Valencia desperately need to sell stars to avoid bankruptcy
After becoming top scorer at Euro 2008, David Villa became the subject of a 40 million euro move, as Valencia struggled to pay their bills (they were suffering for failing to qualify for the Champions League and as a result of giving a huge pay off to their previous coach.
The Spanish press are now reporting that the Spanish side are “on the brink of bankruptcy”, and need to pay off a bill of over 50 million euros by the end of this month.
The club, currently third in La Liga, are hoping to get a bank loan, but their frosty relationship with the lenders means they will almost certainly be forced to shift stars including Fernando Morientes, Edu, David Villa and David Silva.
Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea have all shown interest in David Villa, but will one of them be able to snap him up at a bargain basement price in January?
Yesterday, the 23-man shortlist for the 2008 FIFA World Player of the Year Award was announced, and no fewer than ten Premier League players made the cut. After his superb performance last night, Big Phil Scolari is hailingFrank Lampard as the world’s best player, but he will face stiff competition from self-professed King of the Universe Cristiano Ronaldo, who has received the backing of last year’s runner up Lionel Messi.
It seems winning major championships is not very good for team morale. Euro 2008 winners Spain took things back to basics ahead of their World Cup qualifier in Estonia with a few trust exercises and other playground activities! Rafa Benitez will no doubt be ecstatic to see Xabi Alonso’s head hurtling towards a wooden floor!
Rival fans may have laughed at the fact that Tottenham finished eleventh last season after talking up their top-four credentials but one area where you couldn’t fault them was their knack of scoring goals. Their 66-goal haul was the fifth best in the league last season and even better than Chelsea’s. But Juande Ramos and Gus Poyet clearly weren’t happy with this free-scoring nature and set about enforcing a five-point plan to change things:
1. Get rid of Jermain Defoe Juande logic: He might have scored 64 goals for the club from starting 110 games, but who needs Jermain Defoe when you’ve got Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov? By selling him to another club with European aspirations, Portsmouth, there’s no way it’ll come back and bite us. If anything, he’ll help drag them down to our level. The reality: Defoe has scored thirteen goals in eighteen league starts for his new club and scored against Tottenham this weekend.
2. You don’t win anything with left-wingers Juande logic: We may already have Jamie O’Hara, Didier Zokora, Tom Huddlestone, Jermaine Jenas and Aaron Lennon here already but what we really need is more midfielders who prefer playing in the centre or on the right. Bring in Luka Modric, David Bentley and Giovani dos Santos, it’ll be fun trying to figure out where to play them all. Who cares if Bentley got into the England squad for his performances on the right, let’s sling him on the left or behind the strikers. Luka Modric is known as the exciting, attacking impetus of the Croatia team but there’s no harm playing him as a holding player. Maybe I could throw him on the left too! The reality: Spurs ended up starting Gilberto, who hasn’t looked too convincing in his preferred position of left-back, as an attacking left-winger against Portsmouth.
3. Sell one of the best strike forces in the Premier League Juande logic: Robbie and Dimitar scored 46 goals between them last season for our bottom-half side, and the fans voted Robbie as player of the season but that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t be able to cope without them. They both say they want
Yesterday, David Villa was supposed to be ushered into White Hart Lane for a cool £32 million, but today all the talk is about Dean Ashton and how they won’t pay West Ham’s £18 million asking price (quite right, too). Fear not though, Spurs fans, Juande Ramos has now decided Atletico Madrid’s Diego Forlan is the right man for the job, according to the journos fishing for a story experts at The Mirror…
Louis Saha to West Ham
The Irons are another side actively trying to bring in another striker, but the Daily Mail reports that they want to wait until the Frenchman’s knee injury clears up before making an offer. Perhaps they don’t want any outside help in their bid to retain the Physio Room Injury League title.
The Spoiler Truth-o-meter: Saha may prefer the ex-United haven at Sunderland, while
The Mirror are reporting that Liverpool are finally prepared to pay Aston Villa £18 million. Further proof arrived this morning when a Kiss 100 DJ revealed that he saw Barry in a nightclub this weekend and the deal will go through on Wednesday. Concrete evidence, folks.
David Villa to Tottenham
While Liverpool lift up the couch cushions to count pennies, Spurs are ready to take their summer spending over the £50 million mark by bring in Villa for £32 million and attempting to snare Man City defender Vedran Corluka for £9.5 million. Berbatov may make way to raise the funds.
The Spoiler Truth-o-meter: A deceptively shrewd summer for Spurs, with their net spend currently about £10 million, despite the big signings
Robinho latest
With no sign of progress, it was decided that Chelsea
Barcelona, Chelsea and Arsenal all took turn in being the favourites to sign Andrei Arshavin, but Spurs appear the most interested now. A £16 million offer was turned down, but if they offer £21.5 million, they could get their man. They do seem to be tapping a mysterious endless cash source at the moment, so there’s every chance the young Russian will end up at White Hart Lane. Either that, or he’ll be linked to Man City tomorrow…
The Cristiano Ronaldo saga update
Sir Alex Ferguson has told Ronaldo that Manchester United is the best club for him, claiming that if you had a son you would tell him that the worst thing he could do would be to join Real Madrid. Maybe that explains why he sold son Darren to Wolves, then.
The Spoiler Truth-o-meter: Will probably stay put this summer
Robinho to stay put
Peter Kenyon has been busy talking up Chelsea’s chances of signing Robinho so must have missed the Brazilian declare that he wants to stay at Real Madrid for a long time. Chelsea hope that those are empty words, though there is a fear the Brazilian man-o’-sex has used them to get a new contract.
The Spoiler Truth-o-meter: A move is still
The new season kicks off in just 37 days, yet most clubs are still scrambling about like headless Dirk Kuyts to complete their desired lineups. Cristiano and Frank are still putting us to sleep with their predicaments, so here’s what’s going on in the rest of Transferland…
Robinho to Chelsea
The main reason Robinho appears interested in Chelsea is to punish Real Madrid for using him as a bargaining chip in their attempts to sign Cristiano Ronaldo. His agent has claimed he is “better or equal to” Ronaldo, and Chelsea are eager to find out if that’s true.
Zenit’s labelled Arsene Wenger a “cunning fox” for questioning Arshavin’s ability to play three straight top-level games, saying it was a ploy to put off suitors. Arsenal are now favourites to sign him so it looks like their perception of Wenger was spot on.
The Spoiler Truth-o-meter: Would fit in perfectly but it depends on the price
David Villa latest
Rafael Benitez must be seen as an easy target in transfer negotiations given his willingness to be ripped off in his pursuit of Gareth Barry. That’s why Valencia priced up David Villa at £32 million, although
After telling Milan where to stick their interest in Emmanuel Adebayor, frugal Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has decided he is fed up with his greedy players, and now wants to the shift the Togolese striker. This time, the Frenchman chose letter-writing over faxing and told the Italians he wants a ridiculous hefty £36 million. Seeing as the methods of communication between the two teams are slowly becoming more rudimentary, we expect the counter offer to be sent by telegram, and all remaining correspondence to be wired by Morse code.
The Frank Lampard saga latest
Scolari says he will stay but Lampard’s agent Steve Kutner claims his future is “completely unresolved”. Chelsea are offering him £150,000 a week for four years, but Lampard is holding out for five.
The Spoiler Truth-o-meter: He’s been offered £150,000 until he’s 33 - why is he still haggling?
David Villa to Liverpool
Once again, Rafael Benitez has publicly declared interest in a player who’s under contract at another club. Benitez feels negotiations will be difficult but Villa has previously spoken about wanting to work with the former Valencia boss.
The Spoiler Truth-o-meter: A possibility, but would Rafa want to change formation again?
Andy Johnson to Wigan
Johnson’s preferred choice if he leaves Everton is Wigan. Not because he
