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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Nick Miller

Transfer window: Ramires, Ashley Cole, Pato and more – as it happened

Ashley Cole
Ashley Cole will be joining LA Galaxy. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA

That’ll probably do for today. A quick summary of the day’s happenings:

And some other stuff too, but I’ll let you find all that out for yourselves. It’ll be nice for you. Ta ra, and do come back tomorrow when Nick Ames will be in the hot seat.

Plenty of word around that Andros Townsend’s move to Newcastle has gone through, but no official confirmation from either side yet. That’s possibly because Spurs seem to be having a lovely old time at a training camp in Barcelona. Hope they checked out the Gaudi museum.

As it turns out, that Plymouth signing they all had us on tenterhooks over was the arrival of ‘former Manchester United hotshot’ Daniel Nardiello on loan from Bury. And they’re really selling this one, too:

‘He scored 14 goals in 38 appearances last season for Bury but, having missed the start of this season through injury, has made just one substitute appearance for the Shakers this term’

It being 5pm, why not read the Fiver, today written by erstwhile transfer blogger Alan Smith on Bobby Martinez.

Big update from Plymouth...

Although they’re not exactly narrowing it down...

Ooooh, here’s juicy. Alex Teixeira has been tracked down by AnfieldHQ and quizzed about a potential move to Liverpool. Watch it here, but the summary is: he seems keen.

Brendan Rodgers has RUBBISHED talk that Jürgen Klopp doesn’t rate Christian Benteke. And you can - get this - listen to him saying so here.

Peter Oh from Callyfornier has some thoughts on the latest big deal: “I am gutted (as you Brits say) by the Galaxy’s signing of AS Roma flop Ashley Cole. LA needs a semi-retired waning European star and his bloated salary like another hole in the head. On the plus side, readers of Cole’s writing can look forward to a new chapter in his autobiography about white-knuckling it on an unbelievably jammed 405 freeway in Marina del Rey.”

DONE DEAL!

And it’s one that’s been in the pipeline for some time - Ashley Cole has signed for LA Galaxy.

“Ashley is one of the world’s most successful defenders and has played at the highest level of competition throughout his career,” said Bruce Arena. “He can provide our defense with valuable experience. We look forward to his contribution to our club this season.”

With Steven Gerrard and Robbie Keane already there, they’re building up quite the team for the 2007/8 Premier League season.

We had a little bit on Alex Teixeira earlier (13.33, if you’re interested), but if you listen to Sky Sports, it’s unlikely he’ll move to Liverpool this month.

DONE DEAL!

Confirmation of the Tomlin deal, now...

Update now on the Gary Cahill story - according to Dominic Fifield, it’s unlikely that he’ll be allowed to leave Chelsea. This month, at least. Some more details on that one here...

Sounds like Matt Miazga really is a Chelsea player...

DONE DEAL!
Hmmm, yeah, sorry, slightly slow on the uptake with this one...

China is so hot right now...

Word on the street* in Bristol is that Lee Tomlin is set to join City on loan for the rest of the season from Bournemouth. Tomlin only signed from Middlesbrough in the summer, but he’s an absolutely perfect example of the ‘good in the Championship, nowhere near good enough for the Premier League’ player.

*Bristol Post.

It’s easy to be sniffy about ostensibly spurious shows of ‘respect’, but this is quite nice...

Here’s one, as pointed out by a Lars Palm on the emails - Las Palmas have signed Uruguayan Mauricio Lemos from Defensor in Uruguay, via a loan spell at Rubin ‘Elia’ Kazan, according to La Provincia. He’s also on loan at the Spanish club.

Here’s an interesting one - according to ESPN, Chelsea are set to sign 20-year-old centre-back Matt Miagza. The US international only has a year left on his contract, and will probably be a replacement in the Chelsea reserves for Papy Djilobodji, who of course cut short his glorious spell at Stamford Bridge when he left for Werder Bremen on loan last week.

Another move in Italy - midfielder Alberto Grassi has joined Napoli from Atalanta.

DONE DEAL!

Swansea have completed the signing of Ryan Blair from Falkirk. He’s a 19-year-old midfielder who’s only just broken into the first team in Scotland, and as such will join the Swans’ under-21 side rather than the first-team, for the time being at least.

Another bit of spice to chuck into the pot...

And the latest full story on Ramires joining China’s Jiangsu Suning

Here’s the Press Association story on Alexandre Pato

Pato, who has not played since November, is equally anxious to get back on the park. “I need to play. I don’t know what to say because I am so happy. I am very anxious. I want to know my new friends, the new players, and the team. I really want to play for Chelsea,” he said. A medical is understood to be taking place later today.

Updated

Looks like Alexandre Pato’s chimney sweep hat reflects his chipper mood as he says he is “so happy” to be going to Chelsea on loan, although the club have yet to comment, he also described the club as “my new home” ...

DONE DEAL!

Remember this guy? At one point he was the second-youngest player to appear in the Champions League...

DONE DEAL!

...for a fee of around £25million, if you believe reports. Not bad for a squad player.

Here’s some more on that Gary Cahill story, via Reuters.

Phil Pierce has a query: “Any idea how Derby can spend £25m under the current Financial Fair Play rules? Surely they can’t be making that much more than other Championship teams and yes I am a disgruntled Forest fan in case you were wondering.”

At a guess, I’d assume that with the assorted challenges to the FFP rules Derby reckon they aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, so they can breezily ignore them on the basis they’re not enforceable. Which is reasonably sensible, really. Either that or they’re just sticking their fingers in their ears and choosing to worry about all this when they have to worry about it.

Interesting one. According to a report by news agency Reuters, Gary Cahill is so concerned about his place in the England squad for the European Championships that he wants to leave Chelsea. Reuters report:

The England vice captain has played more than 170 games for the Premier League champions but has made only 12 league appearances this season as Kurt Zouma and John Terry have become the preferred starters.

Cahill fears he might miss out on the Euros this summer if he is still not playing regularly, a source close to the player told Reuters.

While it could be too late to make the move before the current transfer window closes on Monday, Cahill is resigned to leaving the champions to ensure regular top-flight football.

The highly regarded defender, who cost Chelsea around £7 million ($10.02 million) when he joined from Bolton Wanderers in January 2012, says he may be at the “crossroads of his career”.

We - well, more accurately someone else who works for the Guardian who has contacts and so forth - are looking into this one.

AND ANOTHER!

DONE DEAL!
And it’s big.

Looks like Alexandre Pato is trying to fit in after arriving in London by wearing a chimney sweep’s cap.

Alex Teixeira has been the subject of much chitter and chatter this month, and it rather sounds like his current coach understands why. Speaking to FourFourTwo, Shakhtar Donetsk top dog Mircea Lucescu said:

“He’s worth €50 million. He’s incredible, very fast, very good technique. I compare him with other players of the same age who changed [the fortunes of] a club, [Angel] Di Maria for example at Paris Saint-Germain.

“Teixeira can be at the same level, better even. He doesn’t get injured, and every year he gets better and better.

“Our president knows when it is the time for Teixeira to go. I don’t want to keep a player against his desire. He wants to play in a big championship.”

Fancy a read about Emmanuel Adebayor and Crystal Palace’s signing of him? Paul Wilson has one for you here.

This was a throwaway line in The Rumour Mill this morning, but it seems there are legs to this whole ‘Robin van Persie being a viable alternative for Chelsea’ thing. Sky Sports claim it would take an ‘extraordinary offer’ to get him, but seem to suggest there is interest. Possibly. Who knows?

A deal! I think. Looks like Sevilla have completed the signing of Eibar winger Keko, for about €7m.

Word now from Sunderland, who have apparently made another bid for Lorient defender Lamine Koné.

Lorient vice-president Alex Hayes told Ouest France: “Sunderland have come back with a firm offer that we couldn’t refuse. The ball is therefore in Lamine Koné’s camp. He has to make his decision in the coming hours.”

This has been quite the saga, as Sunderland seemingly had a move all wrapped up around the turn of the year, only to back out after recruiting Jan Kirchhoff and thoroughly irk Hayes in the process. He said a few weeks ago:

“It’s quite outrageous. We gave Sunderland our consent last Tuesday, Lamine left the next day to have contract talks, but the player warned us there were problems in negotiating his contract.

“Because of the holidays it dragged out until Monday. They tried to change the pre-agreed deal. Lamine called me to ask if he could return to Lorient and I told him with great pleasure.”

Been whispers about this in Spain, but one suspects Neymar/whoever is just trying to parlay the Real ‘interest’ into a new deal at Barça.

This could be interesting. Reports in Germany suggest that Liverpool have made a bid of around £6m for Schalke defender Joel Matip. His contract expires in the summer and wants to leave, and this could hasten things as well as providing some much-needed cover in Liverpool’s defence. Bild reckon a deal is in place for him to sign for nothing in the summer, but this could hurry things along a little.

For what it’s worth, Jürgen Klopp a couple of weeks ago: “At the moment we have nothing to say about it. If and when something is agreed we will speak about it but nothing yet, nothing else to say.”

Updated

Yet more conflicting reports on the future of Fulham’s Moussa Dembélé - Sky say he’s going to Tottenham, but ESPN reckon Monaco is his destination.

Oh, one we forgot about from last night - Derby have signed defender Marcus Olsson from Blackburn, making that roughly their 2,427th purchase of the season.

Seriously, they’ve spent north of £25million since the end of last season - if they don’t go up now then a large number of people need tarring and feathering.

Something on the ghosts of transfers past, here...

Some more thoughts on Pato to Chelsea, firstly from Graeme Neill...

“Matt Collins makes a great point but Chelsea’s odd striker signing policy dates back further - Shevchenko and Torres anyone? Only Drogba and Anelka have worked out well for them (jury is still out on Costa).”

...and also Steve Wingrove...

“I live in São Paulo and support Corinthians. Pato is very disliked by Corinthians fans, largely because he’s seen as a bit of a lazy, mummy’s boy. Not wishing to generalize, but Corinthians is considered the people’s team while São Paulo is more of a ‘Mauricinho’ or ‘preppy’ middle class team. Corinthians fans expect blood from their players and that’s something which Pato simply wasn’t giving. Thus, the loan to SP…

“Once more, not wishing to generalize, but Pato may well fit in at Chelsea considering the ‘privileged’ SW London location and the club’s seeming belief in its God-given right to lounge around at the top of the table.

“By the way, ‘Pato’ isn’t a nickname but his surname – and it means ‘duck’ in Portuguese. Interestingly, one of his teammates at São Paulo is called Ganso – which means ‘goose’. I’m sure there’s a joke in there about flocking, but I’ve already proved I’ve got nothing much to do today, so I won’t dwell…”

This is hypnotic...

Basel have rejected a whopping great bid from Wolfsburg for their teenage midfielder Breel Embolo, according to the Swiss club’s president.

“After considering all the arguments, we decided to grant VFL a rejection without negotiating the economic conditions of the offer,” Bernhard Heusler told Sport Bild.

“Of course, the deemed VFL’s offer very interesting for him, but has accepted the decision of the clubs in a professional and fair manner.”

More details here, but in the meantime, check out his hair.

Basel’s Swiss forward Breel Embolo (L) speaks with teammatre Jean-Paul Boetius.
Basel’s Swiss forward Breel Embolo (L) speaks with teammatre Jean-Paul Boetius. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

A few words from last night, and Luis Enrique reckons Neymar is a hop and a skip from renewing his contract at Barcelona. “I believe so, yes, I think he’ll end up renewing,” said Enrique. So there.

Goals of the week? Goals of the week. Featuring this absolute blooter.

“The Pato deal is so strange,” writes Matt Collins, “but fits into Chelsea’s pattern of signing strikers who were until relatively recently before signing thought to be among the best in the world. Eto’o, Pedro, Falcao, now Pato. Do Chelsea see themselves as a home for attacking players with something to prove, sort of a club version of Sam Allardyce?”

The hero we need, etc & so on...

Sky Sports report that Fulham are now willing to sell Moussa Dembélé to Tottenham, but will try to get him back on loan for the rest of the season. Ross McCormack remains a target for Middlesbrough, but it’d be quite surprising if they let both completely go by the end of the month.

Here’s a story on Stephan El Shaarawy, expressing his aims to make the Italy Euro 2016 squad after joining Roma for the rest of the season.

Wolves confirm the Mason stuff, which is...unusual, to say the least. Presumably trying to placate their understandably irked fans.

A little light reading for you now, and our pals at WhoScored.com have picked out three in-form players from across Europe that Premier League clubs might want to take a look at this month.

Sky Sports report that Wolves, having lost Benik Afobe to Bournemouth and Nouha Dicko to bad, bad knee knack, are closing in on a £3million move for Cardiff’s Joe Mason. Don’t want to worry you, Wolves fans, but he has only scored once since the start of October...

Birmingham and Shane Lowry have agreed on a mutual conscious uncoupling, the Australian’s contract terminated with the acquiescence of all parties as he heads back to his native land. Perth Glory, specifically.

The bit through the window of the Millennium Falcon is my favourite...

More news from Germany now, and Kicker have blown Borussia Dortmund’s big secret - specifically that they have covertly signed Lukasz Piszczek to a new contract, extended by a year to 2018. Negotiations with Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Mats Hummels and Ilkay Gündogan, whose deals all expire in 2017, continue.

According to German paper of record Bild, Jürgen Klopp has been busy meeting prospective transfer targets, specifically the gloriously named Granit Xhaka of Borussia Monchengladbach fame. From a slightly ropey translation it seems there’s a clause in his contract that means he’ll cost €30m in 2017, but before that all bets are off.

Guilherme Tanaka has some interesting thoughts on Pato: “Having watched Pato for the last few years, playing for Corinthians and São Paulo, it seems to me that he can’t really be bothered to play football anymore. Whether that is because he’s playing at a lower level than he used to or for another reason I can’t really tell. As one would say, he’s just not that hungry anymore.

“It just says a lot that Corinthians loaned him out to their bitter rivals São Paulo, while paying half his wages AND having former CSKA Moscow striker Vagner Love as their only recognizable attacker in their squad last season. The only reason the Corinthians’ supporters didn’t riot (as they are quite prone to do) is the fact that they too dislike Pato.

“Maybe he’ll be back to his best at Chelsea, I just can’t see it happening.”

As an aside, it’s worth noting that having written all that in perfect English, presumably not his first language, Guilherme signs off by apologising for his English. Blimey, Guilherme, no worries there.

Deflating news from Spain now, and it’s sad faces all over the shop as Fernando Torres is supposedly told that he won’t be staying at Atlético Madrid next season. He’s on loan from AC Milan at present, but apparently Diego Simeone has told him that deal won’t be extended. Just as well he’s got an offer for some serious coin elsewhere then, isn’t it?

Word reaches us that Bruno Labbadia - that’s Hamburg’s manager, as well you know - is willing to give Ivica Olic another chance, despite being willing to let him leave this month.

Barcelona are said to be interested in Celta Vigo forward Nolito, but according to Mundo Deportivo they are now out of the race, apparently unable to pay the required €18m because of financial restraints I don’t pretend to understand.

As a man calling himself ‘French Tony’ has quite rightly pointed out that Stephan El Shaarawy played for Monaco earlier this season, not Roma where he has now gone. I’ve now changed the entry in question in the hope that nobody will notice.

Moving away from the transfer biz at the moment - may I present to you The Knowledge, written by Rob Smyth. Did a fan shoot a football to stop the opposition from scoring? Only one way to find out...

Word on a player leaving Everton (temporarily) now from Dominic Fifield. It’s young right-back Jonjoe Kenny, who’s off out on loan to Oxford United. Details here.

J.Dalgaard has been on, re: Pato: “Having watched several YouTube videos of Pato running around in Brazil pretending to play professional football, I’m convinced that Chelsea have got themselves a real gem of a player. He definitely looks capable of matching the achievements of that insatiable goal-machine Falcao.”

Another in case you missed it - yesterday Roma completed the signing of Stephan El Shaarawy from Milan, having spent the first half of the season at Monaco. It’s a loan with a €13m permanent deal mooted should it all go well.

Updated

Leicester are thought to be in for Sampdoria striker Éder, but Inter are sniffing around too. Massimo Moratti thinks he’d be just the job - better than other rumoured target Ezequiel Lavezzi anyway - and while the old boy is no longer the man in charge of these things at Inter, here’s what he said anyway:

“I think the problem is there, right there – in scoring goals. And so I have the impression that Eder is definitely the right player for us.

“I think Eder’s a player who’s capable of contributing a good amount of goals. More than Lavezzi? I think so, although I haven’t seen Lavezzi as much…It’s a purely tactical choice in the end and I think that the Sampdoria player is the right signing.”

Watford were thought to be in the ol’ hunt for Fiorentina midfielder Mario Suarez, but according to Spanish paper AS Valencia are moving to gazump them. Suarez is thought to prefer a move to the English club, however, which is sobering news for Valencia and no mistake.

Tom Casey’s been on with an opinion on Pato’s ability: “Not sure about his ability as such but given Pato’s nickname is duck I see his first match ending with him bagging a brace with the accompanying headline ‘Duck Duck Guus.’ Just me? It is rather early...”

Guus is cooked, Guus is having a gander etc, etc, so on and so forth.

In case you missed it yesterday, Crystal Palace have signed Emmanuel Adebayor until the end of the season, a move that most seem to have deemed A Gamble Worth Taking. Here’s Dominic Fifield with some details there.

No comment.

A couple of lines from France here, via our boy and noted Keane fan Edward Aarons...

Hey, lookahere. It’s The Rumour Mill, written this morning by your friend and mine Rob Smyth. Some juicy cuts from that one include:

  • Real Madrid are in the hunt for Eden Hazard, but he’ll cost £80m and they won’t get him until the summer.
  • If Chelsea don’t get Alex Pato then they will make a move for Robin van Persie.
  • Arsenal and Liverpool are duking it out for Alvaro Morata.
  • Sunderland are aching for André Ayew, so much so that they’ll offer Swansea £10m plus throw Fabio Borini into the deal too.
  • Spurs will make a bid of circa £18m for Midlands bad boy Saido Berahino, who incidentally is absolutely not the subject of this guarded and very thickly-veiled nudge-nudge, wink-wink column by our old friend Dav...erm, sorry, The Secret Footballer.

Word on the street is that Patrick Roberts, the youngster that Manchester City purloined (well, bought, really) from Fulham last year is off on loan for some competitive football to....erm...Celtic. The Bhoys’ admirable early season bid to make the Scottish title race interesting for the first time since Rangers went bang has faded rather in recent weeks, and the gap between them and Aberdeen in second is six points and widening.

Tottenham want Moussa Dembélé (Fulham version) to go with the Mousa Dembélé (former Fulham version) they already have, but they won’t be getting him this month. That’s according to David Hytner anyway. Why? Read on, friends.

In case you missed it, Sunderland are thought to be in the mix for Mathieu Debuchy, attempting to gazump Aston Villa on a loan move for the Arsenal right-back, a move that looked like it was done and done. Louise Taylor has an update for you there.

Here’s the latest on a few deals to get you started. Alexandre Pato is in town to complete a loan move to Chelsea, and there’s great debate as to whether it’s a gamble worth taking. Any opinions out there? Email them to Nick.Miller@theGuardian.com. Anyway, here are some details via our man Dominic Fifield.

Morning. Let us do this dance one more time. Well, a few more times until the transfer window shuts on Monday. Does it all mean anything? Who knows. If it does mean anything, we’ll be sure to bring you whatever meaning we can squeak out of it. Hold tight - it’s going to be another rollercoaster of a day.

Nick will be along shortly. In the meantime here are the details of Emmanuel Adebayor’s loan move to Crystal Palace:

Crystal Palace have confirmed signing of striker Emmanuel Adebayor until the end of the season. The 31-year-old former Togo frontman was released from his contract at Tottenham in September, and will join the Eagles until the end of the season.

Adebayor first moved to the Premier League when he joined Arsenal from French side Monaco, and left for Manchester City in a £25m deal during the summer of 2009 before loan spells at Real Madrid and Spurs ahead of his permanent switch to White Hart Lane in August 2012.

Read the full story here.

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