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.
Eden Project…
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has confirmed that he is interested in bringing Lille prodigy Eden Hazard to the Emirates, but will only make a move for the 20-year-old starlet if and when he becomes ‘available’:
“He’s a player that I have followed for some time, but I do not want to unsettle Lille now.
When he is available for transfer, we will see if there is the possibility to sign him.”
An approach is expected to be forthcoming over the summer, as Wenger – sporting chap that he is – also promised that he wouldn’t do anything to derail Lille’s table-topping season.
Vela sets sail…
After starting just three Premier League games in three seasons, Arsenal pine-warmer Carlos Vela is close to wrapping up a loan move to Valencia after meeting representatives of Los Che in London yesterday to discuss a potential switch.
Several Spanish sources are also claiming that Valencia may have asked for a ‘first refusal’ clause to be factored into the loan contract, meaning that the club may be looking at securing a permanent deal for the Mexican international in six month’s time.
Chopper Nev…
The Daily Mirror seem fairly certain that ‘Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp will make renewed efforts to sign Everton captain Phil Neville at some point this week – despite being respectfully told to ‘stick your offer where the sun don’t shine’ by David Moyes the last time he came a-sniffin’.
The paper reckon that a ‘formal bid’ will be lodged before the weekend is out, with Spurs apparently hoping to use Steven Pienaar‘s recent move to White Hart Lane as a carrot with which to tempt the donkey (Neville) to North East London – though quite why that would be a deciding factor is beyond me.
Luiz control…
Depending on which national newspaper you read, Chelsea are either within a hair’s breadth of snapping up Benfica centre-back David Luiz or about to completely give up their pursuit – and everything between.
In short, no-one’s got a soddin’ clue what’s going on.
Both the Times and the Sun seem to think that the Blues are on the very cusp of completing the £25 million signing of Luiz, whereas the Mirror believe the deal is now off after negotiations hit yet another snag yesterday.
Stay tuned.
The best of the rest…
- Just days after Liverpool announced he would be staying at the club, a brief statement has been posted on their official website to confirm that Dutch winger Ryan Babel has agreed a move to Hoffenheim, and will fly out to Germany today to finalise the deal…
- Speaking of Liverpool, Dutch newspaper Het Parool is reporting this morning that their protracted pursuit of Ajax forward Luis Suarez is ‘dead in the water’, with the Amsterdam club refusing to settle for a penny less than £30 million.
- In even further Liverpool news, it seems as if they are also about to miss out on Blackpool’s Charlie Adam, who saw his transfer request rejected at Bloomfield Road yesterday afternoon…
- West Ham are on the verge of signing Hoffenheim striker Demba Ba and Middlesbrough midfielder Gary O’Neil (both on loan). Consider your season ‘saved’, Hammers fans…
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