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.
Mourinho pining for the Prem?…
A batch of interesting quotes have emanated from the Real Madrid camp, in which coach Jose Mourinho, just days after refusing to commit to Los Blancos past the summer, tells of his hankering for a return to the last bastion of the fair and the just – the English Premier League.
Of course, the quotes should be treated with a certain amount of trepidation (mis-quoting/translating), but here’s what Mou apparently told a press conference yesterday:
“I’ve decided to return to England. I have nothing prepared about my future – I just want to be happy in my work.
I have no preferences about Manchester United, Manchester City or Chelsea. I just want to rediscover the joy.
I’m not saying the Premier League is the most spectacular in the world but it is the best organised, with fair play and enormous respect for your opponent.”
Crikey.
Ajax issue deadline…
Ajax have given Liverpool until Saturday to come up with the goods vis-a-vis Luis Suarez before they pull the plug on the whole charade.
So far, Liverpool have had a maiden bid of £12.8 million turned down for the Uruguayan forward, though the Amsterdam club are refusing to budge on their £21 million valuation of the 24-year-old.
Ajax coach Frank de Boer told a press conference:
“We don’t want to lose him, Liverpool know what they have to pay and we are sticking to our guns. We want to know by January 29t. After that, nothing more will happen.”
There are now suggestions that the deal may be ‘put on ice’ until the summer.
Kon man…
Whilst we’re on the subject of Liverpool, it looks like the club are ready to jettison Paul Konchesky back from whence he came – with a loan move back to former club Fulham thought to be in the offing.
A couple of the nationals seem to reckon that Konchesky has already opened talks with the Cottagers (who, incidentally, are the only other club he’d be legible to play for having appeared for two teams already this season), with the Guardian adding that Liverpool may make an approach for Aston Villa left-back Steven Warnock as a direct replacement.
Luiz-ing the will to live…
Now, admittedly, the David Luiz-to-Chelsea saga is getting a little tedious as it runs into it’s third week, but it looks like the whole shebang may be about to reach it’s ‘thrilling’ conclusion – with the Sun reporting this morning that the entire ordeal is on the verge of fizzling out.
The red-top are carrying quotes from a fortuitously placed ‘Chelsea insider’, who reckons:
“The club made an improved offer and included Nemanja Matic in the hope they could finally clinch a deal, but Benfica said again that they weren’t interested, wanted much more, so it looks pretty bleak.”
Elsewhere, Benfica’s coach Jorge Jesus has told the waking world that several other clubs are also tailing Luiz, so make of that what you will.
The best of the rest…
- According to reports in Germany, Bundesliga side Wolfsburg have lodged a bid for Liverpool forward Milan Jovanovic, though the Serb has vowed to muscle his way back into the first-string at Anfield…
- Blackpool boss Ian Holloway has batted away rumours that he has put such a high valuation on midfielder Charlie Adam because a clause in his contract entitles him to a percentage of the final transfer fee…
- Two transfers went through yesterday. Firstly, Chelsea starlet Gael Kakuta joined Fulham on loan and, secondly, Swiss international Valon Behrami finally completed a permanent move from West Ham to Fiorentina…
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