Burly Premier League centre-forwards dominate the headlines as the sails of the Rumour Mill creak into action in their efforts to generate another summer Monday’s worth of transfer chit-chat. With Christian Benteke in Liverpool to submit to the formalities of coughing for the doctor and finalising his £32m transfer to Liverpool, his former Aston Villa boss Tim Sherwood is ready to replace the Belgian with Emmanuel Adebayor, whose stagnant career was electro-shocked back into something approaching its best when Sherwood applied the defib paddles during his time in charge of Spurs for the second half of the 2013-14 season. Phrases such as “wage demands” and “stumbling block” feature prominently in stories regarding this potential transfer.
In other news pertaining to towering strikers, Arsène Wenger is believed to have borrowed the kitchen scales from the training ground canteen, all the better to “weigh up” a bid for Manchester City’s Bosnian goal-getter Edin Dzeko. Wenger is also understood to be interested in signing Borussia Dortmund’s 26-year-old forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but the Bundesliga outfit say their £30m-rated Gabon international is not for sale.
Charlie Austin is another striker who is on the market and expected to move this summer and West Ham and Bournemouth have joined Leicester and Newcastle in the orderly queue of suitors outside Loftus Road. Newcastle are also in hot pursuit of Anderlecht’s Serbian striker Aleksander Mitrovic, who has already announced on Facebook that he’s off St James’ Park for a fee that is believed to be somewhere in the region of £13m. Arsenal fans will have less than fond memories of the 20-year-old, who scored 27 goals in all competitions last season, one of them a late equaliser in his side’s heroic Champions League comeback against the Gunners last November. Anderlecht’s Congolese full-back Chancel Mbemba, who is also 20, is also expected to rock up at St James’ Park.
With his playing time likely to severely limited as long as he sits fourth in the Barcelona pecking order behind Leo Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez, Pedro could secure a £20m move to Manchester United in the next couple of weeks, according to Spanish daily Marca. Although Luis Enrique wants the Spanish international to stay at Camp Nou, it seems unlikely that Barcelona will stand in the striker’s way should he agitate for a move. Should Pedro sign for United, Javier Hernandez might have to make way for him, with Tottenham Hotspur likely to be his next destination. With the future of Spanish goalkeeper David De Gea still very much undecided and up in the air, Manchester United are reported to have added the name of former Sampdoria goalkeeper Sergio Romero to that of Ajax’s Jasper Cillessen on their list of potential replacements for De Gea, should he do one to Real Madrid.
Like many a Chelsea whelp before him, Nathan Aké is available on loan and Newcastle, Watford and Leicester are all believed to be interested in taking the Dutch defender on loan. Leicester are also interested in taking Oriol Romeu off Chelsea’s hands, with the midfielder having spent the past two seasons on loan at Valencia and VfB Stuttgart.
And finally, Mathiu Flamini is all set to leave Arsenal for a second time in order to live out his football dotage on the banks of the Bosphorus as a Galatasaray player. We wish him well.
