HERE ARE THE good, the bad, and the unlikely football moves being talked about today…
Matteo Darmian started his career at Manchester United quite brightly. He was impressive on his debut against Tottenham but throughout the course of the campaign, cracks started to show.
By the end of the season, Antonio Valencia had taken over at right-back, despite being a fill-in rather than a specialist like Darmian.
With Jose Mourinho looking to offload two defenders, it seems Darmian and Marcos Rojo are top of the list. Inter are keen on taking him on loan but his salary may prove a stumbling block.
Meanwhile, Hull are set to sign United’s fringe player Will Keane. The 23-year-old has only made three appearances for the senior side and has been farmed out to a litany of teams in the last three years. Having previously worked with Mike Phelan, he’s expected to make the move to the Tigers later today.
Mario Balotelli‘s nightmare on Merseyside is coming to an end and though he has been linked with a move to Swiss side Sion, he now seems to be nearing a switch to France.
Serie A side Palermo have also been linked with the controversial attacker but it’s thought that Balotelli had talks with Nice last Thursday and a deal could be completed soon.
Speaking of misfits, Samir Nasri is set to quit Manchester City but is thought to prefer a move to Spanish side Sevilla rather than Besiktas.
The divisive former French international feels La Liga is the better of the two options while the club offers him Champions League football too.
Chelsea are on the verge of bringing in Marcelo Brozovic from Inter. The fee involved for the midfielder is around £25m and he can leave the Italian club owing to the recent arrival of Joao Mario.
Antonio Conte also is keen on the services of Fiorentina right-back Marcos Alonso and talks are reported to be at an advanced stage.
Not to be outdone in the spending department, Premier League champions Leicester City are desperate to secure a double-signing before the window closes.
Claudio Ranieri wants Portuguese midfielder Adrien Silva from Sporting Lisbon as well as the club’s striker Islam Slimani.
The overall cost would be around £50m.
And Tottenham are prepared to test Real Madrid’s resolve with a late, and pretty intriguing, bid for Isco.
Mauricio Pochettino is looking to re-design his attack and with a pursuit of Wilfried Zaha coming to nothing so far, they’re trying to entice the Spanish international to London with the promoie of regular first-team football and the Champions League. It would be a loan to start with an option to buy next summer.
Retro Deal of the Day (Robbie Keane to Tottenham, 2002)
It seems fitting that it was on this day 14 years ago that a certain Robbie Keane was in the news.
After a period of bouncing around clubs following his switch from Wolves to Coventry in 1999, Keane would go on to spend six seasons at White Hart Lane. After a brief stint with Liverpool, he returned to Spurs and stayed for another, less-successful spell.
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Has anyone else noticed how many people are suddenly lobbing keepers?
Better than Rooneys, great strike in fairness
Shelvey will either do something amazing or stupid…. No middle ground.
So true
Nailed it Graham that’s why the Pool let him go
Well be paying 20 mil to get him back in a couple of years Graham.
Should have just loaned him out. Not sold him.
I believe Rodgers gave him the choice….. He would have kept him, but he wanted to go….. And also, maybe a clause in that contract :)
Shay Given would have saved it, should be in goal
Given can’t even get in to the Ireland team..
Wow
Much better goal than Rooney’s. Adrian acted like he had just downed 3 bottles of Buckfast and had a feed of shrooms for Rooney’s goal.
Not as good as chris forrester against drogheda
Keeper might have got it. Given probably would have saved it cos he never comes off his line
Remember Nayim lobbed Seaman from 40 yards….. He was at the butt of some jokes for a long time after that
Till they finally abated, and he resurrected them all again in 2002, letting romaldinho lob him again , then away with the the mixer again . Thanks for the memories David.
I lobbed semen from 50 yards…
Only the wall stopped it?