Swansea are favourites to sign Marcos Senna.:blink:
Good signing for them and he should fit in well with Swansea’s footballing style.
I agree with you. The Jones deal makes sense as he is young and both first choice centre backs have stuggled with injuries over the last couple of years and are both pushing on a bit in terms of age. And Jonny Evans has proven to be fairly shite. I’d say he sees Jones-Smalling as the long-term centre back partnership. Can’t get my head around the Young transfer unless Nani is on his way.
I’d say we will see a bit of Cleverley for United next season. He looks a decent player from what I’ve seen of him, and I think a year in that Wigan team with its passing mentality under Martinez will have done him no harm. Again though, I think he’d fall into the bracket of playing a bit further forward. We definitely need at least two new midfielders. Hargreaves has never really been replaced.
Interesting developments in the Jones story over the weekend. Blackburn felt that the release clause in his contract only allowed Jones to talk to other clubs but didn’t compel Blackburn to accept the bid. With the interest from elsewhere they invited more bids and it looks like they’re getting over £20m from United for him now.
[indent]Manchester United set to pay £20.5m for Jones after late £22m offer from Liverpool
By Nick Harris
12 June 2011
Prompted by a ‘hardball’ attitude from Blackburn Rovers owners and a late £22m bid on Saturday from Liverpool for Rovers’ England under-21 defender Phil Jones , Manchester United have agreed to pay £20.5m for the player and the deal is expected to be completed imminently. It is mid-afternoon in India at the time of writing and the decisions were finalised this morning, Indian time.
As has been widely – and correctly – reported, there was a £16.5m release clause in the extended Rovers contract that Jones, 19, signed in February.
But the Rovers owners’ contention was that it didn’t necessarily force them to sell Jones as soon as one club triggered it with a bid of that amount.
A crucial fact that muddied the waters is United appeared to know precise details about the terms of the release before Rovers had given any club permission to speak to the player. The only way United could have known this is if Rovers had told them – and sources insist they didn’t – or if somebody else told them when they shouldn’t have done so under the letter of the transfer laws.
This fact, as well as Liverpool’s offer of £22m, gave Rovers some traction in negotiations. Well-placed senior sources in India have made it clear that a tapping-up complaint against Manchester United was an option open to them.
If Manchester United felt they were on solid ground with their £16.5m deal and no more, that’s what they’d be paying. But they’re not paying that. That’s why the deal has been agreed at £20.5m. They are paying more to make the deal happen now.
Venky’s did not want to go down the acrimonious route of official complaints if it could be avoided, and clearly feel there is no point in dragging the situation out further. In any case, Jones has made it clear his preference is to join United.
In the end, it was decided that holding out for more than £20.5m wasn’t going to help manager Steve Kean’s planning. Kean flew into Mumbai yesterday. The owners and Kean spent yesterday in Pune, discussing their options.
The Rao family, who bought Blackburn late last year, wanted to keep Jones. That was their preference. Income from a sale is of no relevance to them. But once it was clear Jones was never going to be persuaded to stay – even on £80,000 a week and with the future captaincy as bait – the issue was getting as much above £16.5m as possible.
Sportingintelligence does not know whether Liverpool would have gone higher than £22m but that bid was made yesterday. If nothing else, this saga demonstrates that United and Liverpool are both going to spend large amounts this summer.[/indent]
Anzhi Makhachkala sign Balazs Dzsudzsak from PSV for an undisclosed fee.
Strange one.
That’s a bit unexpected alright. Doubt he was cheap. They’re hardly a big name club but presume they’re rich these days.
Bebe is off to Besiktas on loan for 2011/12 with a view to a £2m transfer. That transfer isn’t so much bizarre as obviously dodgy.
United are apparently trying to get Alexis Sanchez now because Bojan doesn’t want to be a part of the deal between Barca and Udinese, he wants to come to Roma instead.
I heard City were in for Sanchez in a big way, but that his preferences were Barca and United.
Word going around now is that Ronaldo is willing to go to City if they pay him 400K a week.
City have also been linked with Gary Cahill and its meant to be all but a done deal.
Manchester United have confirmed they have reached agreement with Blackburn over the signing of defender Phil Jones on a five-year contract
Gary Cahill is hugely overrated. Often gets caught in behind, the fact he scores a few goals does not make up for that, you’d think city would have learned after Lescott.
Agree 100% on Cahill, another vastly overrated English centre half. Id love to see Arsenal sign him as it would confirm Wenger is losing the plot.
Fernando Muslera says he is joining Galatasaray. Fuck, he’s been good to throw the odd ball into his own net in Rome derbies in recent years.
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Alexis Sanchez’ representatives were apparently speaking with both Manchester clubs today. All the big Italian, Spanish and English clubs seem to be genuinely chasing his signature.
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Jerome Boateng has again stated that he will be joining Bayern Munich. No mention of a deal between the clubs though.
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Another raft of deals between Milan and Genoa today. All these loans and co-ownership deals seem fairly dodgy to me.
Rumours that Liverpool have tabled a bid for Adam Johnson.
Jerome Boateng is a really poor footballer. He is like a giraffe with the ball at his feet and seems to have no awareness of what is going on around him.
Would prefer this to Downing although Johnson is far from the finished article.
Source?
Is Charlie Adam going to Liverpool?
Just the general rumour mill Clarkey. I find it hard to believe myself, especially for the figure of 16M thats being touted.
Give us a bit more than that.
I think Johnson is a very good player, and a much better player than Downing, who is being priced at around that. However I would think it is very unlikely that City would sell him to Liverpool.
Manchester City don’t want to sell to potential title rivals so they’d have no problem dealing with Liverpool.