As the real stuff edges closer, the transfer rumour mill is cranking up too.
The big news this morning, from an Irish point of view anyway, is the prospect of Kevin Doyle getting a move back to the Premier League. When Wolves dropped down to League 1 we assumed Doyle would get a swift move elsewhere, possibly to Celtic, but the Wexford man is still at Molineux.
The club have acknowledged they have to sell him, as they can’t afford his £40k a week wages. The problem for Doyle is that none of his possible suitors want to pay the 29-year-old anything like that either.
The Mirror report that Hull are prepared to pay £3million for the Irish international, but they are only willing to pay Doyle £20k a week, a 50 per cent pay cut. We know, that’s not exactly bad money but Doyle may be hoping he can hold out for a little more before he joins the large Irish contingent at The KC Stadium.
Away from Doyle, two summer long sagas have taken new twists. The Telegraph are reporting that Arsenal have heard what John W Henry has had to say about signing Luis Suarez and decided to simply ignore it and they plan to lob in a new £50m bid for the unhappy striker. We’ll see if that means the possible move remains ‘ludicrous’ or not.
The same paper also adds that the Gunners are close to landing their first signing of the month, Bayern Munich defensive midfielder Luiz Gustavo for £14m. That might appease some of the ‘spend some f***ing money’ crowd at the Emirates, at least for a little while.
But gazumping Suarez in terms of sensation is the news that Manchester United have decided to enter the race to sign Gareth Bale. David Moyes has yet to bring anyone in under his reign and the Independent reckon he’s decided to muscle in on Real Madrid’s pursuit of the Welsh winger.
The Indo reckon that Spurs are fed up with Real’s tactics and would prefer to sell to United, with Javier Hernandez mentioned as a possible makeweight in a transfer that would still smash the transfer record as Spurs value Bale at an eye-watering £110m. We’ll believe it when we see it.
Meanwhile, the Wayne Rooney story also gets another airing, with the Express saying that Chelsea will make another bid this week. However, in bad news for Wayne, the same paper also reports that Jose Mourinho also fancies taking Samuel Eto’o off of banjaxed Anzhi Makhachkala’s hands.
There are lots of other interesting bits and bobs around too. The Mirror say that Barcelona will have another go at getting David Luiz from Chelsea this week, the Times report that the Catalan club also tried to get Liverpool’s Daniel Agger while the same paper says that Sunderland are after Italian pair Fabio Quagliarella and Alessandro Matri.
And finally, West Brom are looking to free Scott Sinclair from his Manchester City misery, according to the Birmingham Mail.
