Shay Given could be set for a shock move to Anfield, Arsenal want to buy not one, not two but three Real Madrid players and Man United will have to try harder to lure Baines and Fellaini from Everton.
It’s been sad to see Shay Given’s fall from grace in recent years and perhaps the last straw for a legend of Irish football, as far as his Aston Villa career is concerned at least, was when Jed Steer was included ahead of him for Villa’s Capital One Cup tie with Rotherham during the week.
According to the Guardian amongst other sources, Brendan Rodgers wants a more experienced back-up to Simon Mignolet than Brad Jones and even though Given would be predominantly warming the bench at Anfield, it might be a better alternative to the situation he’s in at the moment.
Given is the biggest transfer story of the day from an Irish perspective but it’s not nearly as sensational as a claim in the Daily Mail saying that Arsenal are prepared to spend their entire transfer budget on Real Madrid trio Angel di Maria, Mesut Ozil and Karim Benzema.
Like a lot of rumours in this transfer window, there’s an element of straw-clutching involved here, namely that Real will probably need to get rid of some midfielders and get some cash once they (finally) sign Gareth Bale, while Arsenal could do adding some quality before the deadline on Monday.
Ozil did come out and say earlier in the week that he was staying in Spain and with Gonzalo Higuain gone, Real would be very short of strikers if they got rid of Benzema, but never let the truth get in the way of a good transfer rumour, eh?
Staying with Real midfielders, Kaka has come out and said publicly that he wants to leave the Bernabeu for pastures new and although the papers have yet to take up the ‘come and get me Premier League’ angle, we expect to see it everywhere over the weekend.
Manchester United’s pursuit of Leighton Baines and Marouane Fellaini is an ongoing one and the majority of this morning’s papers report that the Champions have returned with a £36 million bid for the pair, an £8 million improvement on their original ‘derisory’ offer, but that the new bid has also been rejected.
Spanish radio station Cadena COPE, meanwhile, say that United have made a €30 million for Atletico Bilbao midfielder Ander Herrera, a 24-year old United fans should remember well as he played a pivotal role when the Spanish side took the Red Devils to school in the Europa League two seasons ago.
With Samuel Eto’o having completed a move to Chelsea, the Wayne Rooney transfer saga seems to be dead in the water, but according to the Mirror, the Blues are willing to let Fernando Torres leave. To where it doesn’t say, although a couple of Arsenal fans here in the office would be happy if Arsene Wenger persuaded him to make the move across to the red and white side of town.
Finally, the Liverpool Echo suggest that Everton want to take Gareth Barry off Manchester City’s hands but he’d have to be willing to take a fairly hefty wage cut, Celtic are pursuing Israeli midfielder Nir Biton and Finnish striker Teemu Pukki (Sky Sports) and William Gallas could be set for what would surely be the last move of his career if he takes up an offer to join the Melbourne Victory in Australia (Herald Sun).
