The great Anzhi sell-off has sparked some Premier League interest while there are conflicting reports about Gareth Bale’s future.
All is not good at Anzhi Makhachkala these days. The once mega rich club is now working to a vastly different budget after owner Suleyman Kerimov cut off funding last week. That has left a massively expensive squad, with an equally massive wage bill, all scrambling for the exits and the Premier League looks to be the favoured destination for most of them.
The big rumour today is about Willian, the attacking midfielder from Brazil. Once a target of Manchester City, who seem to have gone cold on the idea, the Sun today report that both Liverpool and Spurs fancy the 25-year-old but the fee could be as high as £35m.
Another Anzhi name, Samuel Eto’o is also in today’s papers as the Mail reckon the 32-year-old could be on the way to Chelsea to solve Chelsea’s striker woes.
But it’s not all Anzhi news, there still room for some old reliable, like Gareth Bale. Depending on who you read this morning the news is very different. The Telegraph report that Real Madrid’s interest has ‘cooled’ after Carlo Ancelotti told Florentino Perez that he doesn’t see the Welsh man as ‘integral’ to his side next season.
However, the Mirror reports that the bold Carlo wants to reopen talks and get the deal done quickly so that Bale has time to settle in Madrid.
The other familiar name in the press today is Wayne Rooney. With Roy Hodgson declaring him fit ‘for several days’ the papers have jumped on this as a declaration ‘of defiance’ (Mirror) by the Manchester United striker as David Moyes said over the weekend he wasn’t fit. What it means for his future remains unclear but reports in the Telegraph today suggest Rooney could play for United against Swansea at the weekend, so we might have to wait until then for more news on this.
Meanwhile, Arsenal’s pursuit of Luiz Gustavo continues, and it now has the added hitch of delaying Liverpool’s move for Bayern Munich team-mate Diego Contento. The German giants are only set to let one leave, according to the Express, so Brendan Rodgers will be hoping Arsene Wenger doesn’t seal the deal for the midfielder so he can pick up the defender.
In other news best described as ‘final paragraph worthy’ Crystal Palace want to add Darren Bent to their forward line (Telegraph), Manchester City want one of Greece centre-back Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Napoli’s Paolo Cannavaro or Real Madrid’s Pepe to solve their defensive problem (Mirror) and Wset Ham are set to battle Sunderland for Fabio Quagliarella (Sun).
