A further helping of transfer gossip, rumours and damned lies
Gokhan Inler to Arsenal
With primary target Melo almost certain to join Juventus, Arsenal have been forced to look elsewhere for a new midfielder. However, reports suggest Arsene Wenger is restricting his search to Serie A and now wants to sign £10 million-rated Gokhan Inler from Udinese.
The Spoiler truth-o-meter: Arsenal were linked with the Swiss international a lot last summer so hopefully this doesn’t drag on as long as the Andrey Arshavin saga did, especially as this transfer window has been fairly interesting and unpredictable so far.
Tuncay to Everton or Aston Villa
Middlesbrough’s local paper the Evening Gazette states that Aston Villa are looking to complete a £20 million double deal for Stewart Downing and
The Special One refuses to suffer interrogative journalism
Yesterday, Inter Milan continued to top Serie A with a 1-0 home victory over Udinese. Before securing three points, however, disgruntled Inter Milan fans booed and whistled at their side, who weren’t quite playing to their usual standard. Clearly unimpressed with the fans’ behaviour, Jose Mourinho held a finger to his lips when Julio Cruz scored, as if to tell the home fans to shut their traps.
When questioned about the incident by some especially vocal Italian TV presenters, The Special One decided to bid farewell to his antagonists, but not before giving them a piece of his mind.
If anyone has a good grasp of angrily-spoken Italian, feel free to leave a translation below.
David Bentley was axed from Tottenham’s 18-man squad for the 2-0 UEFA Cup loss to Udinese but Juande Ramos denied dropping the winger because he had labelled the club’s season “shocking” and “a bit shit”. Ramos said:
“I just had to choose 18 players from out of 20. I don’t know about his comments.”
The main reason The Spoiler refuses to believe this is because Ramos had included Bentley in his eighteen for every previous game this season and while he was poor against Stoke, he wasn’t much worse than the other midfielders on show that day like Luka Modric and Jermaine Jenas, both of whom made the Udinese squad.
And surely being excluded was a big enough blow to Bentley’s sizable ego without Ramos compounding it by declaring to the media that he considered him one of the two worst players available to him?
Udinese/ Tottenham, Five, 6.10pm
Aston Villa/ Ajax, Five, 8.15pm
Sporting Braga/ Portsmouth, not on tele, 8.15pm
Despite the fact there are still forty teams in the UEFA Cup, the difficulty starts cranking up a few notches at the group stage. That’s bad news for Tottenham, Aston Villa and Portsmouth, who all face tough tests tonight, according to the betting genii at chickendinner:
Udinese v Tottenham
While Spurs are yet to win in the league this season, they have won two and drawn one in cup competition and are unbeaten in the last four games where Ledley King, expected to start tonight, has played. Udinese lost 2-0 when hosting Borussia Dortmund in the last round while Spurs are unbeaten in six UEFA Cup away games. Prediction: Spurs to leave with a morale-boosting point. Best Bet: The final score to be 1-1 - 6/1 with Bet365 - this has been the scoreline in seven of Tottenham’s last eight away draws, as well as their last four UEFA Cup draws.
Aston Villa v Ajax
While Ajax won 4-1 at Serbian side FK Borac in the last round, they have otherwise been poor away from home this season. While Marco van Basten’s side have a 100% home record, they have drawn one and lost two of their three league games on the road, Steve McClaren’s FC Twente have taken three points more than them. Villa are
Which game are Tottenham more likely to need their captain for?
Ledley King is expected to start tonight’s UEFA Cup game away to Udinese, a move which would almost certainly rule him out of Sunday’s Premier League home game against Bolton.
Juande Ramos has started King in all three of Spurs cup games this season while only starting him twice in the league and the impact his presence in the team has been enormous. They have gone unbeaten in the last four games King has played and have taken just one point from the six he has missed.
The main benefit of playing him today is that it would increase his chances of being fit to travel away to either Arsenal or Liverpool next week, something that is less likely if he faces Bolton. However, this is just a group game that Spurs can afford to lose, whereas Bolton is the most winnable of their league games and the most important right now in terms of league positions, as they would go nine points behind Bolton if they lose on Sunday.
So should Spurs play their captain tonight, save him for the Bolton match or just ignore him completely? Let us know with a vote and comment below.
Sorry Jose, looks like it’s the other San Siro team’s turn
Predicting the outcome of Serie A presents one of life’s more difficult challenges: the success/failure of teams must always factor in the degree of cheating/bribery/corruption in which they will partake. Though the league table may well be turned on its head come June because a player/manager/official/entire team has tried to fix matches, here’s what will happen…probably.
» Inter Milan secured their third successive Serie A title last season. Should they triumph this season, they will become the first team since Torino FC in 1945-49 to win the Italian league four years in a row.
» AC Milan have now gone four years without securing the Serie A title. They have not experienced a winless run of five or more seasons since before 1988.
» Chievo finished seventh in the pre-corruption standings in 2005/06 and finished 18th the following season. Empoli ended the 2006/07 season in seventh and were also relegated in 18th place the very next campaign. Udinese finished seventh last season - could they fall through the trapdoor this year?
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