Summer Transfers

[Goldy]

Well with the football season coming to a close and the re-opening of the transfer window who do you think will be the Summers biggest spenders? Who will be the bargin buyers? Who will be the big movers??

Todays speculation is linking Chelsea with Adriano of Inter Milan and Joaquin of Real Betis, two top quality players! With reported offers of Euro40m or is that £40m for Joaquin. Joaquin himself wants a move to Real Madrid not to the Premiership!
Manchester United are linked with a host of players, asusual, with Mikel Ballack of Bayern Munich joining the every growing long list. PSV reportedly have said that Mark van Bommel will probubly leave in the Summer and that he would be a perfect player for Manchester United who are also linked with Essen, de Jong of Ajax, some defender from Espanyol and any glove wearing player called a goalkeeper!
Oh apparently United are going to swap Ruud van Nistlerooy for Michael Owen, i think not!
Jose Antonio Reyes to Real Madrid for £10m?? Possible.

What are your views on this upcoming transfer window??

[Aurelien]

The rumor of Chelsea trying to get Adriano and Joaquin has been going on throughout the year. So I wouldn't really take it that seriously. I think it would be a very awful move if Inter chose to let Adriano go. Inter don't need the money because they're rich enough (though nowhere near Abramovich's money), and they desperately need to have good goalgetter like Adriano. So it's in Inter's best interest to keep Adriano as long as possible.

Joaquin, on the other hand, would be overpriced for 40 million (no matter it's euro or pound, still too expensive) considering that he's not really *that* proven yet. Though I have to admit that he'd suit Chelsea's crazy wing attacking style, it'd be way overpriced.

Michael Ballack is a good player, but I have the feeling that he's going down instead of improving to a world-class midfielder as in Zidane level. He was great a few years ago, but now seem to be going mediocre while still showing some class act once in a while. Not consistent enough, and wouldn't really have any fitting place in Manchester United if they don't sell Scholes or Rooney. which they won't.

Swapping Ruud van Nistelrooy for Michael Owen? That's tough, but I think both teams would end up worse if they do that trade. Owen proved to be a very efficient substitute for Madrid, while RvN works okay in Manchester. No need for trading them.

Jose Antonio Reyes to Madrid for 10 million? Could happen, but I don't think it'd benefit Madrid that much. Reyes didn't really show his skill at Arsenal and in my opinion, still very raw. He needs to learn more before joining big clubs. He wouldn't be able to cope with a huge club like Real Madrid.
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~City-States of Jowston and Tinto Republic~
06.06.2004 - 20.01.2008

[Goldy]

I think the Adriano move could be possible as Inter have Veron on loan and want him permenant and Inter are also interested in Hernan Crespo, so a swap (+cash) deal could be struck. That of course depends on Crespo who i think wants to stay a AC Milan.

[Exile]

Well there's a long enough list of transfer speculations in the other football threads so I guess this is probably a good idea for a thread, it's difficult to keep up with all the rumours that go on in football, most of which come to nothing.

Adriano could happen, it's at least a reasonable possibility, everyone has their price and Chelsea seem to be able to meet anyone's price. The one I'm still really interested in is Gilardino, he still seems to be leaving his options open a bit and he definitely will be leaving Parma. My thoughts are that he will stay in Italy sadly (for me), he's just breaking through into the international team and it's probably best to showcase himself there (by the way, he scored 4 goals in Parma's 6-4 win over Livorno recently, apparently the second was superb).

Van Nistelrooy won't go, especially not in that swap, he's a better player than Michael Owen. He's just had injury trouble this year. Reyes leaving now that I can see happening, he wants to go there, if you can get 10 million, go for it. They might be the ones to get Michael Owen however, he'd look good lining up next to Henry up front.

Manchester United will get a goalie, I don't know who, by the sounds of thing it could be anyone, Niemi, Van Der Saar, Robinson, Cassilas...maybe they'll buy David James for his Chelsea beating abilities. He was good against them after all but would he switch from City to United? Heh, who wouldn't...I am joking about David James here people, really...the man who blames losing football games on his playstation...silly.

In other news...Liverpool may have already signed Jose Manuel Reina from Villareal as their new goalkeeper and Dudek may be headed to Feyenoord. Yakubu is rumoured to be heading from Portsmouth to Middlesborough (that would be a great buy by 'Boro, he's a good player) as well in the summer.

Edit: Charlton and Bolton want Pauleta from Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham have agreed a fee of £2.5m for Daniel de Ridder from Ajax, he is a winger (perhaps they won't sign Routledge in this case?). Ferguson wants to buy De Jong and bidded £500,000 apparently...this bid is expected to be upped to about £2m though.

*All rumours borrowed from Football365.com.*
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Cry woe, destruction, ruin, and decay -
The worst is death, and death will have his day.

[Fundertaker]

[Goldy]

Rafael Van der Vaart has a bad season this year so possible transfer speculation on him has cooled off, but i would not be suprised if he does move during the summer, but where??

EDIT: I was just on manutd.com
Some more interesting speculation;

Christiano Ronaldo to Chelsea for £20m?? I dont think so, Utd would be mad and risk the wrath of the fans if they were to do that!
Chelsea to snatch Mikel Essen from under Utd's noses for £18m?? Possible because Utd wont be able to get into a bidding war with them.

[Exile]

Didn't hear the Ronaldo one myself but I've heard the Essien speculation. Mourinho recently said...

[Goldy]

According to yesterdays Papers Chelsea might be taking United to court over their signing of John Obi Mikel. Apparently Chelsea had signed him but it was not official because he had not turned 18, so United swooped in and snatched him when he did, while Chelsea thought he was in the bag.

[John Layfield]

Way-hey! Chelsea, the biggest hypocrites in the Premiership! :roll:

"Whoops, I didn't know that player under contract to another team had booked the same table as me, honest, Mr FA Head."
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One day, I shall come back. Yes, we shall all come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.

[Goldy]

So true. It will be interesting to see if they follow it up though considering all the scandals that came out about them.
Their hearing is on the 17th over the Cole Tapping Up Incident.

[Exile]

Interesting stuff on Obi Mikel, perhaps Chelsea figure if they're going down for something like that they're going to take someone with them. It would hurt the second biggest threat to their defence of the title next year I suppose (if points were to be deducted that is).

Onto transfer news once more.

Here's a managerial bent on things, Paul Le Guen has quit as Lyon manager and is rumoured to be headed to Arsenal to work with Arsene Wenger who he will eventually replace as boss.

Back to the players now, Parker to Everton is an interesting one and a good signing I feel, Parker is a versatile midfielder who would improve their central midfield nicely but then again while I was never keen on Beattie I thought he'd be more effective than he has been so what do I know. I suppose he fits better than Beattie who has struggled when placed in a lone striker role for Everton especially.

Patrik Berger, has a great shot from range I still think, he's pretty good and as such Aston Vanilla are going to probably get him on a Bosman Transfer at the end of the season. Hitzlsperger is departing correct? He will probably act as his replacement then I would summise in this case.

Birmingham have first option on Mikael Forssell and with Mourinho to pick up a striker after this season (£34 million target, Gilardino, please!) he looks set to leave to one place or another. Due to the first option business it may well be Birmingham.

*This next paragraph was taken from Football365.co.uk*
AND THE REST
Valencia will sign Newcastle striker Patrick Kluivert...Middlesbrough want Inter Milan winger Andy van der Meyde and Juventus defender Igor Tudor...Bolton want Liverpool midfielder Didi Hamann to replace Fernando Hierro, who is set to retire...And Sunderland want Blackburn striker Jon Stead.

Figured Kluivert would leave, van der Meyde is pretty high profile for Middlesborough I would think, I doubt he leaves Inter for there unless he reallys wants to play in England or he doesn't get played much there or something. Then again they do have players like Gaizka Mendieta who isn't bad even at his age still.

Hamaan, I think he'd happily stay at Liverpool, he's been there forever it seems and is pretty useful. So in my opinion it's down to Benitez and in that case he might well go elsewhere if there's some reasonable money coming back Liverpool's way.

Sunderland, Stead, it's possible but really neither are that great in my opinion.

Edit: I meant to give a little more information about Gilardino's situation. Parma are citing his value at 50 million euros (£34.1 million) as this is what they received for Adriano and they argue since Alberto Gilardino has scored more than he did at Parma he must be therefore worth more or at the very least equal value. Chelsea are crazy enough to spend that I figure, perhaps Real or AC can do that as well, I'm not really sure.
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Cry woe, destruction, ruin, and decay -
The worst is death, and death will have his day.

[Aurelien]

Paul Le Guen to Arsenal? Possible, but I doubt that it'd do much for Paul. Arsene would stay in Arsenal for quite some time IMO, and it'd be a waste of time for Paul if he chose to join in right now. It might be better for him to join with a mid-table clubs in EPL, La Liga, or Serie A instead.

Getting Scott Parker is like a 75-25 gamble on whether he's actually going to improve the team or not. If you think about it, Parker was great in Charlton, but the team itself was good at that time because the football that they played focused n Parker being the playmaker and all that jazz. On the other hand, I see Everton as a very team-work team. So it might be hard to put in someone like Parker who needs a lot of freedom to be able to work out his potential. But generally speaking, I believe that Parker would still add more positive than negative to Everton (unlike James Beattie).

Patrik Berger ... now he's an interesting case for Aston Villa. Maybe they wished that he'd be another Solano just from left. I don't know what to expect with Berger coming in. Aston Villa probably are in top 5 in EPL when it comes to left side of the pitch with Jlloyd and Gareth Barry. I don't see how Berger would contribute much on the left. In the middle, maybe .. but I see Hendrie as a better player than the Czech.

Poor Mikael Forssell for being loaned out soooooo many times. I just don't see the point in hanging around in Chelsea if he's never going to get his chance there. Might as well just move out rather than being loaned all season many many times.

Kluivert should indeed leave. Or I'd rather say that Newcastle should let Kluivert go because he definitely didn't add anything to the team for the past year. But Valencia signing him? I wonder whether that'd be a wise move or not. My suggestion for Kluivert is to actually play somewhere back in Holland, or move to France.

Andy van der Meyde simply didn't have enough playing time in Inter, and his style of play would suit a faster pace kind of football, which is why he didn't really shine in Serie A at all. Moving to Middlesborough would be quite an okay move for him (if Boro got UEFA Cup spot btw), but I think Boro need a better young goalscorer because they only have either good old striker in Hasselbaink, or inconsistent younger (but not that young anyways) forward in form of the rest .

If Hammann is smart, he'd move to Bolton. Bolton are definitely rising, and improving all the time. With Bolton only 1 position under Liverpool, I find it good if Hammann would want to move because he'd definitely get a first team position there. In Liverpool, he might not get any chance with Xabi in there.

Jonathan Stead? Memorable last season, totally forgotten this year. Not impressed. Not sure how he'd improve Sunderland's quality either.
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~City-States of Jowston and Tinto Republic~
06.06.2004 - 20.01.2008

[Goldy]

Lyon have claimed to have rejected a bid from Chelsea for Michael Essen, no fee was disclosed, and they expect another approach from Chelsea.

The big stars linked to Real Madrid speculation mill has started turning with Rio Ferdinand being linked with a move. The Real fans have voted Frank Lampard the player they would like to see join the club.

[Fundertaker]

With a coach like Wanderley Luxemburgo, Real fans can expect many team work players, and Lampard would fit there just like that. But there's a problem, Mourinho says that Lampard is an indispensable player in his team, and when Mourinho says that x player is indispensable, that player isn't sold.
In news concerning my country (Portugal, YEAH!), Maniche and Costinha from FC Porto seem to have made an agreement with Dinamo Moscow for a transfer in this summer. This, I believe, is because their owner (I don't remember the name, but is another multimillionaire Russian) is really trying to improve the quality of Russian league to the quality of great European leagues (he already bought about 10 players that started the season in Portugal, but went for Dinamo half season).
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This post is officially Fundertaker Approved

[Goldy]

Chelsea are reported to be prepared to offer £18m for Michael Essien. Their first offer of £15m was rejected. They have also agreed in principle a £12m deal with Athletic Bilbao for left-back Asier del Horno, i never heard of him!

Also, John Obi Mikel - the 18-year-old Nigerian who is a target for Manchester United and Chelsea - has been reported missing to police in Norway.
I wonder what is going on there?? I thought he already signed for United?

EDIT:Just found some more info: