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​Manchester United midfielder Nemanja Matic has insisted that he has no problem with manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, despite the midfielder seeing just 22 minutes of action this season.

Matic was an unused substitute in United’s first three games of the season, but finally made his first appearance late in the club’s most recent game; a 1-1 draw with Southampton. Solskjaer has preferred the partnership of Scott McTominay and Paul Pogba, so minutes have been hard to come by for the 31-year-old.

Speaking whilst on international duty with Serbia (via ​Goal), ​Matic said he has accepted Solskjaer’s decision not to play him, but insisted the manager must be prepared to take responsibility if his team selection goes wrong.

He said: “In the first two or three games he determined the team without me. I work as hard as I can, we respect the decision, it is mine to show him that he was wrong and to bring me back to where I belong. There is no problem. I told him I disagreed with him, but that he had to decide the team.

“I have been in football for a long time, I have played almost all the games for all the clubs in the last 10 years. In order for me to play, one had to sit on the bench and accept that fact, and so do I now. The coach must opt for the team that will fight for the title, and if he does not win, he bears the responsibility.”

However, whilst Matic has seen just 22 minutes of action, things have been even worse for fellow midfielder ​Fred. The Brazilian has not even made a matchday squad for ​United this season and was heavily linked with an exit all summer.

Several fans have called for Fred to replace ​Jesse Lingard in the lineup, and it appears as though he agrees. According to ​The Mirror, Fred was caught liking a post on Instagram which read: ‘Fred better than Lingard’.

Solskjaer has bluntly admitted that Fred is at the ​bottom of the pecking order at Old Trafford, but did add that the Brazilian will likely feature later in the season as fixtures start to pile up.

The Red Devils currently sit eighth in the ​Premier League standings, having picked up five points from their opening four games. They are without a win since their opening weekend victory over ​Chelsea, and many fans have called for a change in team selection to help solve their problems.

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​Nigeria are trying to convince Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham to switch his international allegiance to the Super Eagles, despite already being capped twice by England.

Abraham, who has made a flying to the new Premier League season with four goals in four appearances since taking Chelsea’s number nine shirt, was born in London but is eligible to represent Nigeria through his family heritage.

A regular for England at junior level in recent years, the forward played twice for the Three Lions in international friendlies against Germany and Brazil in November 2017.

However, FIFA eligibility rules dictate that a player is only locked in for a particular nation when they have played in a competitive senior international fixture – i.e. in a qualifier or tournament.

It means that Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president Melvin Amaju Pinnick is still keen on persuading Abraham to switch countries while the opportunity is still there.

“We will not relent in our quest for good players to play for the country and win laurels. We will keep talking to good players of Nigeria descent to play for their fatherland,” Pinnick is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.

“But like you know, these kids are very independent-minded. In fact, we have been told to wait until April 2020, when he hopes to make a final decision on the matter.

“I told him that he stood a better chance of playing regularly for Nigeria than with England, which has a galaxy of strikers of the English stock.”

Pinnick appears to be hinting that Abraham could make his decision based on whether he is part of the England squad for Euro 2020 next summer. The Chelsea star missed out on the current Three Lions selection for this month’s qualifiers against Bulgaria and Kosovo.

Should Abraham opt to represent Nigeria in the future, it would represent a change from his outlook two years ago when he declared he was focused on playing for England.

“I was pretty set on England really,” he said in 2017. “It was flattering [Nigeria wanted me], but for me my main focus was here. [Nigeria] tried to [persuade me]. I see myself as being a long-term England player – I am 100 percent focused here to try and get into that team.”

Pinnick, who is a friend of Abraham’s father, had prematurely claimed a few weeks prior that the player had agreed to switch allegiance from England to Nigeria and had even started the formal process with FIFA. Abraham himself denied that was true in a statement later that same day.

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​Real Madrid and Barcelona may never have been truly serious about signing Paul Pogba and Neymar respectively during the now closed summer transfer window, with a sensational claim that both clubs were simply going through the motions for a charade and appeasement.

Real were linked with Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba all summer, with the player’s older brother Mathias even giving multiple soundbites to the Spanish media to talk up the possible switch from Old Trafford to the Bernabeu.

Barça, meanwhile, were expected to take Neymar back from Paris Saint-Germain just two years after he controversially quit the club in a world record €222m transfer.

Manchester United outwardly refused to sell Pogba, even more so after the early Premier League deadline prevented them from signing a replacement. But the Neymar negotiations between Barça and PSG appeared to continue until the final days of the Spanish window.

However, neither deal materialised before the 2 September transfer deadline.

The Daily Mail claims that United would have entertained selling had a serious offer from Real that was ‘comfortably’ in excess of their 2016 outlay – 90min has been able to verify that for months – but it simply never came. Los Blancos, they say, never had the ‘cash or conviction’ to make the transfer a reality.

Real had already spent around €300m on several signings early in the summer and later failed to raise further cash by not managing to sell the likes of Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez, both of whom have remained in Madrid despite being expected to leave.

It was a similar situation at Camp Nou, where Barça spent around €250m on new players, most of which went on Frenkie de Jong and Antoine Griezmann. Only half that amount came back in.

There were rumours all summer of increasingly creative proposals designed to get Neymar back to Catalonia with minimal cash expense, but these were always flawed as they relied on unwilling participants heading in the opposite direction to make things work. The Mail notes that Barça equally never had the ready cash to meet the monetary aspect of such deals.

What is most interesting is that the report suggests both clubs were putting on a transfer charade when in reality they knew they were never going to sign Pogba or Neymar this summer.

In the increasingly political world of football transfers, the Mail explains that Real felt ‘obliged to show an interest’ in Pogba because he was coach Zinedine Zidane’s most coveted transfer target. Similarly, Barça’s ultimately hollow pursuit for Neymar was apparently for Lionel Messi.

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​Manchester United have been tipped to make an ambitious January approach for Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Christian Eriksen, who will by then have just six months left on his contract.

United showed interest in Eriksen late in the summer transfer window, only to withdraw from proceedings after feeling the player preferred a move overseas instead.

Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain were all linked with the Denmark international, who admitted at the start of the summer wanting to ‘try something new’.

But no formal bids ever materialised and it could be that United try and capitalise, especially as it has been suggested that Eriksen is a player fellow Scandinavian Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admires.

The Sun claims that despite a move to Spain, Eriksen was ‘flattered’ by United’s interest. The player is also apparently ‘uncomfortable’ with the thought that Spurs may lose him as a free agent if the saga drags out to next summer, and so United ‘may try their luck again’.

However, the Old Trafford club could face competition from Inter for Eriksen’s signature.

According to the Daily Express, Inter will move for Eriksen in January if his contract stand-off with Spurs has not been resolved. The ambitious Italian side have been tipped to try and trigger an initial loan move for a fee that would lead to a permanent contract at the end of the season.

As things stand, 1 January is the date as of which Eriksen is free to negotiate a pre-contract agreement with overseas clubs.

Juventus were recently linked with an approach for a free transfer next summer, with the club having made something of a habit of signing out of contract midfielders – Aaron Ramsey, Adrien Rabiot, Emre Can, Sami Khedira, Paul Pogba and Andrea Pirlo all since 2011.

Eriksen’s latest media comments suggest he remains frustrated about his future, lamenting that real life isn’t as straightforward as playing Football Manager games.

“I wish I could decide just like in Football Manager, but unfortunately I can’t,” he told Ekstra Bladet.

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​Juventus stars Emre Can and Mario Mandžukić have been left out of the club’s 22-man squad of this season’s Champions League.

Juventus were frantically looking to slim their squad down throughout the summer but were only able to offload a handful of first-team players, instead starting the season with a bigger squad after making eight new signings.

Can and Mandžukić have now paid the price for Juve’s inflated squad after being left out of the club’s official 22-man squad for the Champions League this season.

Giorgio Chiellini has been left out after picking up a long-term injury, but the Bianconeri have included new signings Matthijs de Ligt, Danilo, Merih Demiral, Adrien Rabiot, Aaron Ramsey and Gianluigi Buffon.

Juventus have been drawn into Group D alongside European heavyweights Atlético Madrid, while Peter Bosz’s Bayer Leverkusen and Russian side Lokomotiv Moscow are also in their group.

Although they’re expected to make it out of the group and into the knockout stages of the Champions League, Juventus proved last year against Ajax that they’re prone to becoming complacent in Europe’s elite competition.

The Serie A champions first match will be on the road to Atléti shortly after the international break, while they’ll then host both Bayer Leverkusen and Lokomotiv to complete their opening three matches in the Champions League.

Throughout the first half of the group stages, Juventus will face tough tests in the league as they look to win another Scudetto, including away at Inter, Lazio and city rivals Torino.

Maurizio Sarri’s side have already edged past Napoli this season thanks to a last-minute own goal from Kalidou Koulibaly, but they’re joined at the top of the table with Antonio Conte’s Inter as well as Torino.

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