Dimitri Payet is either unavailable or up for sale, depending on which paper you read. Slaven Bilic insists, “We’re not going to sell him, not whatsoever,” but the Mirror says “it could take £30m to persuade the Hammers to sell” their wantaway forward, while the Times seems pretty sure they would let him go for a figure between £35m and £40m, well over three times the price West Ham paid Marseille in 2015. The French side, whom Payet would like to rejoin, have already got in touch and suggested they would pay no more than £9m, a ludicrously mean pittance for a player of such bountiful gifts (though the Telegraph insists Marseille have “bid just under £20m”, still far from sufficient), with Chelsea rumoured to be ready to get involved. Coincidentally, a similar bid has come in from France for Manchester United outcast Memphis Depay, from Lyon this time, and they too have been told to go away and think of a more serious number, ideally around £15m if you’d be so kind.
Burnley, Crystal Palace and Sunderland are all after Norwich’s Robbie Brady, with the Eagles having a £10m bid rejected and the Clarets hoping for better with their offer, described in the Mirror as being “worth £13m” and thus presumably including a variety of clauses, sub-clauses, addenda and appendices.
It’s just one of several bids flying about from Palace, who are taking a scattergun approach to their search for slightly better footballers, notably spraying offers for a variety of left-backs around Europe with madcap abandon. After Patrick van Aanholt – an initial offer of £6m plus a further £2m in add-ons was turned down but a second is expected – and Jeffrey Schlupp – still likely to sign, apparently, for £12m – Patrice Evra is their latest target, with talks between the 35-year-old and the club already under way. They also want Arsenal’s Carl Jenkinson, with Sam Allardyce declaring that “defensively we need to secure more players”. But they’re not going to stop there, with club scouts in attendance for Senegal’s 2-0 win over Congo on Wednesday to cast their eyes over the midfielder Papa N’Diaye. They were presumably impressed, N’Diaye scoring the second goal and being named man of the match, though they might have competition in the race for the £6m-rated Osmanlispor midfielder: Everton were also represented at the game.
And then there’s Stewart Downing, who is expected to be on his way to Selhurst Park as soon as Bojan Krkic joins Middlesbrough. The England winger has become disgruntled by his lack of game time at Boro, and Aitor Karanka has declared the rather Bilic-contrasting belief that “any player who is not happy here can leave”, though Mark Hughes’s subsequent declaration that Stoke won’t be selling anyone for the time being might scupper his plans.
Jack Wilshere is apparently likely to leave Arsenal in the summer, with his contract 18 months from expiry and the Gunners having made no effort to extend it. Arsène Wenger has possibly been distracted by the chase for Freiburg forward Maximilian Philipp, aged only 22 and available for as little as £3.4m. Meanwhile, in news that doesn’t really fit anywhere else but should probably be squeezed in somewhere, Hull are in talks with Porto over 30-year-old midfielder Evandro Goebel.
George Hirst, current Sheffield Wednesday striker and 17-year-old son of former Sheffield Wednesday striker David, is wanted by January busybodies Everton, who must have found his first and so far only league appearance, for the final 13 minutes of a 2-1 defeat at Reading last month, extremely impressive. The Toffees are also one of the clubs monitoring the Nottingham Forest forward Ben Brereton, also 17 and being scouted by Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United.
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