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The Wednesday Wander through the Transfer Latest…

Published by Ian John on May 19, 2010

It’s been a little while since I brought you the latest transfer news regarding the Premiership elite, so I’ll take a few minutes here to bring you up to date on the latest gossip making the back pages of the papers.

The big news today comes from Arsenal where it is believed Cesc Fabregas told Arsene Wenger on Tuesday morning that he wants to leave the Emirates to join Barcelona next season, preferably before the start of the World Cup finals in a little over three weeks time. This was followed by a statement from Barcelona a few hours later confirming that they had held positive talks about the signing of striker David Villa from Valencia and that they were keen on Fabregas, but had not yet agreed anything with Arsenal, so would not be commenting. Which is an oxymoron which basically confirms that all that is left for this deal to happen is for Arsenal and Barcelona to agree a fee, Arsene Wenger to slam his hand on his desk in frustration and Cesc to join Barcelona before the World Cup begins to become part of a team that is shaping up to be frighteningly good next season.

Other news from Arsenal is that William Gallas seems set to leave the club as he has not yet agreed a new deal. Not that many Arsenal players will shed tears over his departure with Samir Nasri the latest player to reveal he and four or five other Arsenal players don’t get on with the Frenchman. To combat this seeming one-way flow through the gates of the Emirates Arsene Wenger has amused himself by making an offer for Liverpool keeper Pepe Reina. However Arsenal bid £14m for the best keeper in the Premier League and if you listen carefully, you can hear the laughter echoing from the halls at Anfield.

Some better news for Arsenal in that in arguably the longest and most pointless transfer story ever, they are soon to announce the signing of Marouane Chamakh from Bordeaux on a free. Surprising eh?

Let’s move away now from this somewhat Arsenal-centric train of thought and head off to Manchester. United to be exact where unhappy keeper Ben Foster, currently 18th choice for Manchester United and 4th choice for England, is set to put pen to paper on a long term £6m move to Alex McLeish’s Birmingham City. This is move happened for two reasons, firstly Foster was fed up of being overlooked for the 84 year old Edwin Van Der Sar while Birmingham City realised that trying to sign Joe Hart from Manchester City would be entirely pointless, especially given that Given is currently injured.

At Anfield, as well as giggling like a child at Arsenal’s desultory offer for Pepe Reina, Rafa Benitez men have been the subject of much transfer speculation. How accurate any of this is, is open to interpretation, but given that the banks are quietly nudging Liverpool’s owners for their money back, there could be more than a grain of truth in the following; Fernando Torres is wanted by Chelsea and Manchester City, who are thought to both be ready to pay between £50 – £60m for the striker, Inter Milan and Real Madrid both want Steven Gerrard for £30m, Spurs are thought to want Yossi Benayoun, with a rumoured swap offer for Roman Pavlyuchenko on the cards. It’s not all one way traffic at Anfield though, Liverpool have signed Charlton youngster Jonjo Shelvey for £1.7m initially. I bet that will have Barcelona struggling to sleep at night next season.

It’s all been rather quiet in contrast at Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson has already signed two players, Chris Smalling from Fulham and Javier Hernandez from Guadalajara and the Scot doesn’t seem overly enamoured on adding anyone else just at the moment, even with Ben Foster departing to Birmingham as Ferguson has indicated that his place in the squad will go to Ben Amos, a keeper who has come through the ranks at Old Trafford. There was speculation at the weekend linking United with a £60m move for Franck Ribery, which is plainly newspaper nonsense as Ferguson has already pointedly stated that the only player he would spend that sort of money on would be Cristiano Ronaldo.

Manchester City are believed to have made a £24m bid for Aston Villa’s James Milner, but Aston Villa are thought to be ready to turn that down, with owner Randy Lerner stating that Villa don’t have to sell. City are soon to complete the £11m signing of defender Jerome Boateng from SV Hamburg and in London, Tottenham are thought to be the club most likely to sign Joe Cole from Chelsea, despite interest from Manchester United and West Ham. Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has been conspicuous by his absence from the transfer stories of late with only the mention of a move for Fernando Torres, first mooted by Didier Drogba, making any ripple in the sports pages.

Image Courtesy of ***mcaparrotta*** on Flickr.com

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