Morning all. Throughout January Soccerlens are 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.
Duck hunting season opens at Chelsea…
Having staved off Roman’s wrath for the time being with a thumping 7-0 victory over rudderless Ipswich at the weekend, Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti is apparently about to be handed the necessary funds to finally land AC Milan starlet Alexandre Pato before the January transfer window ebbs to a close in three weeks’ time.
According to the German website, 4-4-2, the 21-year-old Brazilian striker is known to be keen on a move to the Bridge to reunite himself with Ancelotti (whom he served under for a year or so at the San Siro back in 2008/2009), though Chelsea will have to stump up around €30 million in order to even open a line of communication with the Serie A giants.
Ancelotti will also have to wait for Milan chief Adriano Galliani to return from Brazil, where he is currently trying desperately to flog his buck-toothed show-pony Ronaldinho to former club Gremio.
Third Gunners’ stint for Sol?…
Unhappy with his peripheral lot at Newcastle, veteran centre-back Sol Campbell is said to be pining for a third stint at Arsenal and may get his way as Arsene Wenger continues to source cheap, reliable defensive reinforcements.
Having witnessed current first-choice pairing Sebastien Squillaci (who also twanged a hamstring during the game) and Johan Djourou being systematically dismantled by the near-immobile Luciano Becchio over the weekend, you can’t really blame the Frenchman for his roving eye.
The Daily Express seem fairly certain that 36-year-old Campbell will be moving back to the Emirates on a five-month loan deal, similar to the one he signed with the Gunners at the tail-end of last season.
Where art thou Becks?…
In short, no-one knows what the hell is happening vis-a-vis David Beckham‘s protracted loan move to Tottenham, not even Spurs manager Harry Redknapp who now seems to think that ‘insurance issues’ may scupper any bid to sign the LA Galaxy man on a playing contract.
It seems likely that Becks will now be moving to North East London to train with Redknapp’s side until the MLS gets going again in a couple of months’ time, though if anyone knows their way around ‘insurance issues’, it’s old ‘Arry.
Birmingham line up ‘three-and-a-bit’ big name signings…
Brum are hoping to add the sum total of about 3.25 ‘big name’ signings to their roster over the course of the next week or two, with both Robbie Keane and David Bentley almost certain to join from Tottenham’s reserves and Kenny Miller and Pablo Mouche set to follow on shortly after, arriving from Rangers and Boca Juniors respectively.
All in all, it looks like Big Eck is going to be shelling out somewhere in the region of £8 million for the four new faces, two of which (Bentley and Mouche) will be joining on six-month loan deals.
El Diego claims Premier League interest…
Argentinian barmpot Diego Maradona has claimed that he will be travelling to England next month to hold talks with an as-yet anonymous club about taking over at the helm – with West Ham being touted by many as the most likely destination.
So said ‘El Diego’:
“In February I will be travelling to England to listening to a formal proposal from a team from there who wants to talk to me. If they convince me I might accept the position. I’m not desperate but I know that some day I’ll be the coach again of some team.”
What could possibly go wrong?
The best of the rest…
The agent of Manchester City striker Jo has claimed that he has received five bids for his client in the past two weeks. The Brazilian had been linked with a loan switch to Olympiakos, though it seems that the quintet of offers have emanated from France, Spain and Russia…
Fiorentina are trying to engineer a ‘pre-contract’ agreement with the agent of Bolton striker Johan Elmander, who’s current deal at the Reebok expires in the summer…
Aston Villa are ready to up the stakes in their bid to sign Newcastle bruiser Joey Barton by throwing midfielder Nigel Reo Coker into the deal as a like-for-like makeweight. Good luck with that one chaps…
Blackpool have rejected three £2 million bids for Charlie Adam, with Blackburn, Sunderland and Birmingham all thought to be courting the Scottish schemer…
West Ham are ready to sack Avram Grant and hand Sam Allardyce a six-month trial to save the club from relegation, i.e. should he succeed in avoiding the dreaded drop, Big Sam will get to keep the job on a full-time basis…
Add Sportslens to your Google News Feed!
