It’s more of a case of who’s not coming to the Premier League rather than who is on the way in this morning’s papers, with two high profile targets in particular set to turn their attention elsewhere.
The first of said high profile targets is the highly coveted Edinson Cavani, who has been linked with an awful lot of clubs this summer but most notably Chelsea and Manchester City, neither of whom he is set to join if a story in The Sun about a £54million move to PSG is to be believed.
If that wasn’t enough of a blow to City fans in particular, there is strong speculation that Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko could be on his way out of the club, with the same report in The Sun suggesting that Rafa Benitez will try and snap him up as Cavani’s replacement. The Star, however, think that Atletico Madrid want to take Dzeko off City’s hands to replace Radamel Falcao and have identified him as their primary target instead of Aston Villa’s Christian Benteke, who was also on the Spanish side’s radar.
The second high profile target referenced above is Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who has been chased by Liverpool all summer but now looks set to sign with Borussia Dortmund instead; the Bundesliga club having plenty of money to spend after the departure of Mario Gotze to Bayern Munich.
The Mirror claim that Dortmund have come in with a bid of £21.5 million, a spicy meatball indeed and possibly a bridge too far for Brendan Rodgers, who has been pretty conservative with his spending so far this summer.
If Liverpool fans could bring back one of their former players from the recent past, it’s safe to say Xabi Alonso would be near the top of the list, but they might have to watch him ply his trade for another Premier League club next season with the Star suggesting that he will follow Jose Mourinho from Real Madrid to Chelsea.
What makes the story a little more plausible is that Los Blancos are believed to close to signing the like-minded Asier Illarramendi from Real Sociedad, which could free up Alonso to make a return to England. Less exciting news on the Chelsea front is that Norwich ‘keeper John Ruddy is weighing up a move to Stamford Bridge from Norwich City (The Daily Express) even if he would probably have to settle for playing second fiddle to Petr Cech.
Elsewhere it’s a quiet enough morning as far as the gossip in the papers are concerned. The Manchester Evening News claim that Manchester City are after Roma striker Pablo Osvaldo, Swansea manager Michael Laudrup wants to sign Blackburn’s Jordan Rhodes (Daily Telegraph) and both Everton and Tottenham are battling it out to sign Gerard Deulofeu on loan from Barcelona after the 19-year old scored a goal in every two games for Barcelona B last season (The Independent).
