Lots of Irish players feature in today’s round up of all the gossip that’s fit to print.
A lot of the back pages this morning lead with the news that Wayne Rooney is not guaranteed to sign a new deal in the summer. Honestly, it is too early in the year to get into yet another ‘Is Rooney leaving Manchester United’ saga so we’re going to ignore it for now.
Instead, what caught our eye was the news that Aston Villa are plotting to take Ireland’s Wes Hoolahan from Norwich. The Mirror reckon £1.5million will do the trick and considering he has been in and out of favour at Norwich this year, perhaps a fresh start under Paul Lambert would be a good move for the former Shels man.
Hoolahan is just one of quite a few Irish players in the rumour mill today. Shane Long also features rather a lot. Most of the papers carry the news that he will play today for West Brom against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup, leaving the Tipp man cup-tied for any possible suitors. To be honest, we don’t think that will put any team off, considering how little they all care about the Cup these days. Hull, who tried and failed in the last window to nab Long, are expected to try again this month.
And finally, from an Irish point of view, Stephen Ireland may be about to make his loan move to Stoke permanent this month, according to the Express.
Away from these shores, the big focus is on Arsenal’s hunt for a striker. With some papers saying Nicklas Bendtner could be out for two months, a new name has been dropped into the mix. The Mail say that Bayern Munich striker Mario Mandzukic is a target, but he won’t be moving until the summer, so that doesn’t really help Arsene Wenger.
The manager dismissed the Diego Costa and Dimitar Berbatov rumours yesterday but he did admit to needing more firepower, so expect Arsenal to dominate this month’s gossip.
Away from the Emirates there are a few nuggets. Liverpool are facing a fight to nab Basle’s Mohamed Salah (Metro), Demba Ba could be on his way to strikerless West Ham (Express) and the Star say that Rio Ferdinand is ‘on trial’ at United as he looks for a new deal in the summer.
Finally, in managerial news, the Sun reckon Robbie Fowler could be about to take charge at Torquay.
