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.
Free-Wieling…
Manchester City are hoping to prise highly-rated Dutch right-back Gregory van der Wiel from Ajax’s clutches before the transfer window shuts in around a week’s time, after sending a four-man delegation to monitor the 22-year-old defender during the Amsterdam club’s 2-0 win over Feyenoord on Wednesday.
City are perfectly willing to activate the £17 million ‘release clause’ written into Van der Wiel’s contract at Ajax, and are hoping that the 22-year-old’s close friendship with Nigel de Jong may just be enough to swing the deal in their favour.
I thought Edin Dzeko was going to be the last ‘big money’ signing of the season? Or does £17 million just not qualify as ‘big money’ at Eastlands anymore?
Pushing and Arshavin…
Reports are steadily intensifying that, after sitting through yet another dopey performance midweek, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is rapidly losing his patience with the hopelessly out-of-form Andrei Arshavin and, rather than dumping him in the reserves for a few weeks, the studious Frenchman is apparently mulling over the option of flogging the Russian for a quick buck in January – despite what he may have said to the contrary.
Anywho, Arshavin’s former club, Zenit St Petersburg, have issued a statement to the waking world, telling all-and-sundry that they would be perfectly willing to welcome their wayward son back into their bosom – should Wenger decide that he’s had enough of seeing shots comically ballooned in to stadium car parks and such like.
Mountain out of a Cahill…
Rather predictably given that Bolton tied up a deal for Middlesbrough defender David Wheater yesterday, the gossip columns are full of reports linking centre-back Gary Cahill with a big-money move away from the Reebok.
Even more predictably, the invariable suitors being mooted in almost every single report are defense-less Arsenal, though Chelsea do get a scant mention in passing now and again.
Reina in Spain-a…
Liverpool ‘keeper Jose Reina has moved to put the kibosh on speculation that he is angling for a summer move to Manchester United (amongst others) by declaring that he is ready to honour the remaining five years of his contract at Anfield, if – and that’s a big if – the club manages to pull it’s metaphorical finger out of it’s metaphorical arse at some point in the near future:
“Obviously, I want to be part of a team that has the chance to win the title, win major trophies and to play with the best players – but I expect that to happen here at Liverpool, and for the club to return itself to that level. I plan to stick with my contract.”
That should put an end to all those nasty rumours once and for all.
The best of the rest…
- Manchester United are bombarding Borussia Dortmund with enquiries for their £20 million-rated, 21-year-old playmaker Shinji Kagawa.
- Ajax forward Luis Suarez‘s prospective move to Anfield is in limbo after the Dutch club quoted a £21 million asking price – £8 million more than Liverpool’s initial valuation.
- Chelsea may farm starlet Gael Kakuta out on loan to near-neighbours Fulham.
- According to the player’s agent, several clubs in England and Germany are interested in signing Tottenham striker Roman Pavlyuchenko, with Sunderland and Wolfsburg both reportedly keen to replace their respective recent high-profile departures with the spindly Russian.
- Stoke are in talks with Aston Villa goliath John Carew and may sell Ricardo Fuller to Sunderland to make room for the bulky Norwegian.
- Blackpool manager Ian Holloway insists that midfielder Charlie Adam will be ‘going nowhere’ this month, despite interest from a handful of Premier League clubs.
Add Sportslens to your Google News Feed!
