With enough talk of McCarthy to have Communist sympathisers running scared, here is our round-up of today’s transfer gossip.
Since Robbie Brady and David Meyler having dropped down a division in search of regular first team football already this month, it is nice to hear of an Irish international being coveted, rather than unwanted, by the big clubs.
The man in question is cultured Wigan midfielder James McCarthy, who, according to the Metro, has been the subject of flirtatious glances from both Arsenal and Everton this month.
Wigan boss Roberto Martinez hates talk about McCarthy leaving the Latics as much as we love the below clip featuring his namesake Mick and is adamant that the 22-year old is going nowhere this month, although that might change if Wigan fail to pull off yet another miraculous escape act and end up dropping down to the Championship next season.
Speaking of the Championship, the league’s hottest property Wilfried Zaha is a target for many of the Premier League’s top clubs, but the Guardian reckon that Manchester United and Arsenal are the only clubs still running in the race for his signature, with the league leaders believed to be in pole position at present.
Alex Ferguson was said to react to the Zaha speculation with the line ‘It’s January for goodness sake, there’s no story’, in his press conference this morning, meaning we can expect to see the Crystal Palace winger holding a United scarf along with Old Red Nose at Old Trafford before the end of the month.
Another man tentatively linked with a move to the Red Devils is Ashley Cole, but the Daily Express claim that he is coveted by his old boss Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid. If Cole waited until the summer to make that move though, there’s a good chance that The Special One will no longer be in Bernabeu dugout, where he was seen to be quite ridiculously losing the plot on Wednesday night.
The Express claim that Cole’s representatives have visited Madrid to open talks over a potential move, although the size of the pinch of salt you take that story with will possibly be determined by another story in the same paper claiming that Roman Abramovich has offered Pep Guardiola £18 million a year, yes £18 million a year, to become the next manager of the Blues.
Elsewhere, putting two and two together to make five, the Daily Mail have claimed that Arsenal, Man United, Man City, Tottenham and Chelsea could all be on red alert following the breakdown of Wesley Sneijder’s proposed move to Galatasaray, while according to the Guardian and The Sun, Man City will let Mario Balotelli go to AC Milan if the Italian giants cough up the same sum that Citeh paid for his services three years ago.
It goes from bad to worse for Newcastle as the Independent report that inspirational defender Fabricio Coloccini has asked to be allowed return home to Argentina, citing homesickness as the reason rather than the Magpies’ quite horrendous run of form of late.
Finally, Paul Lambert may have forgotten about Richard Dunne, but Harry Redknapp knows a bargain when he sees one and The Mirror reckon he’s ready to put in a bid for the Ireland defender, who could provide experience in the QPR defence following the departure of Ryan Nelsen to the MLS.
If ‘Arry prevents Dunne from following Nelsen across the Atlantic, it would represent quite the coup for a man renowned as the greatest wheeler dealer in football. Not that you should ever say that to his face, of course.
