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Football

Why English clubs resort to retail therapy rather than facing the truth

Overjoyed: Real Madrid players celebrate at the end of the Champions League Final against Juventus.

With the cup in Real Madrid's hands for the 12th time, English football comforted itself the way it knows best: with another dose of $170 million transfer targets and $250 million "war chests". Retail therapy is a way to avoid the truth about how far the Premier League is behind what we observed here on Saturday night.

Griezmann deal off as United seek target man

Staying put?: Antoine Griezmann.

Manchester United's transfer plans have taken a twist with the club cooling their long-standing interest in France striker Antoine Griezmann to focus their efforts on signing a target man to replace the injured Zlatan Ibrahimovic.