Saturday's Paper Gossip

[btajim]

No sign of Chinners at the time of posting. Can't believe certain Posters admitted they were too lazy to check out the Gossip themselves and relied on others to do it for them. What is the World coming to? Hopefully others can provide links to stories they may have found and perhaps a picture of a pretty Girl, too.

Sourced from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/gossip_and_transfers/8764325.stm

TRANSFER GOSSIP:
Tottenham are in negotiations with Palermo in a bid to take Danish centre-back Simon Kjaer and Uruguay striker Edinson Cavani to White Hart Lane, with the Italian side hoping to bank £28m for the pair.
Full story: Daily Mail

Mexico winger Pablo Barrera, who plays in his native country for Pumas, has welcomed interest from Manchester United and Spurs as the 23-year-old eyes a summer move to the Premier League.
Full story: Daily Mail

United are also keen on £12m-rated Portuguese midfielder Raul Meireles. The 27-year-old plays his club football for Porto.
Full story: caughtoffside.com

And keeping his options open, Red Devils boss Sir Alex Ferguson is also keeping tabs on 24-year-old Spanish star Jesus Navas. The Sevilla winger would be a little more expensive thought, at £16m.
Full story: caughtoffside.com

European champions Inter Milan have cooled their interest in Liverpool and Argentina midfielder Javier Mascherano because of the asking price.
Full story: Daily Mail

Manchester City's England winger Shaun Wright-Phillips looks to be on his way out of Eastlands because the big-spending club are unwilling to meet his £100,000-a-week wage demands. City are also close to signing Barcelona's Yaya Toure, Aston Villa's James Milner and David Silva from Valencia in a £88m refit of their midfield.
Full story: Daily Mirror

Arsenal are interested in Stuttgart midfielder Sami Khedira, who was drafted into Germany's World Cup squad after Michael Ballack and his replacement Christian Trasch pulled out through injury. The 23-year-old would cost the Gunners in the region of £13m.
Full story: caughtoffside.com

Fulham will press ahead with the free signing of England goalkeeper David James with their £3.5m sale of Mark Schwarzer to Arsenal expected to be completed next week.
Full story: Daily Mail

Blackpool have launched an ambitious bid to sign Bayern Munich striker Deniz Yilmaz. The 22-year-old German-born Turkish forward would cost £750,000.
Full story: Daily Mail

Birmingham hope to beat Liverpool to the signature of Serbian striker Milan Jovanovic, who is available on a Bosman transfer from Belgian side Standard Liege.
Full story: Daily Mirror

OTHER GOSSIP
Marseille president Jean-Claude Dassier has confirmed that Liverpool have made an approach for the French side's coach Didier Deschamps. However, Dassier told Liverpool managing director Christian Purslow that there is "no hope in hell" of persuading the 41-year-old, who guided his beloved Marseille to their first league title in 18 years last season, to move to Anfield. Full story: L'Equipe (in French)

Leicester manager Nigel Pearson will be appointed as Hull's new manager.
Full story: Daily Mirror

AND FINALLY
We can't leave today's gossip without mention of England's last 16 World Cup clash against Germany on Sunday. 'It's War' is the Daily Star's take on proceedings while The Sun and Daily Mirror have front-page pictures of the German players cowering in cages while on safari looking at, yep, you've guessed it, three lions. England keeper David James is everywhere claiming the game will not go to penalties, but if it does, he's ready to step up and take one. (Various)

[btajim]

Manchester City's England winger Shaun Wright-Phillips looks to be on his way out of Eastlands because the big-spending club are unwilling to meet his £100,000-a-week wage demands. City are also close to signing Barcelona's Yaya Toure, Aston Villa's James Milner and David Silva from Valencia in a £88m refit of their midfield.
Full story: Daily Mirror

I know it's The Mirror and inevitably rubbish - but what on earth has SWP done to warrant 100K a week? Great Squad player and a Senior figure at City but... what? 100K?

[Dameerto]

He's paid 20k a week wage, plus 80k a week to make sure his dad never comes to Manchester to watch him

[Chinners]

Cheers Jim, bit of a sesh last night. Pah sources indeed ... I make it all/most of it up! ...

meanwhile ...
City set to complete midfielder signings
The Eastlands club are poised to pay £27 million for Barcelona’s midfielder Yaya Toure and it is understood the deal will be completed early next week while Germany’s rising star Jerome Boateng is set to move from Hamburg for £11 million on Thursday.

They say snooker is all about angles, and the slim pickings in Saturday's papers show a willingness to cast new light on some old, recurring stories.
Both the Mirror and the Sun revisit the David Silva and James Milner lines, but this time they speculate over what the arrival of such players would mean for Shaun Wright-Phillips.

"Manchester City ace Shaun Wright-Phillips' future will look bleak if Roberto Mancini lands his top targets this summer," writes Martin Blackburn. "The Eastlands chief is confident of signing both James Milner and David Silva for a total fee of more than £50million. "And that could leave England star Wright-Phillips, 28, facing a battle to win a regular starting spot in August.
"But City sources indicate they will not be looking to push the winger, who has two years on his deal, out of the exit door."

David Anderson at the Mirror concurs, and uses the word "splurge" in the process. - "Shaun Wright-Phillips could be one of the victims of Roberto Mancini's midfield spending splurge."
He also adds that the implications of City's supposed wish-list does not just end at SWP - "Stephen Ireland and Craig Bellamy's futures at Eastlands are also in doubt and Mancini is determined to improve on last season's fifth-place finish."
But we can't let Sunday's big match escape our attention, and there's a City angle to the Star's preview of Germany's danger men, with Mesut Ozil described as, "Wanted by a host of Europe's top clubs, including Arsenal and Manchester City." For the papers it seems that these days, who isn't wanted by City?

WAG OF THE DAY

http://www.wsn.com/blog/2010/05/07/wag- ... na-bernal/

WEST HAM PHOTOSHOP BOLLOX (Some good work here)
http://boards.footymad.net/forum.php?tn ... 206&page=1

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

This is why I prefer Chinners bollox to anyone else's. City bollox is always the first, then Wag of the day and after that all the rest IF you have time to read them.

[DoomMerchant]

Prollee about 2 days before the "Arry in for SWP" bollox stories start. Prollee for a "rumoured" 8M or something crap like that.

I think SWP and Bellamy will still be at the club. We need cover. A big squad. Deep cup runs. We're winning the Europa if we wanna, etc.

come on CITY!

cheers

p.s. Nice work James. Fucl what Antti says.

[Chinners]

Carlisle United want to re-sign loan star Adam Clayton from Manchester City
Clayton impressed the United boss during a loan spell at Brunton Park last season but has since returned to his parent club ahead of the new campaign.
Abbott has made clear his desire to capture the services of the promising youngster once again, even though the player has expressed a desire to break into the first team fold at Eastlands.
But the Cumbrians boss says he will continue to pursue his chase of the 21-year-old should first team football at the Premier League outfit evade him.
"At the minute Adam is away in Mexico but I have spoken to him and his agent all summer," Abbott told the News & Star.
"He has spoken in the press about fighting for his Man City place and getting into their team.
"If that changes we would be daft not to make him an offer. We will decide what to do based on what happens with him at Man City in pre-season."

England are the Manchester City of international football
There is probably a banner hanging somewhere in Germany, mocking England’s international misery, that simply reads ‘44’.
Just like the ticking clock banner at Old Trafford, currently reading ‘34’, which is used by Manchester United supporters to goad their Manchester City rivals as a reminder of the number of years that have passed since they last won a trophy.
City have had a barren run, that’s for sure, but even their lengthy trophy drought cannot compare to England’s.
There is an argument, though, to suggest that England are the Manchester City of international football.
Look at the similarities. They both have proud histories and supporters of each continue to follow in great numbers and have done through thin and thin.
Both have consistently failed to deliver, yet with each passing failure, the expectancy appears to grow.
England have won nothing since 1966, while City’s wait for a trophy stretches back to 1976.
City’s struggles are well-chronicled, but with the money of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan flooding into the club, it is surely only a matter of time before they get it right at Eastlands.
England? It all depends on yet another meeting with the Germans in Bloemfontein on Sunday and, if recent form is any guide, the English wait for glory is going to edge towards the half century mark.
Not since 1966 have England beaten the Germans when it has truly mattered. Yes, there was a victory in Charleroi in the group stages of Euro 2000, but neither nation progressed to the knock-out rounds, so it really meant little.
Spain 1982, Italia 90 and Euro 96. On each occasion, England failed to get the victory against the Germans that would have taken them to within touching distance of glory.
Will it be any different in Bloemfontein? For England’s sake, it has to be, but another depressing omen is that no major football nation has been eliminated by England in the World Cup knock-out stages since 1966.
Back then, England accounted for Argentina in the quarter-final before beating West Germany to win the World Cup.
But in the World Cups since, England’s hopes have been ended by Argentina (twice), Germany (twice – plus a 1982 second group elimination) and Brazil.
England’s biggest scalp in the World Cup knock-out rounds since 1966? Toss a coin to decide between the might of Belgium and Cameroon.
And just look at the nations that have progressed to the World Cup semi-finals since England tread that stage in 1990.
Bulgaria, Sweden, Croatia, Turkey and South Korea. Not exactly global super-powers.
Which takes us back to City. Earlier this year, they broke through a psychological barrier by making it to a major cup semi-final for the first time since 1981 in the Carling Cup.
Roberto Mancini’s team ultimately lost out to an injury-time winner by Wayne Rooney against the old enemy, United.
England face their old enemy on Sunday. Will they go one better than City or will it be the same old story all over again?

MODRIC RELISHES CITY SHOWDOWN
Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Luka Modric is already looking forward to the Premier League season and is eagerly anticipating the opening day clash with Manchester City.
Harry Redknapp's men begin the 2010-2011 campaign at home to the side they pipped to fourth place last term and with the Citizens expected to spend big this summer the fixture provides a mouth-watering start to the season.
And Modric, who has been spending the summer at home due to Croatia's failure to qualify for the World Cup, can't wait to get started. "First of all, it's good to play such a strong team," he told the club's official website.
"We've always done well in the big games, especially at home, and City is certainly one of those games.
"It will be great if we can go out and win it and that will give us such confidence for the next games, just like we did against Liverpool at the start of last season. We started so well after that.
"It will be an interesting game, especially as we played them in the most important game of last season right at the end of the season. It will be interesting to play them again so soon after that.
"I'm sure they will bring more players in and it will show us how we've worked in pre-season and where we are.
"It's also great to be at home. We love to play at White Hart Lane."

Liverpool striker Dirk Kuyt has admitted he is unsure about his future on Merseyside. Reports have suggested that Kuyt, who is at the World Cup with the Netherlands, will follow the former Reds manager Rafael Benitez to Inter Milan. He said: "I still have a two-year contract. My focus is on the World Cup. I'm still happy to play at Liverpool but who knows what happens in the future?" (Press Association)