Transfer Gossip

WILL ROBINHO JUMP BEFORE HE IS PUSHED?
Do not expect Robinho to be a Manchester City player in February. From the sounds of it, the Brazilian is heading out of Eastlands. The only question is how.

The Sun says that the player himself will instigate a transfer, predicting 'Robinho will ask for a January move away from Manchester City if he fails to get a regular place back in Mark Hughes' first team.'

And, as the newspaper then says, 'Given the form of Craig Bellamy, there is every chance it will be a struggle for the forward to regain his spot.'

Barcelona are an obvious potential destination, with the player's representatives described as 'already pushing for the move to the Catalan giants and Champions League holders'.

Meanwhile, although The Times is also predicting a likely January departure for Robinho, it reckons that it is City who could be the pushers.

Wittering on about a meeting between the City management team and the club's owners in Abu Dhabi this week, the newspaper announces that although Mark Hughes 'is in no rush to offload the Brazil forward, he would countenance the player's sale in January if it paved the way for him to move for Carles Puyol or Éric Abidal, the Barcelona defenders.

'Hughes also admires Yaya Touré, the Ivory Coast and Barcelona midfield player and brother of Kolo, the City captain, but he would be unavailable for several weeks in January because of the African Cup of Nations.'

The inevitable final line is that 'Franck Ribéry, the Bayern Munich and France winger, is Hughes's dream target, but it remains to be seen if he could be persuaded to join the City revolution.'


WIGAN INTERESTED IN SIGNING HESKEY
It's been a long while since we last heard from Dave Whelan. Perhaps as long as twenty-four hours even.

But the Wigan chairman is back in the papers this uneven morning voicing his admiration for Emile Heskey and announcing his club's interest in re-signing the Aston Villa striker if he goes through with his 'threat' to leave the club if he does not start a few more games soon.

"I find it very strange that Emile can play for England and obviously play well and he can't get selected for Aston Villa," Whelan is quoted as saying in The Times. "It's very strange. I have a great deal of sympathy for him. He's one wonderful football player.

"We could well be [interested]. I thought he was fantastic for us. He was coming to the end of his contract and obviously wanted to move on. As usual I honoured his wishes. He's such a wonderful target man up front. I thought the lad Agbonlahor would score a lot of goals off Emile. I think everybody in football would like Emile somewhere in their squad.

"I think we got about £3.5 million for him; he's got to be worth that. [But] I'd be very surprised if Aston Villa sell him."


SVEN TO NORTH KOREA?
He's worked for Sergio Cragnotti, he's worked for Thaksin Shinawatra and he currently works for...actually, nobody really knows who he currently works for, but surely the only gap in Sven Goran Eriksson's list of ropey employers is a nutjob dictator whose followers believe he can control the weather and likes nothing better than kicking back with a good musical.

OK, so Kim-Jong Il might not exactly be holding the interviews for the North Korea football manager's job, but if he was, we'd love to hear a conversation between him and Sven.

For a few papers report that Sven and his new best pal Peter Trembling are flying out east for talks over that very job, which he will occupy on a part-time basis for next summer's World Cup.

North Korea did qualify for the first time since 1966, but just about stumbled through and questions are being asked about current boss Kim Jong-hun.

However, The Times plays spoilsports by claiming Sven has turned down an offer, but not to be their manager, rather their technical advisor.

They quote 'a friend' as saying: "He has no plans to go out there. He was asked but he said no. I believe it was for a technical adviser's role. He is entitled to have his other business interests outside of Notts County."


SWAPSIES DEAL FOR SPURS?
This is a rumour that has been floating around for a while now, but The Daily Mirror puts a little flesh on the bones this morning.

The paper claims AC Milan and Spurs are chatting over a swap deal that would take Roman Pavlyuchenko to Italy, and Klass-Jan Huntelaar to London.

Spurs tried and failed to sign the Dutchman in the summer, and since then he hasn't exactly covered himself in glory, with many Italian commentators calling him 'a load of old cobblers'. Or whatever the Italian is for that.

Likewise, Pav has not exactly made an impact for Spurs, appearing for only 11 minutes so far this season.

In a slightly related matter, Pav's agent has denied that any deal to take him to Zenit St Petersburg has been agreed, and you can read all about that one here.


AND THE REST...
Sunderland and Blackburn are eyeing £2million-rated Stromgodset striker Marcus Pedersen...Portsmouth will not allow David James to leave the club in the summer...West Brom have failed in a bid to sign Sol Campbell, although his registration is set to finally be released by Notts County...County fans are 'begging' Sven Goran Eriksson not to bring in David Platt as boss.