The latest transfer gossip, rumours and damned lies
Fernando Amorebieta to Liverpool
Rafa’s men are very popular in the Basque region, but this might change if Bilbao’s prized defender heads to England. Marca believe he would cost €12m (£10m).
The Spoiler truth-o-meter: That’s a lot of money for a 24-year-old who has yet to represent his country at the top level. Perhaps Hull’s Michael Turner would be a better option.
Sol Campbell to Newcastle
At the end of his Portsmouth contract, Big Sol said he would like to go somewhere with some stability, so naturally, he has been linked with one of the few clubs that are less stable than his current one.
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,
Matthew Upson to Manchester City
While David Moyes continues to bear hug Joleon Lescott, growling at anyone who comes near him, the Citizens will instead look to the West Ham defender, say The Guardian.
The Spoiler truth-o-meter: Mark Hughes has also reportedly identified Sylvian Distin as a potential replacement for Richard Dunne. He may not have enjoyed the best of form last season, but shouldn’t they just stick with their captain and four-time player of the year?
Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona The Times believe the Catalan giants have turned their attentions back to the young Spaniard after failing to secure the services of Javier Mascherano. Apparently, an offer of £25m will be offered. Mathematicians will note that this is nowhere near the £40m rumoured to have been offered a few months ago.
The Spoiler truth-o-meter: We are willing to bet a Penguin bar and half a jar of crunhcy peanut butter that Fabregas will
Robinho to Barcelona
The Brazilian forward has responded to speculation that the treble winners could be interested in signing him by telling Spanish newspaper Sport: “Barcelona are a great team and everybody would love to play for them.”
The Spoiler truth-o-meter: Financially, there is no pressure on Manchester City to sell so Robinho is only likely to leave if Mark Hughes feels he can get someone better in.
Heurelho Gomes to PSV
In 90% of Spurs’ games last season, Gomes was one of Spurs’ best players and a vital part of the best home defence in the Premier League. However, The Mirror only remember the mistakes and expect him to be offloaded to fund a
Wigan staff try to help one another win Fabio Capello over
Fabio Capello has named a number of unlikely candidates in his England squads over the last twelve months: Joe Lewis, Michael Mancienne, Jimmy Bullard and Carlton Cole to name a few. However, Wigan goalkeeper Chris Kirkland has pushed the boundaries even further by tipping Titus Bramble for a call-up.
The Wigan defender, famed for screw-ups like the ones in the video above, has had a good season but surely still has some way to go before he can justify the label “international standard”, especially considering many other English centre-backs like Phil Jagielka, Matthew Upson and Gary Cahill have impressed this year.
However, talking up one another’s England prospects appears to be in vogue right now at the JJB, as Steve Bruce, who was famously never capped, has put in a good word for Kirkland, labelling him “the best goalkeeper in England”. All that remains now is for Bramble to point out that Bruce should be the next England manager and a perfect triangle will be complete.
The most regrettable transfers in Premier League history
It’s the January window, which means plenty of players are going to trade hands. Some clubs will end up paying far too much money for their new blood (Manchester City have already got the ball rolling on that one), while others will land a player who proves to be a bargain and a regrettable loss for their former employer. A classic example of the latter is Denis Law: Manchester United decided to let their second highest goal scorer of all time leave on a free to rivals City. Law only spent one year at City in his second spell before retiring, but his last goal came in the last game of the 1973-74 season against United. The red side of Manchester needed a win to stay up, but a Law back heel in a 1-0 win confirmed their place in the Second Division for the next season.
With this case study in mind, here’s the Premier League ‘Shouldn’t have let him go XI’…
Brad Friedel (Liverpool to Blackburn, 2000, free)
Friedel only managed 30 starts for Liverpool in three years before he was allowed to move on a free to Blackburn, after failing to displace Sander Westerveld. Since leaving Merseyside, Friedel has been one of the most consistent keepers in the league, while Liverpool have been through Westerveld, Dudek, Chris Kirkland, Pegguy Arphexad and Scott Carson, before settling with current shot stopper Pepe Reina.
Steve Finnan (Fulham to Liverpool, 2003, £3.5m)
Finnan was a key figure in the Cottagers side that won the Second Division and First Division and was a member of the PFA Team of the Year in his first season in the Premiership with them. He managed over 200 appearances for Fulham before moving to Liverpool and winning the League Cup, FA Cup and Champions League in his 5 years on Merseyside.
Jonathan Woodgate (Leeds to Newcastle, 2003, £9m)
In January 2001, Leeds were top of the Premiership. Two years later, they found themselves fighting a relegation battle. Then came the sales of Lee Bowyer, Robbie Fowler and their best defender, Woodgate - unsurprisingly their poor form continued. The following season Woodgate’s value to the team was all too evident when Roque Junior was brought in to fill the gap. Junior looked like he had money on a Leeds relegation as the club conceded 25 goals in the 7 games he played in.
Matthew Upson (Arsenal to Birmingham, 2003, £1m)
Upson only managed 20 league starts in nearly six years at Arsenal before he was sold for half the price they had previously paid for him. He excelled at Birmingam before a £6 million switch to West Ham, where his performances have been rewarded by a call up to the England team. Recent reports have suggested that following the uncertainty of the future of ex-captain William Gallas, Professor Wenger is keen to spend over £10m on bringing him back to Arsenal. If he does rejoin the club, maybe he’d have more luck starting if he changed his name to Mathieu Upsoné.
David Unsworth (Sheffield United to Wigan, 2007, free)
Mr Unsworth wasn’t the biggest success at Wigan - he only managed 10 games for the club. He did, however, manage to score the winning goal with a penalty in Wigan’s last game of the season to keep them in the Premier League. And the side who went down at Wigan’s expense? Sheffield United.
The latest gossip, rumours and fairly ridiculous lies
On the day that Carlos Tevez tried to make peace with Manchester Utd by slagging them off and touting a move to Spain in a phone call to The Sun, the transfer rumour mill is kicking out some brilliant nonsense…
John Terry to Manchester City
In their morning gossip column, The Guardian report that Manchester City are “about to sign John Terry, David Villa, Lionel Messi or Kaka”.
The Spoiler truth-o-meter: It sounds like the Arab owners have been randomly plucking names from their tombola of famous footballers again. It’s pretty unlikely that “Mr Chelsea” will quit the Bridge anytime soon.
Matthew Upson to Arsenal
Professor Wenger is said to be interested in plugging the hole in his central defence with forgotten son Matthew Upson. In order to meet The Hammers’ £16m valuation, Arsenal are willing to throw Nicklas Bendtner
Nine days remain until Mark Hughes starts his spending spree
With the transfer window drawing closer, the tabloids have desperately been searching for names that they haven’t already linked with Manchester City. But rather than rationing themselves to one rumour a day they have thrown all the new names into the mix at once as a special Christmas present to their loyal readers:
Kolo Toure to Manchester City The Sun have declared Toure as Manchester City’s top £10 million January transfer target based on the fact “he seems to have been made the fall guy for his side’s stuttering season and is now behind William Gallas, Mikael Silvestre and Johan Djourou in the pecking order.” The Spoiler is baffled by this logic considering he has started more league games that Silvestre and Djourou this season and was arguably Arsenal’s best player against Wigan before picking up his latest injury.
The Spoiler Truth-o-meter: The only reason Wenger would let Toure go is if he has decided he is too injury prone and that seems unlikely.
Mark Hughes wants another four players The Daily Mail claim that Hughes will spend £40 million next month on Marcos Senna, Wayne Bridge and his former Blackburn players Roque Santa Cruz and Craig Bellamy.
The Spoiler Truth-o-meter: Would that be good value for money?
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