|
Paper Talk
Manchester United are ready to bid £75m for Gareth Bale this month following Rafa Benitez's Real Madrid sacking.
Chelsea are ready to lock horns with Tottenham Hotspur to sign Zenit midfielder Axel Witsel. The Premier League champions held talks with the 26-year-old last summer.
Chelsea will offer Patrick Bamford a first-team chance, despite his unsuccessful Crystal Palace loan spell.
Francesco Totti's wife has hinted that the Roma forward is considering hanging up his boots after his latest injury setback. The 39-year-old has not played for three months due to a thigh injury.
Bournemouth will rival Sunderland for QPR defender Steven Caulker, who is currently on loan at Southampton.
Leeds, QPR and Derby all want to sign Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish on loan.
Gareth Bale is a target for Chelsea as well as United, and Zinedine Zidane's interest in Eden Hazard could swing things the way of the Blues.
Crystal Palace and Manchester United will fight it out for the services of Fulham starlet Moussa Dembele.
Chelsea flop Radamel Falcao is being chased by MLS side Columbus Crew.
West Ham's and France's "artist" Dimitri Payet has been backed for a Euro 2016 spot by France legend Frank Leboeuf.
Manchester United have rejected an approach from AC Milan for Marouane Fellaini.
Aston Villa have already started to prepare for life in the Championship by ordering scouts to look at players with experience outside the top flight.
Former Barcelona midfielder Xavi says Pep Guardiola will be a success as a coach in the Premier League.
Crystal Palace have made a move for £10m Fiorentina striker Khouma Babacar.
Manchester United must move for Pep Guardiola now to keep him out of Manchester City's hands.
United have been told they can have Lazio's Felipe Anderson if they stump up £36m.
Loic Remy has been told he will probably stay at Chelsea. Newcastle, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace have all been linked with moves to sign the French striker during January's transfer window.
Tottenham and Everton look like losing out to Roma in the race for Fulham striker Moussa Dembele.
Nottingham Forest boss Dougie Freedman is ready to sign Manchester United's Nick Powell after a five-year battle for the midfielder.
Pep Guardiola is heading for Manchester City and wants Lionel Messi to join him there.
Emmanuel Adebayor is set to return to the Premier League as he considers offers from Watford and Crystal Palace.
Current Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola, who announced on Tuesday he was leaving for new challenges in the Premier League, almost became the Wigan manager in 2005.
Manchester United have agreed to let Spanish goalkeeper Victor Valdes leave for nothing. The former Barcelona No 1 joined United last year on a free transfer but has fallen out with manager Louis van Gaal.
Patrick Bamford is set to snub interest in his services during the January transfer window and stay at Chelsea for the rest of the season and fight for his place.
Ronald Koeman has stepped up his interest in Feyenoord midfielder Tonny Vilhena while insisting Victor Wanyama will stay at Southampton.
Eden Hazard's Chelsea future has been cast into doubt, with Real Madrid ready to make a £100m summer move.
Everton have slammed the door on Celtic's hopes of landing Aiden McGeady by insisting they will not subsidise any loan move.
Gareth Bale has no plans to leave Real Madrid but his future could largely hinge on where new boss Zinedine Zidane plays him, with the Welshman keen to retain a central position.
BBC
Real Madrid are willing to pay £100m to sign Chelsea's Belgium playmaker Eden Hazard, 24. (Daily Star)
That move could prompt Chelsea to pursue the signing of Real forward Gareth Bale, 26. (Daily Mirror)
But Manchester United are hoping to sign the Wales international for £75m this month - and working with "boyhood hero" Ryan Giggs, the club's assistant manager, could be key in attracting his compatriot. (Daily Mail)
Bale has no plans to leave Real Madrid in the wake of Rafael Benitez's sacking but his future at the club will hinge largely on whether Zinedine Zidane deploys him in a central role. (Guardian)
Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola, 44, will become Manchester City manager in the summer. (Sky Germany via Sky Sports)
Should Guardiola move to City, the club will look to reunite him with Barcelona forward Lionel Messi, 28. (Daily Express)
Guardiola could yet move to Manchester United - if they act quickly. The Spaniard has spoken to both Manchester clubs, turned down an offer from Chelsea and would also consider Arsenal. (Sun)
The Daily Mirror's chief football writer, John Cross, believes that Guardiola becoming Manchester City manager is a "done deal". (BBC Radio 5 live)
Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini says he would accept the sack from the club this summer, if he left with the Premier League title. (Daily Mirror)
Pellegrini believes it is "impossible" for his side to achieve the quadruple of Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup. (Daily Star)
General Charles Krulak - an Aston Villa board member who served in Vietnam and the first Gulf War - says he "faced way bigger losing battles and won them" during his military career than the predicament currently facing the Premier League's bottom club. (Sun)
Everton boss Roberto Martinez wants the club's supporters to "trust" 21-year-old John Stones, who he says is "the best footballing centre-half in Europe". (Times - subscription required)
Former Tottenham striker Emmanuel Adebayor, 31, is considering offers from Watford and Crystal Palace. (Guardian)
Chelsea are reluctant to let 29-year-old striker Loic Remy - a target for Newcastle, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace - leave on loan unless they find a replacement (Daily Mail)
Everton have ended Celtic's hopes of re-signing the club's former winger Aiden McGeady, 29, as they will not subsidise his wages as part of a loan deal. (Daily Record)
Watford are close to signing Fiorentina's Spain midfielder Mario Suarez, 28. (Daily Star)
FC Basel say 23-year-old midfielder Mohamed Elneny's move to Arsenal could be completed "in the coming days". (London Evening Standard)
AC Milan midfielder Nigel de Jong, 31, is not a target for Leicester City, despite reports to the contrary. (Leicester Mercury)
Belgian winger Kevin Mirallas, 28, will not be leaving Everton, according to manager Roberto Martinez. (Talksport)
Everton are expected to sign Grasshopper Zurich's Switzerland Under-21 striker Shani Tarashaj, 20, on Wednesday. (Liverpool Echo)
Swansea will not recall winger Nathan Dyer, 28, from his loan spell at Leicester in the January transfer window. (South Wales Evening Post)
Joe Cole, 34, is set to complete a permanent move to Coventry, with Aston Villa allowing the former England midfielder to be released from his contract six months early. (Birmingham Mail)
Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed training on Tuesday. The 26-year-old has been linked with both Arsenal and Liverpool. (Independent)
Best of social media
Manchester United forward Juan Mata has been out and about in Manchester's trendy Northern Quarter, and posted a picture to Instagram.
Mata's club-mate Wayne Rooney and Stoke goalkeeper Jack Butland used Twitter to thank fans for voting them as England's player of the year and under-21 player of the year respectively.
Arsenal's former Real Madrid midfielder Mesut Ozil has given his backing to new Real boss Zinedine Zidane, tweeting that the appointment was a "good decision".
And finally
The future of Crystal Palace mascot Kayla the bald eagle is in doubt because the charity where she lives is short of funds. (Premier League website)
Former NBA star Steve Nash and Robert Sarver, owner of the Phoenix Suns, have bought a controlling share of La Liga side Real Mallorca. (Fox Sports)
Guardian Rumour Mill
Barry Glendenning
The Labour party reshuffle may be stealing the headlines, but Pep Guardiola’s imminent move to the Premier League is what most concerns the Rumour Mill this morning. Despite Manuel Pellegrini’s stance on the controversial Trident nuclear weapons system being unknown (almost total indifference is the Rumour Mill’s uninformed guess), the Chilean looks a certainty to be shown the door at the Etihad stadium this summer to make way for the outgoing Bayern Munich manager. Should he pitch up on the blue side of Manchester, Pep will attempt to make Lionel Messi the latest name on a roll of goalscoring honour that already includes luminaries such as Shaun Goater, Eric Brook, Paul Dickov, Niall Quinn and Horace Barnes. No pressure, Leo.
Eden Hazard’s time at Chelsea could be nearing an end, with the Star reporting that Real Madrid are prepared to stump up £100m to bring the out of sorts Belgian midfielder to the Bernabéu. Some manner of swap deal involving Gareth Bale could well be on the cards, although the Welsh winger is also being linked with a £75m move to Manchester United. Esteemed Guardian football scribes Sid Lowe and Stuart James reckon Bale remains content in the Spanish capital and say his future will hinge on whether or not the new Real manager Zinedine Zidane decides to deploy him as a wide man or in his preferred new role as a central midfielder.
The Watford Observer reports that the Spanish defensive midfielder Mario Suárez could be on his way to Vicarage Road, having failed to make much of an impact at Fiorentina after moving there from Atlético Madrid last summer. Liverpool are also keeping tabs on the 28-year-old, whose days at the Stadio Artemio Franchi look numbered. “Mario Suárez to Watford? I can’t talk about that now, there are many rumours around the player,” said the player’s agent, Manuel García Quilón, to an old lady who’d actually asked him for directions to the souvenir shop at the Palazzo Pitti.
The FC Basel midfielder Mohamed Elneny’s move to Arsenal looks likely to be signed and sealed “in the coming days” according to the Swiss club, while their rivals Grasshopper Zurich are rubbing their powerful hind legs with excitement at the prospect of receiving a big bag of cash for the midfielder Shani Tarashaj from Everton. Tarashaj is understood to have coughed for the Everton doctors and agreed personal terms on a four-and-a-half year deal with Goodison Park suits, but will be loaned back to his current club for the rest of the season just as soon as he’s inked a contract with the Toffees.
Crystal Palace, Aston Villa and Newcastle are all interested in taking Loïc Rémy off Chelsea’s hands, but it seems the striker is not for sale. It is, however, believed he could return to his goal-shy former club Newcastle on loan until the end of the season in a state of affairs the Magpies manager Steve McClaren was not prepared to shed any light on. “Everybody can see what we are and what we need going forward,” he said. “That’s something that will be discussed privately.” Considerably less coy French sports daily L’Equipe says that Newcastle have already bid €25m for the Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette in the hope of securing somebody to score the goals required to keep them in the Premier League.
New Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic’s announcement that the club’s Moussa Dembélé is not for sale has done little to halt speculation that the 19-year-old could be off to Manchester United or Crystal Palace. Meanwhile in Leicester, local paper the Mercury says that reports of Claudio Ranieri’s interest in the Milan midfielder Nigel De Jong have been greatly exaggerated. “No enquiries have been made,” it reports. The former Manchester City man has also been linked with a move to Watford, in talk featuring rumours of Étienne Capoue going the other way.
Pink Italian paper Gazzetta dello Sport says Manchester United are ready to splurge the thick end of £37m on Lazio’s Brazilian midfielder Felipe Anderson, while Crystal Palace want to add to their collection of strikers and will offer Fiorentina £10m for Khouma Babacar, who is also inching his way across the radar at Southampton and Leicester. With Giuseppe Rossi also likely to leave La Viola on loan in January, with Liverpool a possible destination, the Serie A side may try to lure Graziano Pellè to Florence from Southampton. Firmly of the belief that there ain’t no Partey like an Atlético Madrid Partey, Saints are believed to be interested in bringing the Spanish side’s midfielder Thomas Partey to St Mary’s.
Anyone want a loan of Republic of Ireland internationals Aiden McGeady and Darron Gibson? You can have ‘em, say Everton. Meanwhile at Championship-bound Aston Villa, twinkle-toed midfielder Jack Grealish is also believed to be available on loan. And finally, Porto striker Vincent Aboubakar may be drafted in to the King Power Stadium to bolster Leicester’s fairytale tilt at the league title. The end.
Inside Futbol
Juventus Boss Blocks Exit For West Ham Linked Simone Zaza
Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri has revealed that there is no reason for Simone Zaza to leave the club during the January transfer window.
The Italy international has been heavily linked with a move away from the Bianconeri in the winter window and the Premier League duo of West Hama and Crystal Palace are reported to be on his trail.
While he recently helped Juventus to overcome Torino in the Italian Cup, Zaza has struggled to feature regularly in the first eleven and has often been starved of minutes on the pitch this season at Juventus.
However, the Juventus boss feels the Italy striker has no reason to consider a move away from the club and should fight for his place in the starting eleven.
He insisted that at a big club such as Juventus there will always be fierce competition for places in the squad.
Allegri was quoted as saying by Italian outlet Tutto Mercato: “I do not know why he has to go.
“He is doing well for Juve and it is important for us that he remains here. At big teams you need a certain level of strikers, midfielders and defenders.
“We have four players in attack, who have to fight for a place.”
Zaza has played just 369 minutes of football this season and has a contract until 2020 with the Old Lady.
Talksport
West Ham manager Slaven Bilic rules out January signings
Slaven Bilic insists West Ham United won’t be buying new players for the sake of it in this January transfer window.
The Hammers are currently sixth in the Premier League table, with their fans dreaming of European football as they prepare to move to their new home at the Olympic Stadium in time for the start of next season.
But Bilic is adamant he won’t waste money in a bid to safeguard that position.
Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT, he said of this campaign, his first in charge of the Hammers: “So far, so good. We are only halfway through, but we are very confident. The main thing is to stay away from injuries and, if we do that, we have a really good team that can compete with any team in the league.
“We have a good squad, a big squad, and [it’s] 99 per cent [certain] we will leave it like this and make our signings in the summer.
“If something exceptional comes along, whether that’s a long-term deal for one great player, or a loan deal for a back-up player for six months, we will do it. But we won’t buy just because it’s the transfer window.”
|
