It’s all go at Everton today, while the battle for Willian’s signature is almost concluded, in Spurs favour.
After a weekend full of Wayne Rooney news, it’s another possible Everton to Manchester United deal that dominates today’s papers. Everyone has speculated all summer that David Moyes would go back to his old team and try to nab their stars and now, after landing nobody in the transfer window so far, he has made his move.
The Liverpool Echo report that Manchester United made a £28million bid for Marouane Fellaini AND Leighton Baines but the Toffees rejected it out of hand. The bid, which valued the Belgian at £16m and the full back at £12m, is reported to be way below Everton’s value, as they want £25m for Fellaini alone.
This may just be the start of the trading process to get the pair to switch from blue to red, but if it does come to pass, it seems Roberto Martinez has already been working on spending the money.
The Star reports that Everton are looking to spend £15m to bring Irish international James McCarthy to Goodison. Again, like Moyes, Martinez has been rumoured to bring his former charge to his new home for a while so we’ll see if McCarthy can join the burgeoning former Wigan contingent at Goodison.
Away from Everton, the other lead story surrounds Willian. The midfielder has been one of the most coveted in football since Anzhi announced their fire sale and it looks like Spurs are winning the race to sign him.
The Times report that AVB’s side have taken the lead over Liverpool in the race for his signature, and the Mirror report that the reason is simple; they are offering more money. That usually does the trick alright.
It’s not all bad news for Liverpool though, as the Mirror report that Luis Suarez will be staying after Steve Gerrard mediated talks between the striker and Brendan Rodgers.
Back at Spurs, the Gareth Bale saga rumbles on with the Mirror also reporting that Luka Modric could be on his way to White Hart Lane as part of the deal, even though the Croatian would prefer to move to Old Trafford. As the Rolling Stones would say Luka, you can’t always get what you want.
In other news best described as ‘of specialist interest only’, Norwich may be buying Johan Elmander and Andrea Caracciolo, Gael Givet may be shipped out of Blackburn (Mirror) and Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal are all after 17-year-old PSV winger Zakaria Bakkali (Express).
Finally, after a very rough weekend for Arsenal fans, the Indo report that Arsene Wenger is still pursuing Michu as the Suarez and Rooney deals go cold. Swansea want £25m for the Spaniard, so we’ll see if Wenger does indeed listen to the fans and ‘spend some f***ing money’.
