TRANSFER GOSSIP.
Chelsea to improve Stones bid to £26m, Higuain to City (for £45m?), Llorente to Arsenal, Cavani to United...
Newcastle are ready to tempt Man City for the signature of Nigerian wonder kid Kelechi Iheanacho for a fee in the region of £9m.
Efe Ambrose has turned down opportunity to re-unite with his former team mates Victor Wayama at Southampton. He said he will rather stay with Celtic and play Champions league football.
Aston Villa has identified Odion Ighalo as their main target to replace Benteke who left for Liverpool for £32.5M. They are expected to spend half of their recruit in the purchase of Ighalo and Ayew from Lorient.
LUCAS DIGNE TO LIVERPOOL...While PSG duo Nasser Al
Khelaifi and Olivier Letang were in London to talk Angel Di Maria with
Manchester United representatives, they apparently had a chat with
Liverpool about left-back Lucas Digne.
French media outlet Canal Supporters say that talks are underway about
the 22-year-old left-back who wants to leave PSG for first-team
football. The figure being mooted is £9m.
MORE ON LLORENTE TO ARSENALYou may have read in
Mediawatch
that talk of Fernando Llorente to Arsenal lingers on, but Italian bull
merchant/journalist Tancredi Palmeri has added to the speculation by
suggesting that a bid of £5.7m has been made.
Did he get that from Friday's Sun too?
TOTTENHAM TO START SPENDINGWe have been wondering when
Tottenham would notice that they have only one proper striker, and it
seems like 'this week' is the answer.
According to the Evening Standard, 'Tottenham are ready to kick-start a
frantic month of activity in the transfer market by making a bid to sign
Saido Berahino and Yannick Bolasie.'
Tottenham could bid an initial £15m for Berahino but are likely to be
asked for north of £20m, while the chances of them getting Bolasie seem
to be slim: Alan Pardew has talked about a prohibitive £40m price tag.
The Standard go on to claim that Charlie Austin and Victor Moses are
also on Mauricio Pochettino's wanted list, but the likes of Emmanuel
Adebayor, Roberto Soldado, Aaron Lennon, Vlad Chiriches, Federico Fazio
and Andros Townsend may have to be offloaded first.
NO TOON MOVE FOR SHAQIRI'Newcastle United are not in the
hunt for Xherdan Shaqiri - despite being linked with the former Bayern
Munich man,' claim the usually reliable Newcastle Evening Chronicle.
The club are said to be 'working privately on other deals' that don't
involve a Swiss nearly man who is being touted around clubs like a
basket of whelks and mussels.
BRADY TO COST A BUNCHDoesn't really work as a headline, but I can't be blamed for trying to make it so.
Anyway, Norwich's entire summer spending currently equates to.... erm,
nothing, so it's great to see that they are finally bringing in a player
for a fee. Otherwise they're surely going down.
What might not be so sexy is learning that Norwich are planning to spend
£7m on Robbie Brady. I mean he's half-decent of course, but he didn't
score a Premier League goal as Hull were relegated.
IT'S ABOUT THE SAME PRICE AS JORDY CLASIE. Sorry, I had to shout that.
MORE ON RAMOSDespite the reports of the new deal below,
the Guardian (via Sid Lowe) report that, whilst a contract has not been
agreed, Ramos has been told in no uncertain terms that he will not be
leaving Real Madrid this summer.
It is not clear what Ramos' reaction is to that, but one would suspect
him unlikely to force through a deal given his popularity among the
club's supporters.
United had insisted that David de Gea would not be sold if Ramos wasn't
coming to England, but with Sergio Romero now signed it remains to be
seen whether they stick to that plan.
N'DOYE TO BESIKTASSunday brought ludicrous rumours of
Besiktas interest in Danny Welbeck, but it looks like the Turkish side
will settle for a slightly less auspicious name (but one that scored
more Premier League goals than Welbeck last season).
Turkish Football are reporting that Besiktas are close to announcing the signing of Dame N'Doye from Hull City for £2m.
N'Doye has a mightily impressive record, scoring 82 times in 150
appearances for FC Copenhagen before his five goals in 15 games failed
to keep Hull in the Premier League. No blame attached to him for that.
NEW DEAL FOR RAMOS?Many Manchester United fans will
already have given up hope of signing Sergio Ramos from Real Madrid, but
we might be set for the final confirmation.
The Daily Mail is reporting that Ramos is very close to signing a new
deal with Real Madrid, after extended discussions with Florentino Perez.
It would represent the third time that United have gone after a player
this summer, only for them to sign a new contract with their existing
club. The suspicion is that players have used United interest to get a
bigger pay packet. Can't blame them, really.
AND THE REST AT 11.15amWolfsburg won't force Kevin de
Bruyne to stay... Charlie Austin is reportedly close to a move to
Newcastle... QPR want to sign James Perch from Wigan... QPR also want
Adlene Guedioura from Crystal Palace... Aston Villa have signed Jose
Angel Crespo... Rennes are lining up an offer for reported Manchester
United and Stoke target Abdul Majeed Waris... Steve Bruce says Ryan
Taylor and Sam Clucas will be Hull City players by Wednesday...
Sunderland striker Steven Fletcher could join Swansea.
CHELSEA TO SIGN STRIKERLet's play a game.
The Daily Star has the following headline: 'Chelsea on brink of announcing fourth summer signing as striker closes on transfer.'
So, can you guess who the striker is?
No, sorry. It's 17-year-old Jamaican forward Leon Bailey, who currently plays for FC Trenci in Slovakia.
Apparently Chelsea plan to sign Bailey before sending him out on a long-term loan. In other news, the world keeps on spinning.
DIABY REJECTS WEST BROMThere had been reports that Abou
Diaby had progressed as far as his West Brom medical (no laughing), but
it now seems as if he has rejected a move to the Hawthorns.
Instead, Diaby looks set to join Marseille, which would be a great move
for him. French football journalist Matt Spiro reports that Diaby will
receive a low basic wage but with pay-as-you-play bonuses, which seems
logical.
Having made 22 appearances in four years, Diaby will presumably be happy
to just stay fit. Walk before you can run, would seem to be the salient
advice.
CAVANI TO UNITED'Man United 'desperate' to sign €85
Cavani as Herrera linked with move away,' reads the headline on the
Irish Independent website. We're going to go ahead and assume they mean
€85m.
They are only taking the lead from the Daily Star, which generally means
a pretty sh*tty dance. The claim is that Cavani will be part of the
deal that sees Angel Di Maria move to Paris.
We'll say what we always say on this kind of speculation: How often do swap deals actually happen?
SPURS BID FOR LEROY SANENews from Germany now, and football magazine Kicker. They claim that Tottenham have bid £8.5m for Schalke youngster Leroy Sane.
Sane is still just 19, but broke into Schalke's team last season. He is
an attacking midfielder, which isn't exactly Spurs' priority.
It's also worth mentioning that Schalke are reported to have rejected
the bid instantly, and will not sell Sane for another two years at
least. So there.
CHELSEA TO IMPROVE STONES BIDJose Mourinho has been playing the 'What? Who? Me?' card in relation to Chelsea's interest in
John Stones, but reports suggest that the club will improve their bid for the Everton defender to £26m in the coming couple of days.
The Guardian claim that Mourinho has not been put off by Roberto
Martinez's anger at their approach, which isn't surprising. They also
believe that Stones is keen on the move, with the chance to impress in
the Champions League obviously a massive draw.
After a summer in which Chelsea's rivals have spent big, Stones would
represent their first big plunge in the transfer market. Are Chelsea in
danger of treading water?
HIGUAIN TO CITYMonday marks two years to the day since
Gonzalo Higuain joined Napoli from Real Madrid, but rumours are now
abound that he is set to leave Italy.
The Sun report that City are prepared to offer £45m for the Argentinean,
who could form a dreamy partnership with Sergio Aguero. With Stevan
Jovetic joining Internazionale and Edin Dzeko seemingly close to a move
away from Manchester, Manuel Pellegrini is suddenly very light on
strikers. There is a lot of faith being placed in Aguero's pesky
hamstrings.
Higuain isn't universally rated as a world-class striker, but he has
scored goals in Serie A at a rate of better than one every 150 minutes.
For a team that failed to finish in the top two in either of his seasons
at Napoli, that's not bad at all.
ARSENAL FRONT OF LLORENTE QUEUEAnd so say everyone. Well,
the Metro start by saying that Llorente to Arsenal is close to being
done. Which of course we don't believe, because it's the Metro.
In their piece they refer to the Daily Telegraph, but they themselves
are being nothing more than a conduit for somebody else's claims. In
this case they link to the Daily Express.
The Daily Express then link to Tuttosport, but Tuttosport's last story regarding Llorente and Arsenal came three days ago.
Arsenal are close to signing Llorente like I'm close to shifting this
added BBQ weight. It's all based on good intentions but a lack of will
from the most important party.
AND THE RESTParis Saint-Germain have denied making an
£85m offer for Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo...Fabricio Coloccini is
at the centre of a tug-of-war between Newcastle and Crystal
Palace...Southampton flop Emmanuel Mayuka is set to join Spartak Moscow
after being stripped of a squad number...Borussia Dortmund's £16m-rated
forward Adrian Ramos is set to snub Crystal Palace and West
Brom...Everton manager Roberto Martinez has refused to rule out making a
move to sign Celtic defender Virgil van Dijk, with the Scottish club
reportedly wanting £10million...Swansea will move for Tottenham striker
Emmanuel Adebayor if they lose Bafetimbi Gomis to Dubai-based Al
Ahli...Arsene Wenger has confirmed that youngster Jeff Reine-Adelaide
will not leave Arsenal on loan next season.
