Premiership Transfer News of the Week
The Premier League is coming to a close which means for the next few months, transfer stories will dominate the football columns in newspapers until the new season gets underway. This week saw a major rise in transfer gossip but one has a sneaky suspicion that part of the reason for this escalation had something to do with Manchester City securing qualification into next season’s Champions League!
As Manchester City will play in Europe’s elite competition next season, the club can now attract the best players around. Not surprisingly, due to the seemingly unlimited resources that the club have available, the papers have had a field day with linking some huge names to Eastlands. Players that Manchester City are said to be interested in include the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Xavi, Jack Rodwell, Kaka and Wesley Sneijder. However, one person who continues to be linked away from Manchester is Carlos Tevez with Real Madrid prepared to make a big money offer for the Argentinian.
Arsenal are considering making an offer for Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema according to the Metro. The forward has scored 23 goals in 43 appearances but didn’t appear in the Spanish Cup final or either of the Champions League Semi Final legs against Barcelona and is believed to be out of favour at the Bernabeu. It cost £35 million for Real Madrid to lure him away from Lyon in 2009 but it’s believed that Madrid could let the Frenchman go for much less which is probably why Arsenal are interested.
Liverpool have moved ahead of Manchester United in the race to sign Aston Villa’s Ashley Young according to the Guardian. It is believed that Young has been swayed by Liverpool as they will offer him a higher salary and more first team opportunities than United. The winger will cost the Reds around £15 million. The club are also reportedly interested in signing Bolton’s Gary Cahill and are considering making another bid for Blackpool midfielder Charlie Adam.
There is a set to be a major overhaul at Tottenham this summer with as many as nine players set to leave White Hart Lane this summer according to the Independent. Tottenham will listen to offers for the likes of Niko Kranjcar, Vedran Corluka and Wilson Palacios while both Jonathon Woodgate and Carlo Cudicini are out of contract this summer and are unexpected to be offered new deals. While there seems like there will be a mass exodus from Tottenham this summer, some high profile names are being linked to the club. The Mirror reports that Spurs will make a bid for Birmingham keeper Ben Foster to replace error prone Heurelho Gomes while the Times say the club will move for Espanyol’s Pablo Osvaldo after Harry Redknapp watched the striker for a second time in 10 days.
Christophe Samba could leave Blackburn even though the defender signed a new contract in February committing himself to the club until 2015. Samba came close to signing for Arsenal in January and this week cast doubt over his future at Ewood Park. He said, “Everyone knows I’m ambitious. You only have one career so you need to make the best out of it. I’ve committed myself to do the best for Blackburn and then we’ll see in the summer.”
Finally, Sunderland could make an audacious move for German legend Miroslav Klose as they look to spend the money gained from Darren Bent’s transfer to Aston Villa. The forward is available on a free transfer but one stumbling block could be Klose’s wage bill. Klose is currently on £120,000 a week at Bayern Munich and Sunderland owner Ellis Short will not smash his wage structure to lure the German to the Stadium of Light.
