EPL Gossip Wednesday April 14th
Inter Milan boss Jose Mourinho is confident that Steven Gerrard will quit Liverpool and join the Italian champions next season. The former Chelsea boss has made Gerrard his number one summer transfer target. Daily Mail
Wasn’t Cesc Fabregas Inter’s number one transfer target two weeks ago? The fact of the matter is who knows what will happen to Mourinho this summer. If he beats Barcelona in the Champions League, Real Madrid will come calling. If Inter loses to Barcelona and then drops the Serie A to Roma then he may leave or be pushed out. The only thing I can say is if Gerrard every decides to leave it has to be with a foreign club. Can’t picture Gerrard playing for another EPL club.
German giants Bayern Munich have no plans to sell France international Franck Ribery, despite the possibility of losing the midfielder on a free transfer at the end of next season when his contract expires. Bild (in German)
They didn’t sell Michael Ballack and life went on. Besides Bayern Munich has a great chance of being in the Champions League finals. Can’t get much better than that. Yes, I know this has little to do with EPL but feel like I haven’t been focusing enough on European football lately.
Arsenal and Manchester City are among the leading candidates to sign Ajax right-back Gregory van der Wiel, who is being tracked by “one or two” Premier League clubs, according to the player’s agent. Goal.com
Hate it when agents speak. With Thomas Vermaelen being a hit at Arsenal it wouldn’t shock me to see them go after another Ajax player.
Greek club Olympiakos could swoop for out-of-favour Liverpool full-back Fabio Aurelio, whose contract expires at the end of the season. Full story: Daily Mail
Greek clubs over paid for players like Aurelio who are in that mushy middle. While good players they just come up a bit short in terms of quality when talking about an elite European club. Besides life in Greece isn’t a bad way to wind down a career.
Manchester United could make a shock £14m move for midfielder Stephen Ireland from rivals Manchester City. Caughtoffside.com
Maybe if this was two years ago. It’s easy to like Ireland but Manchester City would never sell him to United. It just sends the wrong message. Besides it would then allow Manchester United to set up a welcome to Manchester billboard for Ireland.
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini will not change his training methods – despite claims from star striker Carlos Tevez that the players are “not happy” with his regime. The Guardian
It took Inter Milan players about three years to get sick of Mancini and within three months it seems some of these Manchester City are souring on Mancini who to be fair has done a fine job since taking over. Manchester City still score lots of goals but now give up almost half the goals they allowed under Mark Hughes.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger insists captain Cesc Fabregas will not be leaving the club amid speculation the midfielder is set for a return to Barcelona, where the 22-year-old started his career. Daily Mail
I still do a double take everytime I read about Fabregas being 22 years old.
West Ham have joined Wolves and Newcastle in the race to sign Tottenham midfielder Jamie O’Hara, who is currently on loan at Portsmouth. Daily Mail
Perfect player for all three teams and each of those teams know Tottenham will sell O’Hara to fund other transfer targets.