Real Madrid are set to offer Newcastle United two players on loan as part-exchange for Moussa Sissoko, reports The Chronicle.
Despite the Newcastle board repeatedly making it clear they want £35m in cash, there is little sign Real are listening.
The first of the two players mentioned are Mariano Diaz, who scored in Real’s recent 3 – 2 win over Chelsea:
That’s me sold on the basis of 30 seconds of YouTube footage.
Diaz has apparently scored 30 in 40 appearances for Madrid’s B team, Real Madrid Castilla, in the Spanish Segunda Division B.
Zinedine Zidane is quoted as believing that Diaz is the future of the first team and that is a mouth-watering prospect for us to have on Tyneside.
The second player is Marcos Llorente, whose father was a professional with both Real and Atletico Madrid.
His real claim to fame, aside from being highly-rated by the club, is that his great uncle was legendary winger, Francisco Gento, a member of the Real Madrid side which dominated the European Cup from 1955 to 1960. He appeared in all six of Real’s winning finals in that era.
If he is anywhere near a chip off the old block, we’ll have him as well. The internet is a fantastic invention…
Whether this is just Real testing the water remains to be seen but we can dream.