UNITED AFTER KUN! KUN! KUN!
The Daily Star is an absolutely dreadful rag. Catering to the most unpleasant aspects of society, they are the journalistic equivalent of a scally who hangs around outside the Happy Shopper and throws things at old ladies.
However, they do come up with some cracking rumours.
None of them are likely to be true, but that's hardly the point.
Today they claim that Manchester United are ready to spend some of their Cristiano Ronaldo money on Sergio Aguero. £45million, to be exact, and will offer the father of Diego Maradona's grandson around £120,000 a week, but apparently hope the 'lure of Old Trafford' will be enough to persuade their man to come to blighty.
The paper claims Atletico Madrid are willing to sell for the right price, and Chelsea have already made contact but were put off by £200,000-a-week wage demands, which United hope will be lowered.
ARSENAL TO OFFER MANU TO MILAN
Interesting stuff in The Daily Mirror.
Despite Arsene Wenger saying yesterday that he didn't want to sell anyone this summer, the paper claims Arsenal have offered Emmanuel Adebayor to Milans AC and Inter, in the hope of warding off interest from Chelsea.
The paper reports that Arsenal are 'determined' to get rid of Adebayor and Chelsea want to sign the striker, with Carlo Ancelotti following up his interest from Milan.
However, for obvious reasons Arsenal don't want Chelsea to have one of their better players, so will ask the Milan clubs if they fancy a lazy, occasionally excellent forward.
The Times also claims AC could be interested, should they fail to sign Edin Dzeko from Wolfsburg.
Meanwhile, Adebayor's agent has been talking, and says a 'very important club' has contacted him about his man, but AC Milan are not the team.
More on that one here.
LESCOTT TO CITEH
Sticking with the Mirror, things seem to be rattling along at Manchester Citeh.
Roque is in, Tevez is on the way, Robinho wants them to bag Samuel Eto'o as well, so the attacking third looks pretty stocked.
So the Mirror quite reasonably reckons the defence needs shoring up, so goes big with the news that they will make a £15million bid for Joleon Lescott in 'the next 48 hours'.
They don't f**k about, do they?
Apparently Citeh will do what they usually do, and chuck money at Lescott (doubling his salary to £80k a week) and hope Everton will be bullied into accepting the bid through sheer weight of cash.
Meanwhile, the paper has some intersting things to say about who Everton will spend the money on.
They claim David Moyes is interested in Russian centre-half Sergei Ignashevich from CSKA Moscow, while he also apparently wants Marseille's out-of-contract centre-back Renato Civelli.
Also, they reckon Everton are going to bid £6million for Tottenham's Alan Hutton, whose face apparently doesn't fit at the Lane.
CROUCH TO REPLACE ROQUE
Couple of papers go with the theory that Sam Allardyce will use a big chunk of the Roque Santa Cruz money to sign Peter Crouch as his replacement.
The Daily Mirror claims Sam has £13million to spend on a new big forward, and Crouch is the most likely option.
James Beattie and Kevin Davies are two other rather big and ugly options, but their respective clubs will apparently be unwilling to sell.
Interesting that the paper therefore thinks Pompey - about to be taken over by some very rich men indeed - will be willing to sell.
Furthermore, The Daily Express reckons Crouch is about to commit his future to Portsmouth.
SUNDERLAND WANT HUNT AND DOYLE
Seems that Sunderland are going to be the summer gazumpers in chief.
After Apparently making a move to nick Frazier Campbell from Hull, The Daily Mirror reckons they are going to steal Kevin Doyle from under the noses of Wolves and Fulham.
And while they're at Reading, they might as well have a go for Stephen Hunt as well.
Cheeky scamps.
AND THE REST...
Wigan boss Roberto Martinez has made a £2.5million bid for Rayo Vallecano midfielder Mohamed Diame...Fulham striker Diomansy Kamara is a £5million target for his old boss Tony Mowbray at Celtic...Sheffield United have emerged as favourites to sign Jermaine Beckford in a £5million deal after offering striker Billy Sharp as part of the deal...Fulham are considering a loan move for Villarreal starlet Jozy Altidore...Sunderland have been encouraged to follow up their interest in Didier Zokora after Sevilla deemed the midfielder too expensive...Hull City believe they have beaten Celtic and Fulham to sign French striker Marc-Antoine Fortune...Sunderland are closing in on Spurs striker Darren Bent.
The Old Man Gossip
Now let's hear what you've got to say about this item... or anything else happening in the world of football. Send in your opinions, rants, praise or abuse to: theeditor@football365.com
Your Comments
steed_8
"IrishKopite: After your awful Mathematics yesterday, nobody can take you seriously. Remember 25+25 = 50, not 71."
Switch
"IrishKopiteMkI - Pongolle aint that bad he just sucked at liverpool not that he got much of a chance, gets in the Atletico Madrid team anyway..
"
fazlasa
"Vahid Halilhodzic a Bosnian coach to take over Porthsmouth. very good coach was with PSG, Lille, Ivory Coach and few Turkish clubs. legendary player, very hard worker and no nonsense manager. Reported by all newspapers in France, Ivory Coact and Bosnia"
mgaffney
"IrishKopiteMkI, I heard of the lad before, but as I said the other day just because he's Brazilian they automatically get tagged the next Ronaldinho or Ronaldo (The fat 1) or whoever. It does annoy me as you said he could be a superstar but only time will tell. Its a bit unfair to say he will be like Nani but its also presumptuous to think that he could be the new Ronaldo. Its a risk but lets see what happens."
mancunian4life
"IrishKopite: To be fair United fans have known about Costa for a long time, you just have to look at the message-boards to see that, not that I would have expected you to. But United are looking more and more towards Brazil for young talent now, the Da Silva twins, Possebon etc., and have been watching Douglas Costa, for well over a year now, with Gremio's president being the only obstacle to a deal being done, with them holding out for a fee of around £20m, with Sir Alex and David Gill thinking more towards the £10m mark."
weepyking
"See, we are like friends across the barricade lol
I am sick of talking already and want the seaon to just start and get on with it and try and go to anfield and erase that miserable defeat at old trafford!!"
IrishKopiteMkI
"No Steed_8. You are wrong. Andyinasia said "Basically Aguero would cost twice the price of his compatriot Tevez."
Now unless my very basic grasp of arithmetic fails me Tevez would cost United 25.5M PLUS the 10M loan fee. The total deal is 35.5 with the 10M being off-set against the final balance...in no way shape or form is the cost of Carlos Tevez 25.5M. It was negotiated at 35.5 - hence this number is our base marker.
2 x 35.5 is 71M.
You're awfully pro-United I see considering you claim to be a Black Cat. Are you a bit like edbreakaleg who claimed to be WFC but was only found on United threads battering Liverpool?"
IrishKopiteMkI
"Hug administered.
Air kisses also!
It just gets me going the way this youtube brigade bang on about players. Did you see the 'Des, Dublin' mail in the mailbox this morning? That's what I was referring to, there's a lot of 'mainly B's' kicking about.
Anyhoo, they rate him? Well I hope, for obvious, reasons he turns out to be more Leiva/Nani than Ronaldo. Remember Leiva is the youngest ever winner of Bola de Ouro [won it at a younger age than Kaka!] and Sinama Pongolle was golden boot and MVP or whatever at the U-18 World Cup a few years back...some players just don't deliver on early promise.
Unrealistic expectations don't help.
As for my club dropping clangers I struggle to remind myself that Souness turned down Cantona - citing "dressing room harmony" - yes this from the man who bought a fair chunk of what became the Spice Boys...
And Houllier dismissed signing an even younger Ronaldo to allow him to 'develop'! Then when he was offered the club baulked at the 12M fee but happily spunked more than that on Cisse and Diouf each! Yes, Ronaldo did develop quite well at your club...I'd say.
OR the time we turned down signing a dead-keen Anelka favouring Diouf instead.
Wow - I could go on. We've done some terrible deals in the not-so distant past!"
steed_8
"IrishKopite: Nobody mentioned £71m, you made that up yourself in fairness. Somebody asked if Aguero was worth double Tevez. Tevez is going for £25m (irregardles of loan payments, his fee is £25.5m), so somebody asked if he was worth £50m, which if rumours are to be believed SAF does, as he bid £45m for him (highly unlikely I know). Why would he ask if he was worth £71m, when Aguero has a £55m release clause. I'm all for you winding people up and getting them to bite for banter, but you can't just make crap up...."
weepyking
"I agree IRISHKOPITE to what you are saying in principle. Aguero is not worth 71m, of course he isint, anyone (utd fan or otherwise) who says he is is a complete idiot. As regards knowing about Costa, I didnt know much of Ronaldo until Utd played them in a pre season game. If you read interviews from the da silvas (which I wouldnt expect a non utd fan to do to be fair) they mention him all the time and talk him up.
Now lets all hug it out and pretend to be friends :-)"
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