Transfer talk: United plan Barca raid, Arsenal hunt Higuain and Sideshow Bob to leave Chelsea?

Man United are in the hunt for two of the three players above, while there are plenty of doings-a-transpiring as far as Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool are concerned.

Much like Real Madrid if all their purported targets arrive during the summer, Manchester United are going to have some squad next season if all of the players linked with the Red Devils end up at Old Trafford. With Cristiano Ronaldo linked with an emotional return to Manchester and suggestions that Gareth Bale might swap Spurs white for United red, the Times say today that David Moyes is planning to raid Barcelona for midfield duo Cesc Fabregas and Thiago Alcantara in the hope of attracting one of them to the club in time for next season. The Telegraph, meanwhile, suggest that Moyes will be given a £60 million transfer war chest by the Glazers, while the Independent claim that not only will United try to bring back Ronaldo (and use the charm of Sir Alex Ferguson to do so), but that they will not sanction Wayne Rooney’s departure either. Put that all together and you could have Ronaldo, Rooney, Fabregas and/or Alcantara, which would probably mean a clearing out of the likes of Anderson, Nani and other fringe players at the club. Does it sound good for United fans? Certainly. Is it likely? Hmmm, we’ll see about that. Speaking of war chests and huge sums of money, The Guardian think that Arsenal will be prepared to break their own transfer record to bring Gonzalo Higuain to London in the summer. Higuain is unsettled at Madrid and with talk of the arrival of Luis Suarez amongst others in Spain, the chances of him being on his way are strong indeed. Staying in London, the talk since Jose Mourinho’s arrival at Chelsea is that he’s not all that keen on the style of charismatic centre-half and Sideshow Bob lookalike David Luiz and wouldn’t be all that bothered were he to jump ship before next season. The Mirror reckon that PSG would gladly take him and reunite him with compatriot Thiago Silva, a move that would have Chelsea followers who like Luiz engaging in the following behaviour in sheer frustration. The Metro, meanwhile, say that the Blues want Borussia Dortmund striker and very much flavour of the month Robert Lewandowski, who could be going anywhere if the speculation of recent weeks is to be believed. Anywhere but Bayern Munich of course. One club who haven’t been hanging around as far as transfer business is concerned is Liverpool and with Iago Aspas on the way to Merseyside, the Telegraph suggest that he might soon be joined there by Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who will be troubling commentators and having sub-editors thanking their lucky stars for the copy and paste function if he swaps Shakhtar Donetsk for Anfield. Word on the street is that he’ll cost up to £20 million though, so ‘Pool fans are better off not getting the name printed on the back of their jerseys just yet. Finally, Southampton have completed a deal for Croatian defender Dejan Lovren, Mark Schwarzer is apparently about to move to Hull from Fulham, Inter Milan want Manchester City left back Alexsandar Kolarov, Barcelona have their eyes on Liverpool ‘keeper Pepe Reina, Tottenham are chasing after Corinthians midfielder Paulinho and our own Steven Reid is set to sign a new deal at West Brom.