Morning all. Throughout January Soccerlens is going to be bringing you a daily round-up of the morning’s various goings-on. Be it juicy morsels of spurious transfer gossip or real, actual bona fide news, rest assured, we’ll have it covered.
Here’s this morning’s batch.
Drog days are over…
There’s a bit of a rip-snorter doing the rounds in this morning’s gossip columns, in which Chelsea’s misfiring heavyweight Didier Drogba is the latest name being linked with the vacant striker’s position over at Real Madrid.
Several sources (including the Times) are suggesting that Drogba may be one of the big-name casualties of Roman Abramovich‘s summer overhaul at Stamford Bridge anyway, with the Daily Mirror reporting that Real coach Jose Mourinho has caught wind of this and is now running the rule over a cheeky bid for his former talisman after balking at Emmanuel Adebayor‘s £15 million price tag.
Question is, would the Drog come any cheaper?
Comolli’s on the case…
The Sun seem to reckon that Liverpool’s chief football strategist Damien Comolli is flying out to Amsterdam as we speak to meet with Ajax striker Luis Suarez and his representatives and give them the ‘hard sell’ over a move to Anfield.
If everything goes to plan and Comolli justifies his contrived job title, then the red-top are prophesizing that a £20 million deal will finally be struck between the two parties before the week is out.
However, should negotiations fall through, there is also talk of a ‘plan B’ being on the cards, i.e. a £6 million bid for PSG forward Guillaume Hoarau.
Adam, but lost ‘im…
On the subject of Liverpool, it seems that the club are edging closer bit-by-bit to spiriting Charlie Adam away from Blackpool’s collective grasp, though the Seasiders have vowed to fight until the very end to keep hold of their influential midfielder.
The Mirror seem certain that Adam asked his manager Ian Holloway for permission to join King Kenny’s revolution before their game at Sunderland over the weekend, only to be talked out of handing in a written transfer request by the increasingly cantankerous Blackpool boss.
With Liverpool apparently ready to go as high as £5 million, this particular strand looks set to rumble on until the last few hours of the window.
Lass to the Lane, Roman to Real?…
Tottenham have been told that they will need to stump up £18 million if they hold any reasonable chance of landing French anchor Lassana Diarra from Real Madrid before the end of the month – with the Spanish giants reluctant to let the midfielder leave the club on loan.
However, there is talk of a short-term loan deal for Roman Pavlyuchenko potentially being thrown into the mix as ballast – which Spurs hope will knock Diarra’s asking price down by a couple of quid at the very least.
The best of the rest…
- AC Milan have completed the signing of Dutch left-back Urby Emanuelson from Ajax on a four-and-a-half-year deal…
- Arsenal have officially confirmed their interest in Southampton’s £10 million-rated wunderkind Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, though Arsene Wenger has vowed that he won’t pay over the odds for the prodigious forward…
- Chelsea are still hoping to sign David Luiz from Benfica, but are still haggling over Paulo Ferreira‘s value as they attempt to offset the Portuguese side’s weighty £26 million valuation…
- Sunderland are very close to wrapping up the £4 million signing of Stoke striker Ricardo Fuller, and may also make an audacious bid for Porto frontman Hulk as they look to restock their attacking options…
- In further Sunderland news, Inter midfielder Sulley Muntari is now all but certain to join the Black Cats on loan within the next few days…
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