The transfer merry-go-round

The World Cup is not even over yet and silly season has already begun in the papers. West Ham have been linked with Juan Roman Riquelme and the latest Brazilian wonderkid while Manchester City are reportedly interested in James Milner, Yaya Toure, Edin Dzeko, Pele and Jesus Christ (probably). The papers hurl a whirlwind of bollocks towards you at this time of year so let’s take a look at some of the done deals and more realistic gossip.

First of all, let’s take a look at the big signing of the summer. After months of no speculation, Colchester have finally landed Barrow midfielder Andrew Bond in a multi-pound deal. Some bloke called David Silva has joined Manchester City as well.

Silva’s arrival for around the £26 million mark is only the beginning for City and we would be here all day commenting on gossip regarding them so I shall set that aside for a different post. The big story of the day is Roy Hodgson’s arrival at Liverpool but with a rumoured transfer kitty of only £15 million, how will he spend it? The Daily Mail believe it will be spent on Gilberto Silva, Brede Hangeland, Danny Murphy and Rafael van der Vaart. Now I’m not sure what calculator the Mail used for this but I would get a new one. £15 million would get you roughly van der Vaart’s right leg and Hangeland’s sternum.

Mesut Ozil is the talk of the town after his World Cup exploits and according to the Daily Star, he is the subject of a bidding war between Arsenal and Barcelona with Barcelona currently edging ahead. It is the Daily Star reporting this though; if I was in heaven and they reported my death in their paper then I would be questioning my own passing away.
One of the sagas of the summer will be that of Joe Cole. Now that he has finished his England duties this summer, expect some real headway to be made with this story shortly. All the big clubs, and West Ham, have been linked with him so it all comes down to Joe himself. I don’t think he’ll leave London myself so I am sticking my neck on the line and saying that he will be an Arsenal player come August.

Most laughable story of the summer so far – Raul to Blackburn as read in The Daily Express. Have you got nothing better to fill your paper with lads? Empty space would have been better.