Transfer Chewing Gum - August 19
Is Marcos Rojo on the verge of a move to Man Utd?
We learned plenty of lessons in the first week of the Premier League. None more so than the fiasco at Old Trafford, where three debutants were forced to start and Nani ended up playing 45 minutes despite being allegedly axed (along with Anderson and Zaha) from all first team activities as the club prepare to sell him. Man Utd need at least a few more guys, and they need to be players that improve the first XI too, not just depth lads. You’ve really got to wonder why a team preparing for a new era has waited until after the season’s started to get a move on but better late than never. Not having a coach until the World Cup ended was an unwelcome setback, to be fair.
It seems like Marcos Rojo will be LVG’s first transfer (bearing in mind that Shaw/Herrera were in place before he joined up) as the player himself is already confirming it in interviews. He’s a versatile young defender who was one of the better guys for Argentina in their WC campaign and will cover both CB and LB. There’s been a hold up with him since he handed in his transfer request because Sporting Lisbon really don’t wanna let him go for cheap, being as they only own 25% of the player thanks to a third party ownership already in place. So in return, we’ll probably see Nani going the other way on loan to sweeten the deal. Angel Di Maria is still a name being regurgitated across the back pages. He’d bring some much needed pace and flair, though his £50 price tag is very steep. Daley Blind too as a defensive monkey wrench sounds like a clever pursuit. Interestingly that trio are all left footed.
They probably won’t get Arturo Vidal, yet Kevin Strootman is still on the radar. As for the evictions, Maroune Fellaini is primed for a season long loan at Napoli with Rafa Benitez.
Manchester City don’t really need to do anything else this window. They’ve padded the areas that needed it already, and this week they managed to finally offload Javi Garcia. The maligned Spaniard joins Zenit in Russia for almost £13m. He played 71 times for City (scoring just twice) in 2 seasons and is generally considered a massive waste of space. In contrast, goal scorer against Newcastle David Silva has signed a 5 year contract extension. The likes of Micah Richards, Matija Nastasic and Scott Sinclair are all free to leave if someone wants them.
Tony Pulis walking away from Crystal Palace just days before the new season was one hell of a bombshell. It sounds like he’s had troubles with the chairman from the start and although it’s been denied it was probably transfer policy that broke the camel’s back. So who replaces him? Malky Mackay’s been the favourite, but all of a sudden Glenn Hoddle has soared into contention. Martin Jol, possibly? Or even Tim Sherwood? One things for sure, there’ll be a few team’s that might just be a little quicker to the trigger with their own gaffers now that Pulis is a free man…
Devastating news for Ross Barkley, with a training ground injury just before the season commenced now likely to keep him out for up to 5 months. This was a breakout season potentially for him, and his place in the Everton midfield will be hard to fill. They’ve brought in Christian Atsu on loan from Chelsea to add some extra spark.
Chelsea finished their transfer business a month ago according to Jose Mourinho, and nothing of watching Diego Costa score and Cesc Fabregas play like a magician will have changed his mind. But they have loaned a bunch more youngsters out, with Josh McEachran and Marko Marin heading overseas, and Victor Moses joining Stoke for the year along with the aforementioned Atsu.
Oh and bare bones Southampton. They actually looked very decent against Liverpool, especially going forward where they seem to have enough depth to cover their losses. Up front they’ve added Shane Long from Hull for a ridiculous £12m though I guess it’s not like they can’t afford it. Hull only signed the Irishman in January and Steve Bruce’ll be giggling over the profits. Add to him the signing of Florin Gardos, a Romanian centre back for £6m and the Saints still have plenty in the bank. They tried to get Andros Townsend but Spurs told them where they could put their £10m (Lewis Holtby could be in the shop window however, and Atletico still want Roberto Soldado).
Liverpool have finally got Alberto Moreno secured for £12m form Sevilla and are still on alert as to Edinson Cavani and Radamel Falcao, while Nicklas Bendtner has joined Wolsfburg for a free after Arsenal (finally) released him. The Gunners have agreed a deal with Greek defender Kostas Manolas which is nice for the squad prospects given they just sold Thomas Vermaelen (Big Per has re-signed long term though!). Linking those two teams, Arsenal rejected Liverpool’s bid for Joel Campbell, still it’s hard to see where the Costa Rican fits into Wenger’s plans. Arsene has shown a reluctance to sell to rivals ever since the RVP thing bit him in the arse so that could be it.
Also, Spurs have bagged Yankee DeAndre Yedlin although he won’t join them until after the end of the MLS season.