The latest transfer gossip, rumours and damned lies

Franck Ribery to Chelsea
Despite expressing his desire to join old pal Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid, Roman Abramovich will personally fly to Deutschland to thrash out a £40m deal for the handsome winger, say The Sun.

The Spoiler truth-o-meter: Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has made it very clear that no amount of money will persuade the club to part with the Bundesliga’s best player, and the man himself has always said he would prefer to play somewhere sunny. Somewhere like Spain, not Munich or London. We can’t see Ribery going anywhere this season, but next year he will almost certainly leave Germany.

Joleon Lescott to Manchester City
The Daily Mail believe the England defender will finally make his dragged-out move to Eastlands in the next 36 hours, as Everton have begrudgingly accepted a £20m plus add-ons deal.

The Spoiler truth-o-meter: It’s clear that Lescott is keen to move on,

French prankster intends to join the Florentino Perez revolution

A few weeks ago, Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was adamant that Franck Ribery would not leave the Bundesliga club this summer.

The handsome midfielder was present at Bayern’s first day of  training yesterday, but French daily sport paper L’Equipe believe he used the opportunity to drop a bombshell on new manager Louis van Gaal. Apparently, Ribery has expressed an interest in joining his national team-mate Karim Benzema at Real Madrid:

[Translated from French]

Ribery told L’equipe of his desire to move elsewhere: “It’s decided, I want to leave.”

When asked whether he intended to move to Real Madrid, or whether it was another club he wanted to go to, he spontaneously replied: “Yes, it will be Real or nothing.”

Die Roten’s general manager Uli Hoeness was not surprised by Ribery’s attitude, reasoning that “Life is not always a fairytale.” The former German striker, however, made it clear that the club will do everything in their power

Where the hell do they keep getting all this money from?

Hey, remember yesterday morning when we reported the comments of Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. You know, the comments that have appeared in most English papers this morning, almost 24 hours later? Well, he said that Franck Ribery will not be leaving the club this summer, and that it is not a question of money.

This attitude may change, however, when Florentino Perez offers to make him the third most expensive player in the world. According to AS, Real Madrid have ‘reserved’ €55m for the Frenchman - a bid far greater than the £30m reportedly being offered by Chelsea, and

Frenchman will stay with Die Roten, says Rummenigge

Speaking to German newspaper Bild, Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has insisted that Franck Ribery ain’t going nowhere this summer.

The former European Cup winner quickly dismissed claims that Zinedine Zidane had persuaded the Frenchman to join Real Madrid:

We are very proud to have one of the three best players in the world under contract.

Florentino Perez and his advisor Pedro Jiménez [a member of the Real Madrid board - Ed.] contacted us to ask if we were ready to discuss a transfer. We rejected, as we have no intention to sell Ribery.

Rummenigge remained tight-lipped over the sum being offered for their star midfielder, but revealed three other clubs who have made formal approaches:

Chelsea announced an interest, as did Manchester Utd and Barcelona.

It is not a question of the sum, we want Ribery to remain.