EPL Gossip Thursday May 20th
Manchester United are ready to make a £28m bid for Aston Villa midfielder James Milner. Villa have already turned down a £20m bid from Manchester City for the 24-year-old who is currently with England at their pre-World Cup training camp in Austria. caughtoffside.com
With Fabio Capello supposely banning players from transfering clubs during the World Cup it should be a long summer for Aston Villa who will have to wonder what the future will hold. 28 million would cause me to pack Milner’s bags. It;s not like Aston Villa would be lacking depth with Ashley Young and Stewart Downing still on board.
Barcelona are preparing to launch a £70m bid for Liverpool’s Fernando Torres after signing David Villa, his strike partner in Spain’s national side, from Valencia. Daily Mirror
Perdo would then become the best 3rd striker in football. Few players can say no to Barcelona.
Catalan side’s hopes of luring Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal to the Nou Camp could be hit by Yaya Toure’s reluctance to move in the opposite direction. The Ivory Coast midfielder is said to be attracting the interest of Manchester City. Daily Mail
If I was Yaya Toure I wouldn’t want to move either. It’s a like for like switch, if Toure played a different position then ok but those are huge shoes Yaya Toure would be asked to fit. He’d be almost sitting himself up to fail.
Barca have decided they will not pay more than £30m for Fabregas, which could also put the deal at risk. Daily Star
It’s not like Arsenal want to sell Fabregas so Barcelona want to buy him they will need to pay above market value.
Arsenal are looking for £80m before they allow their talismanic skipper to return to his former club.
Full story: Daily Mail
I’m sure Arsenal would be looking at 80 million. Fabregas is worth more than 30 million but much less than 80 million.
Manchester City will need to pay Benfica £43m if they want to bring Brazilian defender David Luiz to Eastlands. Full story: the Independent
I know David Luiz isn’t quite worth 43 million but Porto got over 30 million out of Real Madrid for Pepe. Manchester City or any other club would at least need to offer that amount for Benfica to listen.
Sunderland manager Steve Bruce is planning a major spending spree after being told he has “an open chequebook”. the Sun
Steve Bruce got lucky last summer with Darren Bent failing in his lap. Wonder if Steve Bruce can get another quality player to drop in his lap.
Birmingham City are considering a £2.5m bid for Fulham full-back Paul Konchesky. Daily Mail
The Blues have also joined the race for Burnley striker Steven Fletcher as their hopes of landing Fulham’s Bobby Zamora fade. Daily Mirror
Paul Konchesky is a dime a dozen type player but I do like Steven Fletcher who I feel can turn into a 10-15 goal scorer in the EPL.
Sol Campbell has welcomed Celtic’s interest and made it a clear a bumper two-year deal could tempt him to reject a one-year offer from Arsenal. the Sun
It’s all about the dollar for Sol Campbell.
Manchester United failed in a last-ditch attempt to sign Spain international striker David Villa, who joined Barcelona for £34m. Mirror
Between Barcelona and Manchester United I’m picking Barcelona too.
The Red Knights consortium’s hopes of taking over United from the Glazer family looks set to fail because of internal wranglings. Full story: Guardian
It looks set to fail because they are dumb. You are not going to convince anyone to sell by pissing them off. If I was the Glazer family I’d thumb my noses at this “Red Knight consortium.”