EPL Gossip Monday October 12th
Yossi Benayoun’s agent maintains the midfielder is happy at Liverpool and not planning a summer exit to Manchester City. “It is a great compliment that there is interest from high level teams across Europe, but Yossi is very happy at Liverpool and only in the summer agreed a new four-year contract,” said Ronen Kastav. Virgin Media
Considering Benayoun’s transfer originally from West Ham didn’t make many headlines the player has done well for himself with the opportunities given to him at Liverpool.
Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp is once again preparing to raid former club Portsmouth to sign England keeper David James for £1m in January. Since taking over at Spurs, Redknapp has signed Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch and Niko Kranjcar from Pompey. The Sun
I’d love to know why this didn’t happen in the summer transfer window as it made perfect sense at the time.
European champions Barcelona are closing in on a January swoop for Manchester City forward Robinho, with sporting director Txiki Begiristain saying that the Brazilian is “a very interesting footballer and could play for us in the Champions League”. Daily Mirror
The real question is who will Manchester City bring in, if they sell Robinho who has the same marquee value. The only way Manchester City sells Robinho is if they can find another high profile player.
Striker Emile Heskey concedes he may have to leave Aston Villa – for whom he has started only one Premier League game this season – in January to keep alive his hopes of a place in England boss Fabio Capello’s squad for the 2010 World Cup finals. The Sun
With this being the case why did he leave Wigan last year then? It’s not like Aston Villa brought a ton of strikers in the summer. Heskey knew what kind of strikers Villa have when he arrived.
Hong Kong tycoon Carson Yeung’s new Birmingham regime begins today following his takeover at St Andrews and the new ownership team will sit down with Blues manager Alex McLeish this week to discuss their working relationship and potential transfer targets. Daily Mirror
When you are a coach of a team whose owner did not hire you it’s a tough place to be in. I’d be shocked if this working relationship lasts another year before Yeung installs his own man in charge.