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A further helping of transfer gossip, rumours and damned lies

Emmanuel Adebayor to Manchester City
Mark Hughes has confirmed holding talks with Arsenal over signing the Togolese striker and Sky Sports sources - which proved accurate yesterday - believe he will have a work permit hearing in Manchester tomorrow.

The Spoiler truth-o-meter: If the reported £25 million fee is correct then Arsenal couldn’t really turn it down. It will be interesting to see if the majority of the money gets spent on a striker, a holding midfielder or nobody.

Klaas Jan Huntelaar to Spurs
Real Madrid say that talks to sell Huntelaar to Stuttgart are at an “advanced stage” but The Daily Mail fancy Spurs to make an eleventh hour bid.

Reports claim there is a changing room divide at Manchester City

The Daily Mail claim that one of Manchester City’s four January signings is so frustrated with Robinho and Elano’s attitude that he has demanded that someone “sort them out”.

Considering three of those new arrivals are Wayne Bridge, Nigel de Jong and Shay Given, it seems fairly reasonable to assume that the loudmouth in question is Craig Bellamy, who despite a chronic lack of loyalty is renowned for his work-rate and dedication in training.

The mystery player is also reportedly angry that neither Brazilian has spoken to him since he joined the club. This scans with comments the Welsh striker made in December about being disappointed that vocal players Anton Ferdinand and Bobby Zamora had been replaced with silent foreigners like David Di Michele and Diego Tristan at West Ham.

Because not everyone can be the star of the show

For every Premiership star, there is a gaggle of decidedly average teammates skulking about in his shadows. These players are neither outstanding nor terrible, they are simply hard workers with a tendency to go about their job with little fuss - probably because they don’t want to draw attention to their lack of class.

The Spoiler has lovingly compiled a starting  in tribute to these headline-dodging work horses, and no, it’s not just the Middlesbrough team…

GK: Kasper Schmeichel
City’s number two shot stopper isn’t a bad keeper, but he’s no class act - it probably doesn’t help that his dad was one of the best shot stoppers the Premier League has ever seen. It’s almost tragic at how much worse he is than Schmeichel senior but at ;east he is a better use of genetic material than George Best’s profesional moron son Calum.

RB: Phil Neville
The crappier Neville brother has represented England 59 times, and is Everton’s current captain. Yet he’s never been that good at anything other than tackling.

CB: Steven Taylor
The Newcastle defender has the odd impressive performance, but if he could sustain it, maybe Shay ‘I-have-to-face-way-too-many-shots-a-match’ Given would want to stay.

CB: Anton Ferdinand
They share the same parents, play at centre back, think dodgy braids are equally cool

Footballers raise money by playing fancy dress

Earlier this week, Sunderland FC held a charity event called ‘Fashion Strikes’, for which a £110 ticket would entitle the holder the right to see some of the Black Cats’ most famous faces strut their stuff on the catwalk.

Djibril Cisse was only too happy to help out, as it allowed him to indulge in his favourite pastime of wearing utterly ridiculous clothing. Elsewhere, Anton Ferdinand did some serious hat angle experimentation, and appeared to settle on ‘jaunty’.

[Journal Live and Off the Post]

Premier League referee prone to the occasional error

After Newcastle became the latest team to be denied important points as a result of a mistake by referee Rob Styles, The Spoiler decided to look at who else have fallen victim to his calamitous decision making in recent years.

In goal is Shay Given, who made what deserved to be a match-winning save from Stephen Ireland last night but wasn’t because Manchester City were afforded another opportunity to break down Newcastle’s ten men and scored.

Our left-back is Jlloyd Samuel, whose great tackle on Cristiano Ronaldo last month was punished when Styles pointed to the spot. Accompanying Habib Beye, who is a makeshift centre-back due to Styles’ habit of making costly errors against right-backs, is Stoke’s Ibrahima Sonko, who was adjudged to have fouled Obafemi Martins in Reading’s 3-2 loss at St James’ Park in December 2006, a decision his boss Steve Coppell labelled “a guess-timate”. Steve Finnan completes the defence after Rob Styles famously pointed to the spot last season when Florent Malouda ran into the Irishman with Liverpool beating Chelsea 1-0.

On the wings are

Also appearing on a computer near you…

Quite how Paul Scholes though he would get away with this massively deliberate handball at the weekend is anyone’s guess
[Pies]

Some rather splendid pictures of F1 WAG Elisabetta Gregoraci at the beach
[Grid Crasher]

Sorry Agbonlahor, Jessica Simpson says Tony Romo is the perfect guy
[WithLeather]

Tennis betting: Federer aims to make history at Flushing Meadows
[chickendinner Bet Blog]

Anton Ferdinand’s most treasured possession
[Kickette]

Could Bayern Munich hijack Manchester Utd’s Berbatov dream?
[Bild]

Today’s gossip, rumours and damned lies

In spite of Thaksin’s Shinawatra’s alleged financial misdemeanours, the sky blue Manchester club still have cash to splash. Having dodged the Ronaldinho bullet, Citeh are reportedly interested in making Henry a “box office” signing come January, whatever that means. The Frenchman, however, has said there is only one English club he will return to, and a non-big four move surely wouldn’t be enough to bring him back from Spain.

Anton Ferdinand to Sunderland
In a summer of painfully protracted transfer sagas, Anton Ferdinand is the latest poor soul to be left wondering where his future lies. Sunderland have been after the centre-half for weeks and assuming that they can convince him that Wearside has a better nightclub than Faces (perhaps this one), the under 21 international will be scurrying off to make friends with Roy Keane.

The Spoiler Truth-o-meter: The tabloid’s think the Black Cats’ ninth summer signing is a done deal

Wilson Palacios to Liverpool
Rafa is slowly making