- Premier League
Laudrup the latest manager linked with PSG job
Michael Laudrup is the latest manager to be linked to the Paris Saint-Germain job, with Carlo Ancelotti's departure for Real Madrid seemingly imminent.
Strengthening reports in L'Equipe claimed on Thursday that the Swansea City manager has held preliminary talks with PSG about a one-year contract with the option of a further year.
Laudrup, who only in March extended his contract at the Liberty Stadium to 2015, is reportedly unhappy at a lack of transfer funds this summer - and has now seen a row between his agent, Bayram Tutumlu, and the club spill over into the public domain.
A report in the Daily Mail included quotes from Tutumlu hitting out at the Swansea chairman.
"If Huw Jenkins wants to say things about me, he should show his balls and do it face to face, in front of television cameras," Tutumlu said.
"Everything I have done at the club has been on behalf of Michael Laudrup. I have made no money from it. The club has never paid me to do work for them. The work I have done has been to help Michael, to help Swansea and it has all been done the correct way. I have done nothing wrong."
The report went on to suggest that Swansea would "sever all ties to their manager's representative", inspiring bookmakers to slash the odds on Laudrup being the next Premier League manager to vacate his job.
Laudrup has defended his relationship with Tutumlu but distanced himself from the comments, insisting he is hopeful of remaining in his post at the Liberty Stadium.
"Bayram is my agent and that's not going to change," Laudrup told the South Wales Evening Post. "If the club do not want to work with him or Bayram does not want to work with them, it's their problem not mine.
"The only thing I am interested in is having the best players at Swansea within the budget that is possible. That's what I have been fighting for every day, last year when I arrived and this year as well.
"That will always be the most important thing for me wherever I end up in the future."
Tottenham's Andre Villas-Boas was another Premier League manager linked with the PSG job on Tuesday, but sources close to the Spurs boss have told several media outlets that he would not be interested in making a move to the French capital this summer.
Other reports suggest PSG president Nasser Al Khelaifi hopes to promote sporting director Leonardo to the position for a season before appointing Arsene Wenger when the Frenchman's contract at Arsenal expires at the end of the 2013-14 campaign.