It’s been an interesting week in the transfer market and the season isn’t even done yet. This week we’re going to talk about Manchester City and Messi, the future of Didier Drogba, and the possible departure of three top Arsenal strikers. We’ll also discuss Carlos Tevez, Tottenham, whether or not Xabi Alonso is going to be sold to finance Liverpool’s slightly insane wishlist, and an unlikely future for Clarence Seedorf. We’ll get right to it after the jump.
Lionel Messi
Yesterday, Manchester City came out and announced that they hadn’t made a £132 million offer (that was rumored to have a salary around £170,000/week) to Barcelona for Lionel Messi. So either they did and were laughed off the continent or they really didn’t and are sick and tired of everyone linking them with every good player out there when they’re perfectly happy with Elano and Petrov.
Didier Drogba
It’d be easy to blame Drogba’s temper for his presence on a transfer rumors list, but in reality it’s probably got a lot more to do with the lackluster season he’s coming off of. Between injuries, suspensions, and stretches of poor form Drogba’s not been reliable, and when you’re running formations where he’s an isolated striker you need him to perform at a consistently high level all the time. Being on the wrong side of 30, with an angry streak and a tendency to mentally remove himself from games, he’s the kind of player you might want to remove. Then again, depending on his UEFA ban, you might not get all that much for him. And while two former Chelsea players sounded off on whether or not he should be transferred last week, the wheels may already have been set in motion for an exit: both Inter Milan and Marseille have expressed an interest in his services, with a rumored fee of around €15 million being offered.
Emmanuel Adebayor
Should Drogba go, Chelsea might not even have to leave London to replace him. Both Chelsea and AC Milan have expressed interest in the Togonian (Togoese?) striker; AC Milan actually had a deal in place for him last summer before president Silvio Berlusconi decided to buy up Ronaldinho instead. The common link between these two clubs is Carlo Ancelotti, who’s currently at Milan but has been rumored to be on the shortlist for the upcoming Chelsea managerial vacancy. If I had to guess, I’d say that if Ancelotti comes to Stamford Bridge, he brings Adebayor with him.
Nicklas Bendtner
Bendtner hasn’t necessarily been showered with praise by Arsenal fans this year; his frequent misses in front of wide open goals and ugly pink shoes, coupled by his insistence that he’s the best striker on the squad, have made for some rough going this season. Fortunately for Bendtner, there’s still a market for his skills. Two clubs – Bayern Munich and Inter Milan – have expressed an interest in the Dane, with Bayern rumored to have discussed a player swap deal. The other player involved? Fellow pink-shoe wearer, Franck Ribéry
Robin van Persie
Again, this one’s less of a transfer and more of a contract situation…but it’s a situation that, if News of the World are to be believed (which they probably aren’t, but still) could result in van Persie leaving on a free after next season. Apparently a £70,000/week deal for the Dutchman has been on the table for six months, but he hasn’t signed it yet; van Persie’s requesting £90,000/week, plus a clause that would let him talk to any team that offered Arsenal €5 million for him. If no deal is reached, van Persie’s deal will expire and they’ll get nothing for him at the end of next season.
David Bentley & Roman Pavlyuchenko
Less than a year ago, Tottenham Hotspur spent more than £30 million on the above players. Now, with a transfer window looming and a new regime in charge, the two are thought be transfer listed. Any sale of the two would almost surely involve taking a huge loss as neither player has played enough to warrant an increase in the £15 million and £14 million fees (respectively) Tottenham paid for them.
Carlos Tevez
When the Tottenham board authorized an £18 million transfer fee for Carlos Tevez, they probably didn’t expect to have the offer tripled by a rival club. That’s just what happened, though, when Tevez’s representatives revealed that Liverpool were prepared to offer a £26 million fee plus £160,000/week for three years – a total cost of over £50 million – to bring the Argentinian version of Dirk Kuyt to the team. That would explain why Tevez turned down a Real Madrid package totaling £40 million earlier in the week.
Xabi Alonso
Don’t worry about Real Madrid, though. While everyone involved is saying that Alonso will be staying at Anfield next year, Real Madrid are looking at Benitez’s wish list (rumored to include the aforementioned Tevez, Glen Johnson of Portsmouth, David Silva of Valencia, and Gareth Barry of Aston Villa) and wondering how exactly Rafa plans to pay for those players. They have a solution for him, too: sell Xabi Alonso to them for £23 million.
Goran Pandev
Spurned by Tevez, Tottenham may turn to Italy. For £15 million, they’re looking into the possibility of signing Lazio striker Goran Pandev, who may be surplass to requirements at the Serie A side now that former Birmingham striker Mauro Zarate’s been signed to a long-term deal. Should that happen, one of Tottenham’s strikers will most likely go.
Clarence Seedorf
There’s a rumor that Clarence Seedorf – the only player to win the Champions League with three clubs – is a transfer target of the Philadelphia Union. Also on their wishlist: Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Lionel Messi, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Re: Adebayor. It’s “Togolese”, and yeah, he can piss off to West London any time now.
And if Liverpool pull off an Alonso for Tevez swap (not in so many words, but you know what I mean) plus all that cash moving around, I want to see their books.
Up the Union!
Alonso for Tevez COULD work, actually; the salary would be the kicker. Alonso’s a little pricy at the moment; he’s pulling in about £90k/week. So if you offload Alonso for £23m and buy Tevez for £26m, you’re really only spending £3m of your transfer budget, plus adding in £3.64m in salaries (provided these numbers are even sort of correct, which isn’t likely).
Since Benitez supposedly has a something like a £30m transfer budget this year, that still leaves them with cash for Barry and Johnson, but their wage bill won’t be cheap either. Silva’s not going to happen without selling, though, and the only person left who’s salable and non-essential would be Babel, who you’d be hard-pressed to get £10m for.
The real problem is that I’m not really sure where Tevez would fit in, or if his presence would offset Alonso’s creativity. Without Alonso, Liverpool have shown over and over that they’re missing the patience needed to break down a defense; the presence of another hard worker isn’t going to fix that.