Anthony Martial: Man Utd set to sign Monaco forward for £36m

The striker, who has been linked with Arsenal, was allowed to leave the France squad on Monday for a medical with Louis van Gaal's side.

Should he sign, Martial, who scored eight goals in 31 Ligue 1 games last season. will become the costliest teenager in football history.

He will also become Manchester United's third most expensive signing.

The Red Devils paid £59.7m to Real Madrid for Argentina winger Angel Di Maria and £37.1m to Chelsea for Spain midfielder Juan Mata.

United have until 18:00 BST on Tuesday, when the transfer window shuts for Premier League clubs, to complete the deal.

A France Under-21 international who has just been called up to the senior national team for the first time.

The teenager scored 32 goals in just 21 games at youth level for Lyon before breaking into the first team in the 2012-13 season.

He made just three appearances before joining Monaco in the summer of 2013 for a reported £3.5m.

Martial scored two goals in 15 appearances in his first season at Monaco and 11 in 42 last season.

With nine goals, he is the top scorer among the under-20 players in Europe's top five leagues since last season.

In a July 2015 study by the Soccerex 20 Football Value Index  - which claimed Raheem Sterling was the most valuable young player in Europe - Martial was ranked the 17th most valuable under-21 player on the continent at £11.6m.

He's already caught the eye of France boss Didier Deschamps and clearly United think he's worth the money, but it's all about potential.

"He plays centrally, but often drifts into wide positions, more on the left than the right," said  Deschamps.

De Gea STAYS....

United had tried earlier in the summer to arrange a player-plus-cash exchange with Gareth Bale only to receive no encouragement from the Real president, Florentino Perez, and then switched their attention to Sergio Ramos, an episode that finished with the defender signing a new contract at the Bernabéu and being awarded the club captaincy.

Real’s delaying tactics caused intense irritation at Old Trafford and had looked like being successful, capitalising on the fact that United would otherwise have been left with an unhappy goalkeeper who would have been worth nothing to them next summer.

United, in turn, agreed to take on the 28-year-old Navas, even though there is a clear sense in Madrid that he is not ideally suited to English football. Navas joined Madrid in a £7m move from Levante last year and is regarded as a fine shot-stopper but vulnerable to crosses and, at 6ft, shorter than most of the goalkeepers in the Premier League. United’s thinking was swayed by Sergio Romero’s erratic form during the early weeks of the season but the proposed De Gea deal still represented a climbdown, having previously stated there was no way they would let Real dictate the process.

Januzaj’s move to Dortmund reflects how he has fallen out of favour at Old Trafford in the Van Gaal era and a chaotic day at Old Trafford also saw the back-up goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard follow the same route as Darren Fletcher and Jonny Evans to become the latest United player to join West Bromwich Albion.

NEGOTIATING WITH UNITED

David de Gea is the chosen one to be the next Real Madrid goalkeeper. The player earmarked by Vicente del Bosque for a "soft transition" to replace Casillas for Spain could also be Iker's successor at the Bernabéu.

'Los Blancos' and De Gea have agreed comprehensive terms, but the most difficult and tortuous part is yet to come - negotiations with Manchester United.

At the Real Madrid offices in Concha Espina, Florentino Pérez and those around him have been quite clear about the fact that signing a keeper for next season is a top priority. And they firmly believe that De Gea is going to be the Spanish no. 1 over the next ten years, and will take over from Casillas in due course.

The club rates this factor very highly, that whoever inherits the mantle from a legend such as Iker should also be a Spanish goalkeeper, someone who could follow in the veteran's distinguished footsteps for club and country. Once De Gea became aware that Real Madrid's interest was serious, the idea of renewing his contract with United, up in 2016, was dropped.

Since then, the shotstopper has rejected a string of big-money offers from the suits at Old Trafford, the last of which was worth €7.5 million a season after tax.

It is worth noting that De Gea's agent, Jorge Mendes, has a fantastic relationship both with Florentino Pérez and with the United owners. He was instrumental in the talks between Real Madrid and De Gea and now has a key role to play to broker a transfer. The Red Devils higher-ups do not want De Gea to go, but have had to face the fact that the Atlético academy graduate wants to leave. That doesn't mean they are going to make it easy, however… or cheap.

If it weren't for his contractual situation, De Gea, who turns 25 in November, would easily be worth €50m, as he is viewed as one of the top goalies in the world alongside Thibaut Courtois and Manuel Neuer. United forked out €20m to prise him from the Calderón in 2011 and his stock has only risen since then. Real Madrid are willing to pay a world-record fee for a goalkeeper to land their man, but they remain hopeful that they can secure his signature for no more than €30m.

'LOS BLANCOS' INTERESTED IN BAYER LEVERKUSEN KEEPER

Real have been keeping their beady eye on the Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper for some time now and it seems that he ticks all the right boxes in order to become the club's nº1 man between the sticks in the near future.

The Spanish club has spoken with Bayer Leverkusen to ask what the shot-stopper's contractual situation is and to see if they are open to negotiation. The German club answered positively as they are aware that every year they have to let at least one of their star players go in order to balance their books.

The suits at the Bernabéu are hotly debating whether they should go ahead and sign the goalkeeper even though they are not clear on what will be happening with Casillas yet. The club is of course going to bring in Augusto Batalla, but he is an investment for the future and to start off he will go to Castilla. The two men that are being considered to take over from Casillas in the first team are Leno and David de Gea.

Over the last few weeks, it seems that there has been a lot more going on regarding the signing of Leno, although the possibility of wooing De Gea away from Manchester United has not been shelved just yet. Bother keepers are brilliant at what they do. The problems arise when looking at the price tags. The Bayer man has a set maximum price of €18 million – his buy-out clause. The other one's situation is a little more complicated as his present team are direct rivals on the European stage. As things stand, the favourite is the German U21 star, but in the world of football, anything could happen.

Messi to Real Madrid....???

in the same team

The Italian manager talked about the possibility of having the Argentine in his team.

When asked whether Messi would have a place in the current Real Madrid side after his remarks on his future at Barcelona, Ancelotti replied: "Of course, all quality players would have a place in this team."