Afternoon all,
It’s a sunny Tuesday afternoon down at the Grove, and it’s a case of other teams signing our potential signings today. Earlier today, we took a look at the transfer rumours flying around and put them in a little context. News today suggests that, by a process of elimination, they will naturally be put in place.
News from the official Aston Villa web site suggests that Gareth Barry is in talks with Manchester City – and it’s a strange one – because I really thought he’d only move to a top four team playing in the Champions League. But the clause in the contract, is now known to be based on any club matching the £18.6m relase clause fee, which it looks like Manchester City have just done.
In a very wordy statement, Aston Villa said:
“Aston Villa can confirm today that Gareth Barry is in talks with Manchester City.”
And in all honesty, I think it’s good business for them, £18.6m is a good amount of money for someone who is not as good as Denilson, let alone Xabi Alonso.*
* Based on opta stats – exact stats to be published at a later date!
Talking about Xabi Alonso, the Real Madrid president has been coveting the Spanish midfielder and in all honesty, he wouldn’t bring much to us, consider Denilson’s stats are considerably better, as well as the fact that entering a bidding war with debt-ridden, overspending Real Madrid (who paid £47m for Zidane once upon a time) would be commercial suicide. Perez said:
“As a fan, I would say that Xabi is a great player. I think he is the best passer of the ball in Europe. I would be happy [to have him], but I cannot talk about the player without having spoken to Rafa Benitez, as he is the one who needs to know that we are interested in his player.”
And according to the Sun, the player we’ve just been looking at, Lorik Cana, is also being chased by Sp*rs and Liverpool. But then again, according to the Sun, we’ve got £13m to spend one day, £73m the next day, are being taken over the next day etc… The midfield maestro, whom many think will be a positive signing, said this:
“Even if I have another three years on my contract, the door is still open for me to depart. I’ll talk to my family and the leaders [of Marseille] at the end of the season. I will not finish my career here. But I don’t want to hurry and I don’t want to leave without winning something for OM. Today, it’s 50-50. England and Germany are the two championships that interest me the most.”
And here’s something to smile, laugh or cry about depending… Jens Lehmann is now an actor and will be starring in a new football related film called Themba, about a poor boy who ends up playing for South Africa’s national team – due to be released just before next year’s world cup!
And finally, a little something from Tony Adams. He has been linked with the Celtic job and was recently asked whether he’d like to return to Arsenal:
“Two things, I would love to [work there]. But I’ve not been asked. I still feel like I’d like to go back there as boss. I did work under him [Arsene Wenger] for six years. I know the club inside out. It may be the case that they are asking him to achieve more than fourth but they are not giving him the money to do that so maybe I’ll go in with a Russian in a few years, get all the money and take them in to the Champions League. Arsenal is a big part of my life and I love it to death and I can see me at some stage being part of the club in some capacity. If I’m not Arsenal manager the next ten years then I think I’ll give up. But at the moment I’m not giving up.”
Personally, I would like to see Adams come in as some sort of defensive coach – under Arsene and really think he has a lot to learn before he could ever manage Arsenal. I don’t think he actually has what it takes to be a manager, I would consider him more as a coach – but of course, I may be totally wrong! His tenure at Portsmouth and comments from his players make me think he’s not really manager calibre.
More tomorrow…
