istanbul outfit seek a statement signing. &#8216;Positive&#8217; talks have been held.<\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\"><b>Xabi Alonso<\/b> will officially begin work as Chelsea manager in July, but the club&#8217;s recruitment team will be busy behind the scenes.<\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">According to TEAMtalk, Alonso is encouraging a raid on former club Bayer Leverkusen for centre-back <b>Edmond Tapsoba.<\/b> The Burkina Faso international has only recently signed a new deal at Leverkusen, though it does contain an \u00a382m release clause. Chelsea will hope to lower Leverkusen&#8217;s demands on that.<\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">Over at Manchester City, <b>Pep Guardiola&#8217;s<\/b> expected exit could lead to a major shake-up. Real Madrid are ready to capitalise on a transitional time for the Cityzens by firming up interest in <b>Rodri.<\/b> <b>Jose Mourinho<\/b> has put the Spain star at the top of his summer shortlist, say Marca.<\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">Another potential Manchester to Madrid mover is <b>Bernardo Silva<\/b>. Sky Sports say Atletico Madrid have thrown their name into the hat for Silva, who is leaving Manchester City as a free agent. Atleti are also keen to lure <b>Marc Cucurella <\/b>from Chelsea, but might find that deal more difficult.<\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\"><b>Jules Ryerson&#8217;s<\/b> outrageous assist record has piqued the interest of the Premier League. Sky Sports Germany are reporting that Manchester United want to sign the 28-year-old, who recorded 15 assists in 31 league appearances &#8211; from right-back.<\/div>\n<p>That&#8217;s a whole (checks numbers) dozen more than <b>Noussair Mazraoui<\/b> and <b>Diogo Dalot<\/b> registered combined&#8230;<\/p>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">Finally, a number of Premier League teams are ready to offer relegated Burnley defender <b>Maxime Esteve<\/b> a top-flight lifeline. L&#8217;Equipe claim that Bournemouth, Everton and Nottingham Forest are all open to a deal, but face competition from Leverkusen.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thursday&#8217;s transfer rumours feature a new runner in the race for Mohamed Salah, and Xabi&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}