Gossip: Rooney, Modric, Bale, Higuain

Matt Stead

WAYNE’S WORLD
Do you think Wayne Rooney is paid too much by Manchester United? If so, you’d probably better sit down.

According to the Daily Mirror, the footballing revolution over in China is determined to engulf poor Wayne. The 30-year-old’s current pittance of a £300,000-a-week wage would be dwarfed by the offers from China, which reach up to £500,000. That’s a lot of money, folks.

John Cross brings us the EXCLUSIVE, which includes quotes from Sven-Goran Eriksson, current manager of Shanghai SIPG, given to Swedish newspaper Expressen. They read: “Who doesn’t want Rooney? But I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want to leave Manchester United. Not for this moment, anyway.”

Right then. Cross does add that Chinese football bosses believe Rooney would be tempted to move to Asia once he reaches the personal target of becoming United’s record goalscorer. He need six more to break Bobby Charlton’s record.

 

LUKA THE DRAW
Old Trafford is certainly busy. With Rooney heading to China, Jose Mourinho has already targeted 12 players and demanded that two are sold before he’s even signed a contract. Spanish newspaper Sport add another name to the list of incomings. Without further ado, here is our old friend Google to translate for us:

‘The priority is to sign Bale , player by which the United and bid over one hundred million euros last summer. They will try again because the player wants to leave Madrid at all costs. Mou has already spoken to Modric and Varane to fondle her dipsonibilidad. Money will not, and that United will have more than 300 million euros to sign.’

So, to conclude:

* Manchester United’s priority is to sign Gareth Bale, and the Welshman ‘wants to leave Madrid at all costs’.

* Mourinho has also ‘already spoken to’ Luka Modric and Raphael Varane. Central defender Varane is a fairly established link, but Modric? Mourinho signed the Croatian when Real manager and is a huge fan of the 30-year-old. It would take a considerable amount to persuade the midfielder to return to the Premier League; only Cristiano Ronaldo and Keylor Navas have played more La Liga minutes for Los Blancos this season.

* What is a ‘dipsonibilidad’, and why is Mourinho ‘fondling’ one?

 

ITALIAN JOB
We finish with the Daily Mail, who tell us that Gonzalo Higuain was the subject of a bid from Chelsea this January.

Sami Mokbel says that Chelsea offered £40million for Napoli striker Higuain, who has scored 24 goals in 24 Serie A games this season. The Argentinean rejected the move because he was ‘not guaranteed’ to start ahead of Diego Costa. It seems mental considering Higuain’s form, but Costa does have six goals in his last seven Premier League games. It would also represent a massive risk for Guus Hiddink to oversee such a large transfer before his departure in the summer.

In addition, Mokbel states: ‘Indeed, Chelsea are understood to have approached over half a dozen other strikers during the January transfer window only to be rebuffed.’ So they settled for Alexandre Pato, bless him.

 

AND THE REST
Tottenham are in advanced talks to sign Marseille’s Belgium international striker Michy Batshuayi…Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen remains Liverpool’s first-choice goalkeeper target…Inter Milan full-back Yuto Nagatomo has confirmed that he had rejected a bid from Manchester United in January as he wanted to continue playing in Italy…Winger Pedro hopes to reignite his Chelsea career rather than securing a move away from the reigning Premier League champions…Former Arsenal defender Emmanuel Eboue, 32, has been told he must prove his fitness to earn a contract at Sunderland.