While today’s rumours can only speculate about what certain folk of a right wing disposition are making of Burundi born West Brom striker Saido Berahino coming over here to escape a civil war, make a new life for himself and play well enough to take a “proper” England international’s job, here at your wishy-washy pinko liberal Guardian we could scarcely be more pleased for the boy.
His elevation to the England senior squad has only added to speculation that a big money move to a more trendy Premier League club is very much ahoy, with Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur all believed to be battling for his services. As it’s well documented that his mother Liliane is such a devoted Arsenal fan that she once scolded her boy for scoring against them, you’d have to surmise Spurs are the rank outsiders in this particular three-horse race. Meanwhile at Old Trafford, United insiders will no doubt be aware that theirs is the team Berahino supports.
It’s the only snippet of good news on an otherwise bleak day of transfer speculation for Manchester United fans, who won’t like hearing their excellent Spanish goalkeeper David De Gea continues to be mentioned in conjunction with a possible move to Real Madrid. Meanwhile United’s mooted January move for Real midfielder Fábio Coentrao may well hit the skids now that Real’s targeted replacement, the Bayern Munich midfielder David Alaba has knacked his knee.
Having developed into one of the world’s greatest central midfielders after leaving Manchester United for Juventus, Paul Pogba could continue riffing, be-bopping and scatting all over the pain of Sir Alex Ferguson and assorted other Manchester United staff by signing for Manchester City. Reports suggest that City could sell Yaya Touré in the summer and replace him with the France midfielder or Everton’s Ross Barkley. They’re unlikely to replace him with Fabian Delph, who has decided he wants a change of scenery and will leave Aston Villa on a free transfer in the summer. Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool are all monitoring the situation with interest.
Arsenal have featured as prominently as anyone in the whirligig of transfer guff that’s been spinning since the transfer window slammed shut and today is no exception. Depending on your media outlet of choice, Arsène Wenger will attempt to placate fans angry with his reluctance to purchase anything in the way of defenders by bringing in Ron Vlaar from Aston Villa, Chris Smalling from Manchester United, Basel centre-half Fabian Schar or Virgil van Dijk from Celtic. Basically, if you’re tall, in reasonably good shape and can head a football without closing your eyes, you’re in with a shout of getting a game for Arsenal. Once there, you might find yourself pinging the ball towards Morgan Schneiderlin, the Southampton midfielder who is also on Wenger’s big list o’shopping now that Adrien Rabiot has committed to Paris Saint-Germain.
In one of those occasional snippets of transfer tittle-tattle that makes the Rumour Mill hoot with derision at the likelihood of such a move coming to pass, it is also being reported that Italian side Fiorentina are lining up a loan move for Theo Walcott. Well, we say hoot of derision, but in truth it was more of a sceptical giggle, not entirely dissimilar to the one with which we first greeted speculation linking Micah Richards with the very same Serie A club. Fiorentina are also enquiring about the possibility of landing out of favour Liverpool striker Fabio Borini, who has become such an outcast at Anfield that he now gets picked for the stiffs side Brendan Rodgers sends out to face the hail of bullets that is an important showpiece event away from home against the European champions. If the Tuscany side are to land their man they will have to stave off interest from their Milanese rivals Inter.
And finally, in news that ought to prompt widespread shoulder-shrugs of indifference, “sources” close to Anderson have revealed that the portly Brazilian under-achiever with six months left on his contract “has vowed to fight for his future” at Old Trafford. With six months left on his contract, a very cynical transfer gossip column could interpret these unconfirmed reports as a tacit plea for the club to pay him off and leave him free to go elsewhere.
