Today’s tittle tattle is running through its target list
Tottenham are hoping to rekindle Tim Sherwood’s memorable bromance with Emmanuel Adebayor,
by offering the Togo striker, who smashed a measly two goals last
season in all competitions but who flourished during the Englishman’s
brief spell in charge at White Hart Lane, in part exchange for Aston
Villa’s Christian Benteke, who has flourished during the Englishman’s as-yet brief spell at Villa but who also tries a bit for other managers.
West Brom are also in search of a striker and their hopes of snapping up the former Newcastle and Chelsea hotshot Demba Ba ended when the player decided to move to Shanghai instead, so they have moved smoothly to the next name on their target list – QPR’s Charlie Austin. The 25-year-old is definitely available but could cost as much as £15m and has already been linked with approximately half the Premier League, with Newcastle, Southampton, West Ham and Chelsea the most frequently recurring names.
Talking of West Ham, Slaven Bilic’s contract stipulates that if the new manager guides them to relegation he can be sacked without notice or compensation, and also that he won’t qualify for a bonus unless the Hammers finish the season in the top eight. In other words, he’d better have negotiated himself a decent basic salary, because that’s all he’s getting. And he might have to manage without Stewart Downing, who is a £7m target for Newcastle, Leicester, Sunderland, Middlesbrough
and now Stoke, who have entered the race after becoming tired of Yevhen Konoplyanka’s procrastination, the out-of-contract Dnipro wideman having stalled for weeks and now appearing to favour Atlético Madrid.
Boro obviously have some money to spend despite their narrow failure to win promotion to the Premier League, and in addition to Downing are also linked to the Dundee United striker Nadir Ciftci, who is likely to cost around £1.7m. In other striker news, Bournemouth and Norwich are ready to battle each other for the Crystal Palace striker Glenn Murray, whom the Eagles might allow to leave for around £5m to help fund a deal for someone more expensive. And Leicester’s Chris Wood is apparently on the very verge of signing a £2m deal with Leeds, having turned down Wolves.
In London-based top-flight club midfield news, Arsenal have suddenly gone off Arturo Vidal and are determined to sign William Carvalho, star of Portugal’s European Under-21 Championship success, instead. And Internazionale could come a-calling for Chelsea’s Mikel John Obi, but only if they can’t sign Galatasaray’s Felipe Melo, who they think is better.
Defender latest: Sergio Ramos is still angling to move to Manchester United (and no surprise either if rumours of a £230,000-a-week contract offer are to be believed), and Roma’s 31-year-old Greek defender José Holebas is apparently a £2m target for Watford.
Talking of Roma, Edin Dzeko has apparently become a bit fed up with being only an occasional starter at Manchester City, leading his Bosnia team-mate Miralem Pjanic to suggest he “would run to Roma” to join him in Serie A, adding “the wages won’t be a problem”. The bad news is that Roma can’t afford his £20m asking price – they want Manuel Pellegrini to accept the Serbian midfielder Adem Ljajic in part-exchange.
The Monaco right-back Fabinho is, says the Sun, available for £20m (£15m if you ask the Mail), news that they suggest may interest City. They also suggest “a new right-back was not on their list of priorities” and “the asking price is considered too high”, so let’s not get too excited, eh? Aymen Abdennour, another member of the Monégasque back-line, is equally available, with his agent merrily trilling about interest from Barcelona, Internazionale, Juventus and Liverpool. “I want to play for one of the biggest clubs spoken about soon,” the player said t’other day. “I’m ready.”
Also on Liverpool’s shortlist is Ludwig Augustinsson, a left-back and Swedish Under-21 international whose sudden appearance on the radar of one of England’s most cash-flashy clubs is somewhat striking given that it’s barely a week since he called our own Under-21 side “overrated” (with some justification, to be fair) and fumed: “Some players go for such sick amounts of money in England and are a bit more expensive than they are good.” Augustinsson would apparently cost £2m, though where that stands on the expensive/good scale remains to be seen.
Ineffective rumour-snuffing dept: Ronald Koeman – who is hoping to bring the £7m Juventus defender Angelo Ogbonna to Southampton – says that “until now we have not had a serious bid for [Morgan] Schneiderlin from United” (though “until now” seem to be key words there), and the Sampdoria president, Massimo Ferrero, insists: “Mario Balotelli is a player of extraordinary talent but, no, we won’t be signing him,” (which is what Brendan Rodgers was saying a year ago).
West Brom are also in search of a striker and their hopes of snapping up the former Newcastle and Chelsea hotshot Demba Ba ended when the player decided to move to Shanghai instead, so they have moved smoothly to the next name on their target list – QPR’s Charlie Austin. The 25-year-old is definitely available but could cost as much as £15m and has already been linked with approximately half the Premier League, with Newcastle, Southampton, West Ham and Chelsea the most frequently recurring names.
Talking of West Ham, Slaven Bilic’s contract stipulates that if the new manager guides them to relegation he can be sacked without notice or compensation, and also that he won’t qualify for a bonus unless the Hammers finish the season in the top eight. In other words, he’d better have negotiated himself a decent basic salary, because that’s all he’s getting. And he might have to manage without Stewart Downing, who is a £7m target for Newcastle, Leicester, Sunderland, Middlesbrough
and now Stoke, who have entered the race after becoming tired of Yevhen Konoplyanka’s procrastination, the out-of-contract Dnipro wideman having stalled for weeks and now appearing to favour Atlético Madrid.
Boro obviously have some money to spend despite their narrow failure to win promotion to the Premier League, and in addition to Downing are also linked to the Dundee United striker Nadir Ciftci, who is likely to cost around £1.7m. In other striker news, Bournemouth and Norwich are ready to battle each other for the Crystal Palace striker Glenn Murray, whom the Eagles might allow to leave for around £5m to help fund a deal for someone more expensive. And Leicester’s Chris Wood is apparently on the very verge of signing a £2m deal with Leeds, having turned down Wolves.
In London-based top-flight club midfield news, Arsenal have suddenly gone off Arturo Vidal and are determined to sign William Carvalho, star of Portugal’s European Under-21 Championship success, instead. And Internazionale could come a-calling for Chelsea’s Mikel John Obi, but only if they can’t sign Galatasaray’s Felipe Melo, who they think is better.
Defender latest: Sergio Ramos is still angling to move to Manchester United (and no surprise either if rumours of a £230,000-a-week contract offer are to be believed), and Roma’s 31-year-old Greek defender José Holebas is apparently a £2m target for Watford.
Talking of Roma, Edin Dzeko has apparently become a bit fed up with being only an occasional starter at Manchester City, leading his Bosnia team-mate Miralem Pjanic to suggest he “would run to Roma” to join him in Serie A, adding “the wages won’t be a problem”. The bad news is that Roma can’t afford his £20m asking price – they want Manuel Pellegrini to accept the Serbian midfielder Adem Ljajic in part-exchange.
The Monaco right-back Fabinho is, says the Sun, available for £20m (£15m if you ask the Mail), news that they suggest may interest City. They also suggest “a new right-back was not on their list of priorities” and “the asking price is considered too high”, so let’s not get too excited, eh? Aymen Abdennour, another member of the Monégasque back-line, is equally available, with his agent merrily trilling about interest from Barcelona, Internazionale, Juventus and Liverpool. “I want to play for one of the biggest clubs spoken about soon,” the player said t’other day. “I’m ready.”
Also on Liverpool’s shortlist is Ludwig Augustinsson, a left-back and Swedish Under-21 international whose sudden appearance on the radar of one of England’s most cash-flashy clubs is somewhat striking given that it’s barely a week since he called our own Under-21 side “overrated” (with some justification, to be fair) and fumed: “Some players go for such sick amounts of money in England and are a bit more expensive than they are good.” Augustinsson would apparently cost £2m, though where that stands on the expensive/good scale remains to be seen.
Ineffective rumour-snuffing dept: Ronald Koeman – who is hoping to bring the £7m Juventus defender Angelo Ogbonna to Southampton – says that “until now we have not had a serious bid for [Morgan] Schneiderlin from United” (though “until now” seem to be key words there), and the Sampdoria president, Massimo Ferrero, insists: “Mario Balotelli is a player of extraordinary talent but, no, we won’t be signing him,” (which is what Brendan Rodgers was saying a year ago).
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