The latest transfer gossip, rumours and damned lies

Frank Ribery to Manchester City
Ribery was keen to leave Germany in the summer, but Manchester United swallowed hard and balked at the price tag. The owners of Manchester City by contrast, don’t balk at much, and could no doubt find a spare shekel or two down the back of the couch to pass on to Bayern. Robinho’s replacement in January perhaps?

Thespoiler truth-ometer: If Bayern get out of their qualifying group, Ribery would be unlikely to walk out on a Champions League campaign. Having kept his powder dry, the French hunk is surely most likely to wait an extra few months, and attempt to engineer a move to one of Europe’s biggest clubs.

Romelu Lakuku to Arsenal
This 16 yr old striker has been keeping Tony Adams off the streets of late, with the ex Arsenal skipper being dispatched to spy on the Anderlecht striker. (Thanks to Caughtoffside for bringing the link to our attention)

Thespoiler truth-ometer: Given Adams’ scouting reports back to Wenger regarding Thomas Vermaelen (”I think Thomas is a very good player but I don’t think he’s ready for the Arsenal,”) and Emmanuel Adebayor (”Adebayor was playing for Monaco against Lille and he said what do you think of the left winger and I actually said no!”), it’s unlikely the Arsenal boss would send Big Tone to watch anyone he wanted to sign. It might be a decoy.

Vadis Odjidja to Tottenham
Premier League commentators everywhere will be praying this transfer doesn’t go through, but today’s Sun reveals Spurs are monitoring the 20yr old from Brugge. Odjidja can play anywhere across the back line or midfield, so should be a suitable replacement for any of Spurs’ injury-prone defenders / midfielders.

Thespoiler truth-ometer: A signing more in tune with the imaginative Comoli regime, rather than Harry’s transfer plan of just bringing back old Spurs players or anyone managed by Willie McKay. The Current Bun quote Odjidja simply as saying, “I cannot rule anything out,” which is simply the Sun saying, “We need to fill some space here. Anyone got a quote?”

One-time world beater outrun by creaky-backed ex-alcoholic

Cast your mind back to transfer deadline day January 2009. As Jim White began to moisten in the studio, the big news seemed to be coming from Fratton Park, where a big name was all set to arrive on loan.

The creative midfielder had a reputation so stellar, Patrick Moore had done the scouting report. Yet it was a report Pompey boss Tony Adams wasn’t happy with. Having heard rumours about the new signing’s fitness, Adams refused to acquiesce with his superiors’ demands to sign the player. The deal was deadlocked.

Sniffing a resolution Henry Kissinger would have been proud of, Adams offered the various agents and hangers-on a deal. Both he and Player x would undergo the notorious bleep test - the classic acid test of a footballer’s fitness. If Adams, a 42 yr old former alcoholic with various limb issues, could outperform the new signing, he would be on the first boat back out the South Coast.

thespoiler’s spies report that not only did Adams emerge triumphant, but he absolutely romped home.

The latest transfer news, gossip and damned lies



Thomas Vermaelen to Arsenal
Yesterday reports were circulating that Professor Wenger had splashed £10m on the Ajax defender, something The Daily Mail confirm this morning. Now it’s reportedly just a case of agreeing personal terms.

The Spoiler truth-o-meter: Scout Tony Adams has said he is ‘not ready to be an Arsenal player’ and is not a transfer target, so on that basis, we can almost certainly say that Vermaelen has become a Gunner.

Ashley Young to Tottenham
David Bentley has never held much influence in the court of Harry Redknapp, and as such will be offered to Aston Villa for Ashley Young, with £8m thrown in

We could have sworn he was English and retired…

[Goal.com]

Unemployed manager tries to talk his way into the Parkhead post

You’d think someone who relegated Wycombe and was ready to do the same with Portsmouth would struggle to land a League Two job* but Tony Adams frightened Celtic fans today by claiming he could succeed Gordon Strachan.

The legendary defender said he had been recommended by popular former boss Wim Jansen, who he worked with at Feyenoord. Despite not even applying, he seemed to expect to be considered ahead of candidates like Roberto Martinez, whose Swansea side knocked him out of the FA Cup.

In an attempt to explain why the job appealed to him, Adams didn’t offer the

Transfer rumours and quotes that are doing the rounds today

Photo Credit: Ian Nicholson/PA Wire

Spurs start planning for the summer
The Spoiler thinks Tottenham would be wise to make only minimal changes to their squad during pre-season. The chaos of last summer’s revolving door policy led to Spurs making their worst ever start to a season and recent results - they have lost just one league game since the January transfer window closed - suggest that the current squad doesn’t need to be drastically altered. Harry Redknapp may view things differently though and this afternoon alone the club have been linked with Brazilian defender Joao Miranda de Souza, Gabriel Heinze and Djibril Cisse.

Optimist of the day
Tony Mowbray’s glass appears to be not so much half-full as overflowing. The West Brom manager is refusing to throw in the towel

Click here to hear his interview on the day the Blades went down

If you type “Neil Warnock takes the blame” into Google, about 90% of the results are examples of the former Sheffield United manager passing the buck to either his players, the referee, an authority or the biased Southern media.

This week the Crystal Palace boss was again pointing the finger by claiming that he would still be a Premier League manager right now if it wasn’t for Carlos Tevez, meaning he should be entitled to compensation.

The Spoiler was certain though that at some point Warnock must have accepted that he and his team’s own shortcomings had led to their relegation and eventually we tracked down an acknowledgement of blame in his interview with BBC South Yorkshire on the final day of the 2006-07 season.

While you may require Real Player to listen, Warnock’s key comments were:

• “Everybody’s played their part this season in giving goals away and

  

Is the Swede about to get involved in the relegation dogfight?

Yesterday Sven-Goran Eriksson was one of the favourites for the Chelsea job but this morning he has leapfrogged Avram Grant and Alan Curbishley to emerge as the frontrunner to succeed Tony Adams at Portsmouth.

The former England boss is currently in charge of Mexico, who face the USA in a World Cup qualifier tomorrow night, and while you would expect him to walk if Chelsea came calling, the Portsmouth link remains unconvincing.