EPL Gossip Saturday July 19th
Inter Milan will make a move for Liverpool’s Xabi Alonso if they fail in their bid to prise Frank Lampard away from Chelsea. (Channel 4 Football Italia, 1103 BST)
Liverpool must be happy that interest in Alonso is flaring up again after Juventus couldn’t close the deal.
Chelsea are set to sign AC Milan’s world player-of-the- year Kaka for a world-record fee of €100m (£79.2m). (The Guardian)
I love headlines that make such a difficult process seem so easy. Look at Ronaldinho and how long that transfer took. Compound that with Ronaldinho who wanted to play for A.C Milan and Barcelona were willing to sell the player. Neither of which are so easy here with A.C Milan wanting to keep Kaka and the player himself not wanting to leave.
Sunderland have had a £23m bid for Younes Kaboul, Pascal Chimbonda, Steed Malbranque and Teemu Tainio accepted by Tottenham. (Various)
However, the deal could be jeopardised after Kaboul’s agent said his client would not join Sunderland “even if there was an earthquake”. (Various)
I must admit that quote from Kaboul agent made me laugh. Not a bad return in Tottenham case for four players who will not start for them when the season starts.
Chimbonda also looks set to snub the Black Cats in favour of a move to either Newcastle or Everton. (Daily Mail)
Like I said about Sunderland, having money to spend on is one thing. Finding the right players who have both the quality and desire to play for you is another.
Aston Villa expect to sign Blackburn goalkeeper Brad Friedel next week as Rovers boss Paul Ince faces a tough task keeping hold of his players. (The Sun)
Paul Ince have better of seen this coming. Ince must have had a plan in place with players he was going to bring in or else Blackburn will make a swift drop down the standings next years.
Arsene Wenger has blamed Arsenal’s lack of silverware last season on pure bad luck. (The Sun)
Makes for a better story then the fact that Arsenal couldn’t hold leads in key games against Liverpool in the Champions League, Manchester United and Chelsea in the league. Those weren’t performances of champions as the special one would say.