By Alan Duffy
Transfer Balls: Rounding up the day’s football tittle-tattle so you don’t have to…
Man Utd To Jettison Van Persie
Robin Van Persie is being sold by Man Utd behind his back, according to ex-Netherlands international Pierre van Hooijdonk. The former Nottingham Forest striker claims, in the Mirror, that the Red Devils have been trying to offload Van Persie since the start of the year, with Turkish giants Fenerbahce interested in the 31-year-old.
“As early as January of this year, I received information from Turkey about Robin and Fenerbahce”, Van Hooijdonk said. “The minute this information came, you knew that United had sent people to test the water for a move.” Injury-prone and arguably past his best, I’m not sure United fans would be too sorry to see Van Persie leave Old Trafford anyway.
Likelihood rating:
/5
Gunners Shell Out £18.9m For Carvalho
The Star reports that Arsenal are on the cusp of signing William Carvalho, The Sporting Lisbon midfielder has been tracked by the Gunners for some time, and with Manchester United now to set to secure the services of Morgan Schneiderlin, Carvalho could well be on his way to the Emirates.
The 23-year-old starred for Portugal at the recent EURO U21 finals, despite missing the decisive penalty in the final shoot-out and his physical presence would take some of the weight off Francis Coquelin’s shoulders. A reasonable £18.9million deal is being mooted, which seems good value to me.
Likelihood rating:/5
Citizens Ready £25m Bellerabi Bid
Manchester City are readying a £25million bid for Karim Bellarabi, according to the Manchester Evening News (via the Sun). The Bayer Leverkusen winger was one of the stand-out players in the 2014/15 Bundesliga season, forcing his way into the German national side.
The Citizens are desperate to rejuvenate their ageing squad, with the 25-year-old wideman adding pace and energy to the side.
Likelihood rating:/5
Hammers Need To Dig Deep For Dragovic
West Ham will need to cough up more than £20million if they are to nab Dynamo Kiev’s Aleksandar Dragovic, the Telegraph tells us. New Hammers’ boss Slaven Bilic is eager to secure the services of the Austrian centre-half, but the hefty price-tag could put the east Londoners off.
West Ham have also been tracking Juventus’ Angelo Ogbonna and Monaco’s Aymen Abdennour as Bilic looks to add some top-quality defenders to his squad. However, the club may well have to look elsewhere for some cheaper options.
Likelihood rating:/5
Man Utd Fail In Muller Bid
Manchester United’s hopes of signing Thomas Muller have hits the skids, according to the Express. The Red Devils were hoping to land the German international with a £50million bid and an overall package worth £120million. However, according to Bild, the 25-year-old is apparently happy at Bayern Munich.
“When you get an offer you consider it automatically”, said the World Cup winner. “A request by a big club is an honour and appreciation that your output was good. But I feel fine at Bayern and my contract runs until 2019. There is nothing more to say about this speculation.”
Likelihood rating:/5
The best/worst of the rest:
Liverpool are closing in on deal for Christian Benteke, Barcelona look set to beat Chelsea to the signature of Arda Turan while West Ham want Arsenal’s Carl Jenkinson for another loan spell.