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Chelsea have 24 hours to meet Athletico Madrid striker Sergio Aguero's £50m get-out clause. The Sun

Barcelona and Real Madrid are interested in Liverpool winger Albert Riera. Daily Mirror

Aston Villa are set to make a £6m offer for Middlesbrough defender David Wheater.Daily Mirror

Portsmouth defender Sol Campbell is ready to take a huge pay cut to join relegated Newcastle. Daily Star

West Ham are keeping tabs on Roma striker Julio Baptista. (Daily Mirror)

Manchester City appear to have beaten Chelsea to the signing of 16-year-old Brazilian striker Rafael de Souza Rodolfo from Fluminese. The Mirror http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Ma ... 19239.html

Birmingham are set to sign Sporting Gijon midfielder Michel for £3m.The Sun

Burnley are hopeful of signing defender Andre Bikey in time for Wednesday's clash against Manchester United. Daily Mirror

Blackburn are considering a swap deal involving Rovers striker Paul Gallagher and Watford forward Nathan Ellington.The Sun

Portsmouth are preparing a bid for Bolton centre-back Danny Shittu, who is out of favour at the Reebok Stadium. The Sun

Hull are battling with Real Zaragoza to sign £12m-rated Real Madrid striker Alvaro Negredo.The Sun

Former Liverpool and Manchester City midfielder Dietmar Hamann, who is a free agent, has rejected a chance to link up with old boss Sven-Goran Eriksson at Notts County.The Sun

Bolton midfielder Gavin McCann is on the verge of joining Portsmouth.Daily Mirror

Nottingham Forest are lining up a £1.5m bid to sign West Ham defender Calum Davenport. (Daily Star)

OTHER GOSSIP
Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has been told by the club's American owners he has only £1.5m to spend on new players. Daily Mirror

EXCLUSIVE interview with Man City Legend Colin Bell
http://www.footballfancast.com/blog/man ... bell/15678

Adebayor: Arsenal boo-boys held me back :442
http://fourfourtwo.com/news/england/35310/default.aspx

Rotherham manager Mark Robins is set to be appointed the new manager of Norwich. The Sun

WAG OF THE DAY
http://www.thespoiler.co.uk/index.php/2 ... ina-stella

AND FINALLY
Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has slapped an alcoholic drink ban on his players after midfielder David Bentley was recently charged with drink-driving. (Daily Star)

Barcelona and Real Madrid are interested in Liverpool winger Albert Riera. Daily Mirror

They looking for a new mascot?

I think Riera has a lot to thank us for.

Came here as a nearly man, he realised he had to improve the speed he played the game in order to get a sniff in the premier league, he did that slowly while he was here, improved, picked up some premier league style moves, took them back to spain - along with a new found work rate, and excelled there.

Came back to England for Liverpool, and lets be honest i think we were all abit suprised because although we could all see Albert had something, it wasnt the skill for a top 2 or 3 team.

Back to the land he belongs would be the icing on the cake for him, i liked him, but i dont think he is a champions league quality player at all.

Benitez has made a lot of strange signings & seems to be determined to get as many middling Spanish players into Anfield as he possibly can. I'm wondering if it's to help consolidate his power base there & make himself unsackable; what would a new manager get out of 40 average Spaniards & how would he move them on?

Ted Hughes wrote:Benitez has made a lot of strange signings & seems to be determined to get as many middling Spanish players into Anfield as he possibly can. I'm wondering if it's to help consolidate his power base there & make himself unsackable; what would a new manager get out of 40 average Spaniards & how would he move them on?

Never thought about that. Riera's impressed me everytime I've seen him turn out for them though; he brought balance to Liverpool last season. On the basis of that I'd say he's well worth his international call ups. Credit to him for pushing on.

Actually, beyond Torres, Riera, Reina and Ayala (3/4 of whom are first 11 players), do they have any other Spaniards there?

Why Benitez insisted on Josemi/Nunez et al. a few years back I'll never know though.

He got into the Spanish national team on merit, so he's not totally crap. Some players just blossom later than others.

Esky wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:Benitez has made a lot of strange signings & seems to be determined to get as many middling Spanish players into Anfield as he possibly can. I'm wondering if it's to help consolidate his power base there & make himself unsackable; what would a new manager get out of 40 average Spaniards & how would he move them on?

Never thought about that. Riera's impressed me everytime I've seen him turn out for them though; he brought balance to Liverpool last season. On the basis of that I'd say he's well worth his international call ups. Credit to him for pushing on.

Actually, beyond Torres, Riera, Reina and Ayala (3/4 of whom are first 11 players), do they have any other Spaniards there?

Why Benitez insisted on Josemi/Nunez et al. a few years back I'll never know though.

Well to be fair I may be confusing some of the Brazilians Argentinians etc with Spaniards but I suppose I should've said Benitez type 'La Liga' type players. There seem to be scores of them at all age groups + Belgians & God knows what but they just don't look like PL players to me & how another manager would fit them into his plans, I just don't know. They just don't seem as suitable for PL football as the equivalent players at our club. Benitez may have a particular plan for them but I doubt if many others would.

You're on a good run of WAGs this week Mr Chinners, you're not helping my supposed new pledge of reading the rest of your bollox instead of immediately clicking on the WAG link

Why thank you sir . . . As the board has started anew, I thought I might as well . . . you know

Ted Hughes wrote:

Esky wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:Benitez has made a lot of strange signings & seems to be determined to get as many middling Spanish players into Anfield as he possibly can. I'm wondering if it's to help consolidate his power base there & make himself unsackable; what would a new manager get out of 40 average Spaniards & how would he move them on?

Never thought about that. Riera's impressed me everytime I've seen him turn out for them though; he brought balance to Liverpool last season. On the basis of that I'd say he's well worth his international call ups. Credit to him for pushing on.

Actually, beyond Torres, Riera, Reina and Ayala (3/4 of whom are first 11 players), do they have any other Spaniards there?

Why Benitez insisted on Josemi/Nunez et al. a few years back I'll never know though.

Well to be fair I may be confusing some of the Brazilians Argentinians etc with Spaniards but I suppose I should've said Benitez type 'La Liga' type players. There seem to be scores of them at all age groups + Belgians & God knows what but they just don't look like PL players to me & how another manager would fit them into his plans, I just don't know. They just don't seem as suitable for PL football as the equivalent players at our club. Benitez may have a particular plan for them but I doubt if many others would.

Yeah I was thinking this all along. It was the same thing that we saw at Real Madrid with all of the Dutch players. Now that the manager has moved on, and has a lot of average Dutch players at the club that all for the most part play the same position (Van der Vaart and Sniejder, Drenthe and Robben, and Horseface and Hunterlaar). And now they are lowering the prices on all of them just to get them out of the club. It is a good thing for the manager but bad for the club. Real Madrid are losing a bunch of money on these players that never really did anything special for them. When Benitez leaves Liverpool, which will be sooner rather than later imo there will be a bunch of La Liga players in a Prem team and the new boss will just loose a bunch of money on them.