Three of the most talked about names of the summer are all over the back pages once again, while Hull City want to take Celtic’s most lethal striker off their hands.
If we were to choose five terms that have most often appeared in our transfer talk column so far this summer they would be ‘Bale’ ‘Ronaldo’ ‘Real Madrid’ ‘PSG’ and ‘Suarez’. Unsurprisingly, all of those terms bar Suarez are back in the papers this morning, although it surely won’t be long until his name, most likely alongside Real Madrid, is back on the back pages again.
Bale, Ronaldo, Real Madrid and PSG have somehow all managed to find their way into one convoluted rumour being pedalled by The Sun this morning, who say that Manchester United are hoping that the Spanish giants get their hands on Bale in order to clear the way for Ronnie’s triumphant return to Old Trafford.
The Daily Mail, however, claim that PSG are going to spoil everyone’s fun by putting in an £85 million bid for Bale, a signing which would surely trump all the big names being snapped up by those upstarts a little further south in Monaco.
Staying with PSG, amid word that they were going to prise AVB away from Spurs yesterday, the Daily Mirror reckon that they will instead turn their attention to Swansea boss Michael Laudrup, who is currently embroiled in a row with the Welsh club (or at least his agent is) over transfer targets for this summer.
Transfer targets, or at least the money to go after them, wouldn’t be a problem if Laudrup was to move to Paris, but the threat of losing a man who oversaw a very impressive campaign with the Swans last season might just persuade them to buck up their act as far as splashing the cash is concerned.
Barn doors in Catalonia will soon be breathing sighs of relief if another story in The Mirror is to be believed, with Barcelona apparently planning to swoop for Chelsea misfit Fernando Torres, whose future could be in some doubt amid word of some big name arrivals at Stamford Bridge in the summer.
It won’t be all sweetness and light for Torres if he does move to the Nou Camp, however, as Barca would seemingly only use him as a super-sub, which isn’t really a surprise when you consider that Leo Messi, Neymar, Pedro and possibly David Villa will all be at Tito Villanova’s disposal next season.
Torres’ future in West London may depend on whether or not Edinson Cavani arrives at the club this summer but amid reports that PSG might hijack their attempts to sign Gareth Bale, Real Madrid are in the mood of some hijacking of their own and, according to The Guardian, have entered the race to sign the highly-coveted Napoli forward.
It will hardly happen, but if all the rumours turn out in Real Madrid’s favour this summer, they could end up with a forward line of Ronaldo, Suarez, Cavani and Gareth Bale next season. Wow.
It’s hard to top names of that stature but Owen Coyle and Steve McLaren certainly aren’t far off and they could be back in the management game in the very near future, with the Daily Mail speculating that one of them could be named as the new Wigan boss as early as today.
Hull City will be taking Wigan’s place in the Premier League and The Sun say that the Tigers are on the prowl for Celtic striker Gary Hooper to make their attack a little more potent next season, but they’ll have to up a £4 million bid already rejected by the SPL champs.
Finally, Manchester United are thought to be closing in on the signature of long-term target Ezequiel Garay, Liverpool are in a similar situation with Sunderland ‘keeper Simon Mignolet, Yohann Cabaye is coveted by Monaco and a host of other European clubs, while Spurs are poised to make a highly underwhelming signing in Gareth Barry to replace the Sunderland bound Scott Parker.
