EPL Gossip Tuesday July 8th
Arsenal winger Alex Hleb says he has fallen out with Gunners boss Arsene Wenger and would like to play for Barcelona next season. (Daily Mirror)
Hleb is looking to speed this along by bad mouthing Arsenal. Smart move if you think about it. Cuts down on the offer-counter offer games that are played.
New Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari wants Lampard to stay and the England midfielder is also looking for a new deal with the Blues but is yet to be offered a new contract. (The Independent)
Scolari doesn’t want to be known that he is the man to push Lampard out the door. This is why he is making nice to the press about Lampard being on the team.
Chelsea are demanding £24m for want-away striker Didier Drogba but are yet to receive any offers. (The Independent)
Nor will they if they keep the price that high. Strikers are like NFL running backs. They can go from All Pro to on the bench in a hurry.
Fenerbahce’s Brazilian defender Roberto Carlos, 35, claims Chelsea want to sign him. (Daily Star)
Surely not as a player.
Blackburn are willing to sell England winger David Bentley but have told Tottenham, Liverpool and Aston Villa that their asking price is £17m. (Daily Mirror)
Smart move by Blackburn to admit that every player has a price. Coaches who say player A won’t be moved at any price insult me.
Tottenham have offered an assortment of players, including striker Darren Bent, goalkeeper Paul Robinson and defender Anthony Gardner, in part-exchange for Bentley. (The Guardian)
Bent makes too much. Robinson isn’t any better than what they have currently and no one outside of the Gardner household gets excited to see him play.
New Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari was intrigued when he walked into the dressing room at the club’s training ground on his first day in charge and found a game of darts going on – he had only ever seen the game being played on TV before. (The Sun)
Wouldn’t surprise me if he left the mid game to take up a new challenge at the pool table.