Gossip: Pato, Sturridge, Lukaku, Martinez

Daniel Storey

PATO TO CHELSEA? ACTUALLY?
Forgive us for seeing Alexandre Pato rumours as the stories that cried wolf, but we won’t believe it until he’s paraded on the Stamford Bridge pitch.

ESPN Brazil are claiming a deal between Chelsea and Corinthians has been agreed for £9million. All that remains is for the player to sign the deal.

Pato is out of form, fading and injury prone. He also hasn’t played since the end of November.

If this hard work pays off, Pato’s two agents should treat each other to all the celebratory drinks they can manage.

 

UNITED (OR CITY?) NEED TO PAY £65M FOR LUKAKU
When The Sun are mocking up Romelu Lukaku’s face on the body of Memphis Depay, you know they’ve got a little bit too excited about a transfer story. The entirety of their claim is that Everton want £65m for Lukaku. We’re sure they do, because he’s bloody good and bloody young. But that’s an awful lot of money

The Sun say that United are very keen to sign the striker, but that Real Madrid, Paris St Germain, Chelsea and Manchester City are all also interested. Can we have a bidding war please?

This was our favourite line: ‘The Red Devil’s have been monitoring Lukaku’s goals, and more importantly all-round performances, this season.’

1) Strong apostrophe work.

2) We’d be more surprised if a club wasn’t ‘monitoring the goals’ of a top striker.

 

TOTTENHAM BID FOR JACKSON MARTINEZ
We can’t have this one at all. Spanish newspaper Marca claim that Spurs have made an opening offer of £23m for Atletico Madrid striker Jackson Martinez. Those claims are relayed by the Daily Express.

That would be mightily surprising given that Atletico paid £26.6m for Martinez in the summer, and he has been wholly uninspiring since. The Colombian has scored three goals in 20 games.

“I am training like never before, yet playing as bad as ever,” Martinez said ahead of Atleti’s league game against Las Palmas. Way to talk yourself into form, Jackson.

Add in Atletico’s impending transfer ban, the fact that Martinez is 29 and that we are dealing with Daniel Levy and you have an altogether unlikely move. Sorry.

 

WEST HAM LINE UP STURRIDGE BID
Oh wow. We’re not quite sure how only the Brentwood Gazette would have the story, but they claim that West Ham are preparing an £18m bid for Daniel Sturridge.

With Jurgen Klopp recently hinting as his lack of patience with Sturridge’s continuous injury problems, a move away from Anfield does look increasingly likely.

You’d wonder why it’s a good idea to buy a player when very injured, but it would mean West Ham can jump up the queue. It would be the biggest transfer fee of his career.

The article does also mention interest in Juventus striker Simone Zaza, which seems a great deal more likely.

 

CHELSEA WANT IGHALO IN THE SUMMER
Watford’s Odion Ighalo might be a prolific Premier League striker for many years, or he might be a half-season wonder. Nobody can really be sure.

Which would make it all the more surprising if Chelsea decided to drop a huge sum of money on the striker this summer, as a replacement for Radamel Falcao and Loic Remy.

The Daily Mirror say that Chelsea ‘are monitoring’ Ighalo. We’ll say the same as always, which is that the Premier League’s biggest clubs are continuously scouting hundreds of players.

The Mirror also give us this line: ‘He [Ighalo] has already been the subject of interest from Spanish title challengers Atletico Madrid and Italian Champions League chasers Roma, and is being eyed by Arsenal.’

Having signed a new five-year contract in September, he’ll cost a massive packet.

 

AND THE REST
Real Madrid are set to excersise their option to resign Juventus striker Alvaro Morata… Manchester City have joined the race for Athletic Bilbao attacker Inaki Wiliams… Aston Villa are interested in a £4.9m move for Hadjuk Split’s Croatia goalkeeper Lovre Kalinic… West Ham are hoping to sign Reading defender Jake Cooper, 20, to follow the capture of Leeds full-back Sam Byram… Cheick Tiote’s proposed move from Newcastle United to Shanghai Shenhua could fall through… Tottenham want to sign Coventry City midfielder James Maddison.