It’s a sunny Friday, but before you throw on the shorts and grab a cold one, check out the latest spin on the football rumour merry-go-round.
With the season almost at an end, and already completed for many teams, the pre-World Cup transfer frenzy is in full swing. Before players jet off to their various Brazil preparation camps, the papers are full of more potential killer moves than a Mortal Kombat instruction booklet.
But the juiciest story today, at least from the point of view of Liverpool fans involves that man Luis Suarez. We were already braced for a full summer of ‘will he stay or go’ tales and when the Uruguayan striker headed off to Barcelona for a little break this week, the stories practically wrote themselves.
However, in what is probably a doomed bid to dampen speculation, Brendan Rodgers has told the Liverpool Echo that “Of course in football you can’t promise anything but I am confident Luis will be a big part of the future here.” We suspect that the Irish manager will give a variation on that quote about 1,000,000 times this summer.
In other Liverpool news talkSport say that Valencia midfielder Dani Parejo is on his way to Anfield for a fee of just over £20million while the Star say that former Chelsea man Solomon Kalou is on his way to either Liverpool or Arsenal.
Speaking of the Gunners, it looks like tomorrow’s FA Cup final will be Bacary Sagna’s last appearance for Arsenal. The Times say that he is going to follow the same path as Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri and join Manchester City. And, as he is out of contract, it’ll be on a free transfer too.
Up at Everton, Roberto Martinez is getting busy to expand his squad ahead of the demands of the Europa League next year. He’s chasing Andros Townsend, according to the Mirror, and the South Wales Evening Post reckon he’s trying to nab Wilfried Bony from Swansea to replace on-loan striker Romelu Lukaku.
Chelsea, as we know, are desperate for a striker and the Mirror reckon they are giving Mario Mandzukic the glad eye. To prise him from Bayern the Londoners are prepared to send them David Luiz, plus £15m. We’ve thought about this a lot and we’re not sure if that is way too much for the Croatian, or way too little. Whatever it is, something is not right.
And speaking of Bayern, the Guardian have a shopping list of Luis van Gaal’s targets for when he finally gets his hands on the Manchester United branded cheque book and pen. According to the paper the Dutchman, who no-one is yet calling LVG, has looked at his former club and thought ‘I’d like Arjen Robben, Thomas Muller and Toni Kroos’. The Guardian also say that Luke Shaw and Mats Hummels are on the wish list. It is a very impressive set of targets, but we wonder just how many of those players will the new Old Trafford gaffer get his hands on come kick-off in August?
