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Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Costa 'has dinner with Super Agent', Man Utd 'launch £50m Marquinhos bid', Mbappe 'will sign for Arsenal'

As a nation, Great Britain has come to rely upon the Sun newspaper for informing us about the most important events taking place in the country, and its latest “exclusive” revelation is that Diego Costa has gone out for dinner.

In a powerful example of the hard-hitting investigative journalism for which the publication has become famous, the Sun backs up its sensational claim with bona-fide photographic evidence of the Chelsea striker in a restaurant. Namely, the Italian eatery Signor Sassi in Knightsbridge, where he is joined by “Super Agent” Jorge Mendes and “a group of suited men”.


A “fellow diner” revealed to the tabloid, “I would say there were about 10 people at the table, four Asian men on one side and then Jorge Mendes on the other with his people and then Diego at the end… They were eating lobster pasta. We left the restaurant around 10 pm and they were still there enjoying their dinner.”

Interesting. But what does it mean? Well, the Sun suggests it could be because Costa is about to move to China, but is also concedes that “the purpose of the dinner is not known”.

Might its purpose have been that Diego, Jorge Mendes and the men in suits could eat some food?

Not necessarily, because in all three of the exclusive photos obtained by the Sun, Costa is not eating any food, or in fact talking to any of his companions. He’s just on the phone, apparently disinterested in what is being discussed (and eaten) at the table, almost as if he went to dinner on his own and a bunch of strangers gatecrashed his meal.

The Sun concludes, “Both Chelsea and Jorge Mendes were invited to comment but declined.” So, unless they left a review on Trip Advisor, we’ll never know if that lobster pasta was any good.

Meanwhile, the Mirror reveals that Manchester United are “confident” of landing Paris Saint-Germain defender Marquinhos. Red Devils boss Jose Mourinho is reportedly set to make a £50m move for the Brazilian because he “has doubts over Phil Jones and Chris Smalling”. We do too, Jose. We do too.

The Express adds – using the headline “Man United uncovered” – that the Red Devils have also set their sights on Antoine Griezmann and Romelu Lukaku to boost their attack in the summer. Maybe someone should point out to the Express that everyone already knew that.

West Ham have taken a tough stance over Michail Antonio’s alleged to desire to quit the club. The Mirror says the Hammers have “warned” the winger that if he keeps acting up, they will offer to double his wages, which sounds like the kind of warning we’d all like to get.

Elsewhere, Chelsea have submitted a new bid “in excess of £36m” for Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly (Mirror), Virgil van Dijk’s desire to work with Pep Guardiola could give Manchester City the edge in the race to sign the Southampton defender (Manchester Evening News) and former Arsenal winger Robert Pires has predicted that Monaco starlet Kylian Mbappe will sign for the Gunners (Bwin). And he’s French, so it must be true.

@darlingkevin