Manchester United transfer target ‘breaks silence’ amid Liverpool reveal which ‘might be hard for fans to hear’ | OneFootball

Antoine Semenyo and Joao Gomes have been linked with Arsenal and Manchester United respectively but they share one really quite obvious thing in common.

Is it that they are breaking their silence? It might be…

Insult to injury

Perhaps it is ultimately on Mediawatch for seeing a headline of ‘How depleted Arsenal could line up in the derby against Tottenham after Mikel Arteta suffers crushing injury blow in defence’ atop the Daily Mirror website – after a genuinely brilliant and newsworthy round of international games, no less – and expecting a little more than ‘the same ten players and then one of a few eminently viable replacements for Gabriel’.

But yeah, when the biggest story in all of football is apparently not Scott McBallon d’Orminay, Curacao forcing Steve McClaren to seek unemployment or Andy Robertson making everyone cry, and is instead ‘Arsenal might play the really good Cristhian Mosquera or £45m Piero Hincapie for a bit because one of their defenders is injured’, you do have to wonder what the point of this all is.

The angel Gabriel

It is also a bit weird to see scaremongering stories about how Gabriel could be sidelined until JANUARY (the Daily Mirror and Star both go all caps).

That does incorporate a fairly large number of games in a condensed part of the fixture schedule so is certainly not ideal, but it is also late November so not sure the panicked shouting about JANUARY is really necessary.

Title drop

Actually, sticking with Arsenal…

Please, Liverpool Echo, do tell: is the ‘Liverpool title race’ in the room with us right now? It certainly isn’t anywhere to be seen in the Premier League table.

Toine deaf

There is some better news for Arsenal in the form of this Daily Mirror website story:

And that is indeed Arsenal, who definitely have the need for a forward who can play across the frontline because Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke, Gabriel Martinelli, Leandro Trossard, Eberechi Eze, Kai Havertz, Mikel Merino, Ethan Nwaneri and Max Dowman really doesn’t cut it in terms of depth.

Looking beyond boring specifics like whether Arsenal actually need to or can even spend £65m on another attacker, what precisely was this ‘hint’ that Semenyo himself dropped about his ‘transfer preference’?

Fair enough. Deal done.

Thankfully, and as we all know, footballers specifically only play for the team they supported growing up. So the deal is still on.

Starting to sound a little less like a ‘hint’ and more like a really good footballer whose ‘transfer preference’ is just generally to reach the highest level possible and play for one of the unnamed ‘top clubs’. Because obviously.

Semenyo was even asked specifically in that October 2024 Athletic interview whether joining Arsenal would be a “dream”, his response to which was simply: “Yeah, any team that plays Champions League, Europa (League) – that’s the aim.” So the idea that something said more than a year ago constitutes an Arsenal boost of any kind is nonsense.

Breaking news: footballer’s transfer preference is to join a Champions League team. It’s also believed he might want a decent wage. More as we get it.

All for Antoine…

But of course, where one outlet leads…

‘Antoine Semenyo has already named Premier League team he ‘dreams’ of joining’ – Metro.

‘Antoine Semenyo has already dropped Arsenal transfer hint after release clause emerges’ – Football.London.

‘Antoine Semenyo has already dropped transfer hint as Man Utd verdict given’ – Daily Express website.

‘Arsenal: Antoine Semenyo transfer preference revealed as Bournemouth star has £65m release clause’ – London Evening Standard.

But the most shameless take might be this:

Definitely a coincidence that Liverpool.com have happened to accidentally imply new information on an exciting story with the suggestion that Semenyo has ‘confirmed favourite team as Liverpool’. They’ll be awfully embarrassed when they realise their entirely innocent mistake.

Joao factor

There is a similar theme running on the Manchester Evening News currently, with Joao Gomes suddenly en vogue despite his atrocious personal record this season.

‘Joao Gomes has already sent clear message to Man United as transfer ambition emerges’ is one story on the Wolves midfielder in which, again, old quotes are used.

You know what they say: a midfielder flaps his wings in the summer of 2022 and talks about how “playing in the Champions League is my biggest dream”, and that is apparently a ‘clear message to Man United’ in November 2025.

You’d think a ‘clear message to Man United’ would actually reference Man United or at least talk about a competition they’re in, but no.

It does reference Liverpool, however; Gomes called them “a team I would play for”. And the big, grown-up, mature MEN write that ‘while his support for rivals Liverpool might be hard for United fans to hear, football moves on quickly’.

If there are Manchester United fans out there struggling to come to terms with the idea that a potential transfer target once talked up the idea of playing for Liverpool over three years ago, just know that there are people you can talk to and support networks to reach out to for help.

Wait until they find out who Semenyo supports.

But that is not all from Gomes. He has also ‘broken his silence on social media since emerging as a potential target for Manchester United’ to send a ‘clear ‘excited’ message’.

His positively monastic ‘silence’ lasted about eight days, which might sound a lot but his most recent posts before then were on October 31, October 26 and October 9; the bloke is not exactly permanently online.

And how did Gomes ‘break his silence’ in a ‘clear ‘excited’ message’ which is apparently relevant to Manchester United? By posting very specifically about Wolves and being ‘excited to do what no one believes, for us and for our city,’ in terms of helping them avoid relegation.

It’s been a phenomenal international break but these could be a long few days in between.