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.
Liverpool reject Torres bid…
Liverpool have rejected a £35 million bid from Chelsea for striker Fernando Torres, according to a report in the Times.
The newspaper are claiming that the club contacted them immediately after rebuffing the offer, though no official word has been released by the Anfield PR department yet.
The quotes being carried by the Times, made by an anonymous ‘Liverpool spokesman’, read thusly:
“Chelsea have made a bid for Fernando which has been turned down, the player is not for sale.”
Several other outlets are running with the theme this morning, with the Independent fairly certain that Chelsea will eventually get their man…if the Londoners happen to lodge a monstrous £70 million bid for Torres during the next few days.
Yep.
Bale out…
Last night, the Guardian kept the Twittersphere on tenterhooks as they promised, a good two hours beforehand, to unveil a ‘massive world footballing exclusive’ at precisely 5:30pm BST.
When the time came, it turned out that the ‘major world exclusive’ was nothing more than a half-arsed report on Inter’s plans to submit a £40 million bid for Tottenham primate Gareth Bale in the summer – a fee that may rise if Real Madrid also decide to stick their oar in.
Within the very same article came the accompanying caveat that Spurs have repeatedly stated that the player is ‘not for sale’ and are unlikely to change their stance in the space of six months, leading the club themselves to denounce the Guardian‘s shenanigans as ‘utter rubbish’.
Triffic.
Save for a Reina day…
Unsurprisingly, given that Edwin van der Sar‘s confirmed his retirement plans yesterday, this morning’s gossip columns are chock-full of speculation and guess-work as to who will be replacing the veteran Dutchman betwixt the sticks at Old Trafford.
The same old names are vaunted, Atletico Madrid’s David de Gea, Lyon’s Hugo Lloris, Ajax’s Maarten Stekelenberg, Schalke’s Manuel Neuer etc…etc, though the Daily Star reckon that United are going to risk the wrath of Liverpool all over again by taking Spanish custodian Pepe Reina off their hands for £20 million at the end of the season.
Hmmm.
Gray and Keys to fall on their feet…
Word on the wire is that Arab TV station Al Jazeera are preparing lucrative contract offers for recently deposed Sky duo Andy Gray and Richard Keys, with the latter due in Qatar today to open talks with the giant broadcasting corporation over a deal.
From the Daily Mirror:
“Al Jazeera are expanding their sports coverage and have just done a deal to broadcast the World Cup in the Middle East and Africa for the next three tournaments.
The move would mean that both Keys and Gray would spend extended periods in Qatar, but there is also scope for them to do programmes from the station’s London base.
There are few other stations in the market for the pair and the cash on offer in the Middle East could make up for the loss of their seven-figure Sky salaries.”
If it means I never have to look at Gray’s huge, breeze-block of a face ever again, then I’m all for it!
The best of the rest…
- Derby County winger Kris Commons has joined Celtic on a three-and-a-half year deal after Rangers dropped out of the running due to his haughty wage demands…
- West Ham have rejected Spurs’ offer of £2 million-plus-Robbie Keane in return for Scott Parker‘s services…
- Sunderland have turned their sights to Wigan’s Hugo Rodallega as a replacement for Darren Bent after their £3 million deal for Stoke’s Ricardo Fuller was scuppered by ‘medical issues’…
- Fulham are hoping to sign Spurs surplus midfielder Niko Kranjcar on loan until the end of the season…
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