Football transfer rumours: Chelsea to send Petr Cech on loan to Liverpool?
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Version 0 of 1. At this time of year, it’s time to spare a thought for the less fortunate members of our society. The often sad, often lonely souls who drift around with little companionship, little by way of genuine human contact and warmth. The people who, for whatever reason, are thought of as having something “other” about them. Something that doesn’t quite fit. As we all come together to celebrate a giving time of year, let us bring them in and offer them a hug. Yes, today’s Rumour Mill goes out to the goalkeepers, those strange individuals who stand at one end of a field while 20 others play football. Liverpool need one, and by crikey they’re going after a big ’un, according to in-the-know sages up and down the land. Petr Cech is the man they want to step into Brad Jones’s shoes, the Chelsea man having largely filled his time since the return of Thibaut Courtois by sitting on the bench and wailing on some drums. Apparently Liverpool want him on loan and José Mourinho, wily old fox that he is, reckons that it might help Chelsea out more to have Cech playing for someone else rather than being their reserve – the theory of course being that Liverpool aren’t title rivals any more, that he won’t be able to play against Chelsea but will against teams that they are actually competing against. Oh José, you old card. It would be a brassy move by Liverpool, and perhaps slightly more likely/realistic is talk that they already have a £3m deal in the bag for Mexican stopper Guillermo Ochoa from Málaga. Elsewhere in keeperland, it seems Real Madrid have been listening to all those chin-strokey sages explaining why it’s no coincidence that David de Gea keeps having shots hit directly at him – so much so that they’re planning on hoofing a colossal bag o’ cash in Manchester United’s direction, on the off chance they wish to part with the man who is part Lev Yashin, part Jim Carrey’s Grinch. The fee in question would have to be more than the £33m Juventus paid for Gigi Buffon all those years ago, should the Talks ever progress into Advanced Talks and perhaps even graduate to full-blown Negotiations. De Gea himself, if you care to ask, isn’t massively keen on the idea apparently, and is perfectly comfortable where he is, thank you very much. Moving further up the pitch (but not too far – the Mill likes to take things slow), things haven’t exactly panned out as Ashley Cole probably envisioned in Rome – unless, that is, that his plan was to do OK at the start then get dropped and spend most of his time loafing around as a substitute. No fear though: like Harry Ellis in Die Hard, Crystal Palace are Cole’s white knight, bubby, and will take him on loan for the rest of the season. Another man for whom this year isn’t going 100% as expected is Adnan Januzaj, the boy king who was one of the few bright bits of Manchester United’s 2013-14, but from whom we’ve barely heard a peep this term. He’s subsequently a wanted man, with David Moyes seemingly dead set on the idea of loaning the youthful Belgian for Real Sociedad, which might suggest that Moyes is Januzaj’s spirit animal. An arresting image, for sure. Inter are keen on one of them loans too, and they’re also sniffing around Chelsea’s Mohamed Salah. Januzaj doing one could make room at Old Trafford for Ivan Rakitic, only signed by Barcelona in the summer but already set to be pushed out of Catalunya, it says here. Manchester City are also keeping tabs on how that whole hoopla plays out. Spurs have a simple plan: get rid of Roberto Soldado and Emmanuel Adebayor, and buy Jackson Martínez. Easy. Straightforward. Elementary. No problem. It’s exactly as simple as that, with no doubt many and varied clubs just desperate to take those two strikers off their hands. No worries. Amazed they haven’t thought of this before. Elsewhere, word around the playground is that Sunderland are after Danny Ings; Burnley and Leicester are keen on Dwight Gayle; West Brom and Saido Berahino have reached an impasse in contract negotiations with both Liverpool and Spurs keeping a keen eye on things; West Ham are still planning to bin Sam Allardyce at the end of the season, despite being all good again and stuff; Billy Davies is set to be the new Rangers manager in possibly the funniest and most doomed appointment since the last time he was given a job; and finally, Kirsty and Dommo snogged round the back of the maths block during morning break. Pass it on. |