The latest transfer news, gossip and damned lies

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

The games that have made this season worth watching

Now that Manchester Utd have pretty much put the final nail in the coffin of the 2008/09 Premier League title race, it’s high time that we start peddling out some end of season lists. Accordingly, here is a top ten of the campaign’s most entertaining matches, which somehow includes a game involving West Brom…

#10: West Brom 3 - 2 West Ham, 13th September

Gianfranco Zola must have been wondering what he’d signed himself up for, watching his first West Ham game from the stands before taking over as manager. A game with a neutral-baiting mix of awful defending and open attacking play, both teams managed to lose their lead twice before an 83rd minute West Brom counter attack saw Chris Brunt sprint free of the Hammers’ defence and clinically place one inside the far post.

#9: Fulham 0 - 0 Sunderland, 18th October

Sunderland’s early visit to Craven Cottage should go down as the best goalless game of the season. Fulham’s goalmouth literally took a battering. Kieron Richardson, taking time off from his usual job of lying on a physio’s table somewhere, had his 25-yard free-kick bounce between the posts twice (before having another free-kick goal disallowed) and Djibril Cisse’s rasping long ranger was saved by the crossbar. However, the Cottagers created their own opportunities in the back-and-forth battle, with Zoltan Gera having a shot cleared off the line from Pascal Chimbonda before spurning his team’s best chance with a Carragher-esque air kick.

#8: Fulham 2 - 0 Manchester Utd, 21st March

It’s testament to how crap United were

The latest transfer gossip, rumours and damned lies…

The chap wrestling for the ball with Fenerbahce’s Ed in the picture above is Vítor Hugo Gomes Passos, also known as Pelé He should be filling a Lassana Diarra-shaped hole at Pompey for the rest of the season.

Elsewhere in Transferland…

Diego to Manchester City
Remember last week, when we told you that Werder Bremen striker Diego could be on his way to Manchester City for £25m? The English press have finally caught up with us - well done, Daily Mail.

The Spoiler truth-o-meter: The Brazilian is well acquainted with Robinho and Elano, and the price fulfills City’s requirements of paying far too much. Diego is also in trouble for drink driving and strangling another player during a game - let’s hope he gets along with Craig Bellamy…

Carlton Cole to Juventus
According to Sky Sports, The Old Lady may give their old boys Trezeguet and Del Piero some competition up front with the signing of West Ham’s in-form striker. No money is mentioned, but the sum was said to be around £8m when Spurs were chasing him.

The Spoiler truth-o-meter: It sounds a little incredulous, but Claudio Ranieri is a huge

For some players, it’s all about the Benjamins

After being knocked back by Kaka and his ilk, it’s becoming clear that Manchester City will have to build their team of superstars from those who hold a big day in greater regard than loyalty and dignity.

Perhaps Robinho, Craig Bellamy and co should look at the example set by Athletic Bilbao’s Joseba Exteberría. The Basque legend - who has notched up over 400 appearances for Athletic Club since 1995 - recently signed a one-year extension to his contract that will see him play for free.

The Spaniard won’t go to sleep tonight on a huge pile of money surrounded by beautiful women (isn’t that what most Premier League stars do?), but he will have earned a helluva lot more respect from the European football community.

With this in mind, take a look at The Spoiler’s Mercenary XI. And before all the City fans start getting their sky blue knickers in a twist, no players from the blue side of Manchester made the cut…

Carlo Cudicini
Cudicini might frown at his inclusion in a list containing such a disloyal and greedy bunch, but we struggled to find a true mercenary to stick between the sticks. Cudicini gets the honour, however, as a player rivaling former Chelsea colleague Winston Bogarde for lack of ambition. Before the arrival of Petr Cech in 2004, Cudicini was Chelsea’s first choice shot stopper and one of the best keepers in the league (acknowledged by his ITV Premiership Goalkeeper of the season award for 2003/04). Since Cech has displaced him as first choice and now the Italian only manages a handful of appearances a season. Chelsea’s number two keeper should have more ambition than collecting a wage for bench warming - a man of his talents would make a decent number one at most European clubs.

Pascal Chimbonda
Chimbonda put in a transfer request at Wigan Athletic straight after the final whistle of their last game of the 2005/06 season, earning him a move – and a pay rise - with Spurs. Last January the Sun reported that he told pals, “Kevin Keegan has approached me and they’ve offered me more money. I am definitely leaving Spurs. It’s all about the money. I don’t care about the final, I don’t care about the cup.” He got his wish joining Sunderland in the summer, and he is now engineering a move away from the Black Cats, with Lyon a touted destination.

Winston Bogarde
Following spells at Barcelona and AC Milan, Winston Bogarde joined Chelsea in 2000. After Gianluca Vialli was replaced, however, he found himself surplus to requirements. Chelsea were keen to offload him but no one would match his £40,000 wages and Bogarde was reluctant to take a pay cut. “Why should I throw fifteen million euros away when it is already mine? At the moment I signed it was in fact my money, my contract,” he protested. He sat it out in the reserves for four years and continued to train with either the youth or reserve teams, safe in the knowledge he would still receive his pocket money. When his contract expired, with 11 appearances in four years and a reputation as the greediest and least ambitious man in football, he retired after a lack of interest in his services. Bogarde clearly has no qualms about his time in West London: “I may be one of the worst buys in the history of the Premiership, but I don’t care”.

Eleven players who’ll probably all end up at Man City in January

With just 23 days left until the big day, footballers all over Europe are champing at the bit to leave their current employers behind, in search of lots more money fresh opportunities elsewhere. Here’s eleven stars who are likely to change clubs in early 2009, conveniently arranged into a football team in their own right…

Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus, linked to Manchester City)
Juve say they want to keep their star keeper but Buffon says they should cash in if they receive a ridiculous offer. Good news for Joe Hart’s England hopes then.

Wayne Bridge (Chelsea, linked to Manchester City)
Bridge is still behind Cashley Cole in the Chelsea pecking order and Mark Hughes wants to build a world class team. With this vision in mind, one would expect that left backs Michael Ball and Javier Garrido won’t be playing much longer.

Pascal Chimbonda (Sunderland, linked to Lyon)
The man who put in a transfer request just minutes after Wigan’s last game of the season in 2006 seems ready to jump ship again. As Sunderland battle relegation, Chimbonda again proves he has an impeccable sense of timing.

Federico Fazio (Sevilla, linked to Arsenal)
Arsene Wenger has admitted his defence lack height and could sign 6′5 Fazio to shore

Former boss points out where Ramos has gone wrong

When everything you touch is going wrong, the last thing you need is your popular predecessor pointing out your shortcomings. But just like Avram Grant had to suffer Jose Mourinho’s taunts in his final days as Chelsea manager, Bundesliga table-topper Martin Jol felt obliged to point out Juande Ramos’ mistakes.

It’s less than eight months since Spurs won the Carling Cup but only eight of their sixteen man squad from that day are still with the club and Jol feels that this is the main reason they are struggling:

“They won the Carling Cup with that team, which was good, I thought, but they changed it - and that is there responsibility but as I said I wish them all the best.”

While Jol is far too nice a guy to properly lay into anyone, he wanted to remind everyone that the start his Spurs side made last season was nowhere near as bad as this and that he had far less to work with:

“They have got probably a worse situation

Profit collected at White Hart Lane’s revolving door

It was revealed today on Sky Sports that just four Premier League teams made a profit over the summer and not one of them was Arsenal.

Blackburn made a net gain thanks to the £15 million they received for David Bentley and West Ham made the biggest profit of anyone after selling half of their first team. It is also being claimed that Chelsea made a profit but The Spoiler’s calculator doesn’t come to that conclusion (surely the £24.2 million spent on Deco and Jose Bosingwa exceeds the £19 million gained on Shaun Wright-Phillips, Steve Sidwell and Tal Ben-Haim?). The other team to have received more than they spent were Tottenham.

Today’s gossip, rumours and damned lies

Barcelona are hoping to become the second Spanish club to ruin Manchester Utd’s summer by poaching stroppy Spurs star Dimitar Berbatov. He would be expected to fill the huge void left by Ronaldinho, not to mention Uzbekistan-bound Samuel Eto’o. Manchester Utd are still favourites to land the Bulgarian, but they appear to have made one more enemy on the Iberian peninsula.

Emmanuel Adebayor to AC Milan
The Italians are favourites to sign the greedy poor, underpaid striker after agent Vincenzo Morabito revealed that Arsenal have drastically lowered their valuation. Adebayor has been left out of the squad for their traditional pre-season friendly with Barnet, who he scored against last year.

The Spoiler Truth-o-meter: Wenger is planning for an Adebayor-less future

Robbie Keane to Liverpool
Rafa Benitez has decided he won’t let Steven Gerrard bully him into buying his best mate anymore and he is instead going to give in to Tottenham’s demands and make Robbie Keane their biggest signing this summer.

The Spoiler Truth-o-meter: Ideally they’ll still want both

Pascal Chimbonda to Newcastle or Everton
The Sun reports that the two clubs are battling