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.
United set their sights on Coentrao…
According to the Daily Mail, Manchester United have stepped up their pursuit of Benfica left-back Fabio Coentrao after catching wind of whispers that the Portuguese side are currently busy trying to source a replacement for the seemingly outbound 22-year-old starlet.
Benfica are rumoured to be running their studious rule over Marseille’s Taye Taiwo and Copenhagen’s Oscar Wendt, and United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has asked the club’s board to be kept abreast of any developments and made it clear that he is perfectly willing to meet the Aguias‘ £20 million-valuation of Coentrao.
The Mail also suggest that Fergie may be diligently courting Coentrao as United’s current incumbent left-back, Patrice Evra, is hankering for a summer move elsewhere.
Are you quite mad?…
TalkSPORT‘s indefatigable Italian sources seem fairly certain that Inter Milan are lining up a £17 million summer bid for Gareth Barry (note: BARRY, not BALE), with the Manchester City plodder said to be heading the long list of transfer targets drawn up by the Nerazzurri‘s newly-instated manager, Leonardo.
Barry is under contract at Eastlands until 2014, with Inter aware that they may have to ‘go big’ in order to snare the 29-year-old. Therefore, it is further understood that the Serie A giants may also be prepared to up their opening offer – should £17 million not be enough to land their man.
It’s madness gone mad I tell thee.
West Ham to hand O’Neill the reigns…
The BBC Sport team are reporting that former Aston Villa boss Martin O’Neill is set to replace Avram Grant as West Ham manager after the Hammers’ Premier League tie with Arsenal later today.
Grant’s West Ham currently sit in the bottom slot of the top flight pile, having won only four games this campaign, though they have actually only lost one of their last seven games.
Everton accept Pienaar bid…
Everton manager David Moyes has confirmed that his superiors have accepted a bid for winger Steven Pienaar from a ‘major’, though as-yet anonymous, European club:
“We have had two offers and one of those offers has been accepted. We have allowed his representatives to speak to the other club, but whether it goes through or not I don’t know yet.”
Several sources are suggesting that the club in question is almost definitely Inter Milan, though the likes of Chelsea, Tottenham and Spanish cash-spunkers Malaga have also been mooted – though describing the latter as a ‘major’ club is surely a little on the tenuous side.
Brum keen to glean Keane…
After nearly a week of faffing around, Tottenham have announced that they have accepted Birmingham’s £6 million bid for striker Robbie Keane, who will now set about trying to hammer out his personal terms with the Alex McLeish‘s side.
Birmingham are currently the Premier League’s second lowest scorers, with Wigan the only team to have managed to tally less than the Blues’ 20 league goals so far this season and presumably, with Nikola Zigic, Kevin Phillips and Cameron Jerome contributing a paltry eight goals between themselves, Keane should have no problem muscling his way into the first-string should he eventually plump for St Andrews.
The best of the rest…
- Manchester United, Chelsea and Inter Milan are all vying to lure Udinese’s £15 million-rated winger Alexis Sanchez into their midst…
- Real Madrid have informed Karim Benzema that he won’t be allowed to leave the club this month, though a loan move for Emmanuel Adebayor is thought to still be on the cards…
- Paraguayan forward Roque Santa Cruz has completed his loan return to former club Blackburn, after enduring a fairly miserable 18-month stint at Manchester City…
- Spurs have abandoned their bid to sign David Beckham on loan, with manager Harry Redknapp calling LA Galaxy’s proposed four-week deal a ‘waste of time’…
- West Ham have confirmed that Wayne Bridge has officially completed his loan move from Manchester City to Upton Park, after the Hammers agreed to pay all of the left-back’s £70,000-a-week wages.
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