According to this morning’s papers, Martin O’Neill is likely to be appointed as Irish manager sooner rather than later and Arsenal have their sights set on another big money move.
Less than a week since he parted company with the FAI, Giovanni Trapattoni is almost a forgotten man as far as the Irish soccer team is concerned as attention turns to the new man who will be tasked with reviving the fortunes of the Boys in Green.
The overwhelming favourite for the job is Martin O’Neill and according to a report by Dion Fanning in the Sunday Independent, the former Norn Iron international could be appointed as early as this week with the unanimous approval of the FAI Board.
Although O’Neill appears nailed on for the job, there are a few very interesting snippets also in the Sindo; firstly a suggestion that former Inter Milan and Valencia manager Hector Cuper is interested in the job – he is believed to have Irish grandparents – and secondly, something that appeared in an interview with FAI Chief Executive John Delaney conducted by Barry Egan, who, regular Sindo readers will know, normally keeps his copy for the society pages.
Asked by Egan about Alex Ferguson, Delaney replied: “Alex is a good friend of mine, but as I say, I’m not going to talk about anyone specifically,” and even though he seemed to be taking that approach with every name that Barry mentioned, it is interesting to hear him respond in that way about a man who hasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming the next Irish boss.
Fergie was in attendance at Old Trafford for Man United’s unconvincing win over Crystal Palace yesterday, where he will have watched old nemesis Wayne Rooney score a lovely free-kick in a very good individual performance.
Rooney may not have secured the summer move to Chelsea that he wanted but the Mail on Sunday reckon that Arsenal will test United’s resolve with a £30 million move for the new-found LeBron James lookalike (it’s the headband folks) in the January transfer window.
The Gunners seem to have got the hang of this expensive transfer lark after securing the signing of Mesut Ozil – who looked just a bit good on his debut against Sunderland yesterday – on Deadline Day but United seemed pretty adamant that Rooney was going nowhere a few weeks’ back and one would think that stance will not change come January. We’ll see.
Elsewhere, the Sunday Express claim that United will repeat what they did with Rooney nearly ten years ago by signing Everton starlet Ross Barkley, who has made waves at the start of this season and already earned himself an England call-up. The Express say that Chelsea are also interested, but Everton have shown an ability to play hardball in recent weeks and surely won’t let their star-in-the-making go without a fight.
Finally, the Sunday Mirror say that Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea are all in for Juventus striker Fernando Llorente, who hasn’t been having a terrific time of it in Turin, Spurs are also chasing AC Milan’s Stephan El Shaarawy (The People), Wigan seem to think that Shane Long would drop down a division to join the Latics (The People) and a potential move for Stephen Hunt to Blackpool seems to have collapsed because of Hunt’s excessive wage demands (The Sun).
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