Manchester City block Fulham approach for England goalkeeper Joe Hart
Fulham will be rebuffed in any attempt to sign Joe Hart from Manchester City.
The England international had been considered as a replacement for Arsenal-bound Mark Schwarzer but City have made it clear they will not entertain a bid to take Hart either on loan or in a permanent deal.
Fulham are also interested in David James but he is considering a player-coach role at Portsmouth.
City, meanwhile, have re-signed third choice goalkeeper Stuart Taylor, 29, on a two year deal - nine days after he was released by the club.Taylor made one first-team appearance for City last term and missed the end of the season with a knee injury.
Shakhtar Donetsk are keen on Manchester City outcast Robinho but are wary of the Brazil star's wage demands. The Ukrainian champions would offer about £20million for the 26-year-old who is also wanted by Besiktas but has expressed a desire to return to Santos.
Manchester City want Wolfsburg striker Edin Dzeko, 24, to bolster their forward line but have baulked at the £34m asking price. However, a player-plus-cash deal involving Roque Santa Cruz could be one option. (Daily Telegraph)
TWITCHY BOLLOX
Harry knows the game is up when city start spending
On Newstalk last week, Harry Redknapp sighed with impassive acceptance that it was only a matter of time before Manchester City bought the Premier League title.
Harry has always been consistent on this relationship between football and money. His creed is simple. You don't shop for period furniture in IKEA, just as you don't take Elle McPherson to lunch in a Little Chef. Success comes with a price tag and he who pays most almost always wins.
Harry is easy to like. He may live in a huge mansion in Poole, landscaped gardens running down to a private jetty, but he is still -- essentially -- an East London boy. It shows in his management style. He has made his name in football on often hyperactive trading and resolutely old-school communication.
Harry knows the business of football better than most so, if he says that parting with enough Abu Dhabi dirham to fill a swimming pool will secure the league pennant for City, then he's probably not wrong.
Right now, the club spends money like a betrayed wife who's just happened upon her husband's pin. Roberto Mancini barely stops to eat he's so busy welcoming new purchases to Eastlands. Last week, Yaya Toure -- a midfielder Barcelona were happy to offload -- signed up for £30m and a weekly salary of £240,000.
City seem drawn to expensive superstars like Imelda Marcos was to shoes.
All of which must be surreal and rather wonderful for fans reared on the chairmanship of Peter Swales and almost monthly sackings. Just as Chelsea got dragged from a sickbed by strange hands in the summer of '03, so City now exult in a mysterious benefactor.
But isn't it a little odd to observe this latest Pimp-My-Club at a time when the World Cup has just passed with, face it, pretty minimal Premier League involvement at the business stages?
Emphatically the best English-based performer in South Africa this past month was Dirk Kuyt, a man whose detractors say has the first touch of a mule in clogs.
Personally, I think Kuyt represents a fading remnant of decency in the English game. He is a perfectly civilized chap who plays with the work ethic of a Sherpa and the humility of a social worker. If anything, he comes across as far too grounded and decent for his profession.
So what did the World Cup tell us about England and its endless Sky Sports drum roll?
Remember, the Champions League semi-finals passed without English involvement this year and not a single member of the PFA Team of the Year made any tangible impact in South Africa (save maybe Patrice Evra's stab at industrial relations).
The two giants of the North West, Manchester United and Liverpool, are mired in such debt it's as if their books have been kept by teams of national school children. In fact, just about every club in the Premier League has the kind of eccentric vanity to its finances that would make Hyacinth Bucket blush.
This, presumably, is what's reaped from decades of denial. Ten years ago, it was estimated that roughly 50pc of all professional clubs in Britain were "technically insolvent". Yet, when the Leeds collapse happened, everyone, rather bizarrely, seemed to think of it as something islanded and unique, just a reckless chairman borrowing £60m against anticipated income streams that would never materialise.
Well what do you know? Turns out Peter Ridsdale wasn't the only one playing Monopoly. Which brings us back to Harry.
He was manager at West Ham when the club sold Rio Ferdinand to Leeds for £18m. The small print of that deal is forensically explored in Tom Bower's remarkable book 'Broken Dreams -- Vanity, Greed and the Souring of British Football'.
Terry Brown, the property developer owner of the club, agreed to pay Harry £300,000 to compensate for Ferdinand's departure. Yet, destabilised by the loss of their best player, the club went into free-fall and Redknapp began demanding cash for transfers.
He got a combined £4.7m to buy Titi Camara and Rigobert Song from Liverpool, the former on wages of £30,000 a week. Neither proved a success. In fact, of 10 players signed for a total of £10.3m after Ferdinand's departure, not one would be deemed worth retaining. This, remember, was 2000. Within two years, West Ham's annual wage bill had soared to £30m.
By then, admittedly, Harry had been relieved of his duties. Nine years earlier, he had resigned as Bournemouth manager, the club having been relegated to the Third Division, burdened with a massive debt and -- incredibly for the time -- an annual wage bill of almost £1m.
Now latterly, it should be said, Harry's story has taken a dramatic rise. He did splendidly at Portsmouth, winning the FA Cup. And his transformation of Tottenham from relegation candidates to a Champions League team was, arguably, the managerial performance of last season.
He was even linked in recent weeks with the Liverpool and England jobs.
His star has never flown higher then, but his history is wrapped up in precisely the culture of over-spending that has the English game on a narrow ledge now. So his take on City is probably worth hearing.
And the Premier League Harry depicts isn't one concerned with long-term planning, but one obsessed with a short-term fix. The more you spend, the classier company you keep. So Abu Dhabi will, eventually, have its silverware.
That said, it's hard to know exactly what a Premier League title would mean to the older generation of Manchester City supporter. These things, after all, are supposed to be punctuation marks in history, not high-street purchases.
And right now, English football's greatest prize is, essentially, a Paris Hilton dress.
TRANSFER BOLLOX
Chelsea have lined up Portugal and Benfica left-back Fabio Coentrao, 22, as a potential replacement for Ashley Cole - if the England defender moves to Real Madrid. the Sun
Midfielder Dan Gosling, who has left Everton for nothing having only been offered a verbal contract, looks set to join Newcastle. However, the Toffees are still hopeful of securing £4m in compensation for the England Under-21 international.
Daily Mirror
West Brom are keen to sign Swedish striker Marcus Berg on a season-long loan deal from Hamburg, although the German side are demanding a "substantial" fee. The Baggies are also keen on Liverpool forward David Ngog following their return to the Premier League. (Daily Express)
Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has revealed he wants to sign Brazil playmaker Kaka from Real Madrid - but admits there is only a slim chance of the move actually happening. Daily Mail
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger rejected the chance to meet with Barcelona in South Africa to discuss the potential transfer of Gunners midfielder Cesc Fabregas. Daily Mirror
Stoke City are willing to spend £7m to sign defender Maynor Figueroa from Wigan but they face competition from Liverpool for the 27-year-old. Daily Mirror
Nice forward Loic Remy is still a West Ham target but the Hammers would have to pay £12m for the 23-year-old having reportedly offered £11m earlier this month. Daily Mirror
Portsmouth midfielder Papa Bouba Diop is likely to leave Fratton Park for AEK Athens in a £3.5m deal. (the Guardian)
OTHER BOLLOX
Liverpool striker Fernando Torres could miss the first month of the season after appearing to injure his hamstring during Spain's World Cup final win over the Netherlands on Sunday. Torres had only recently returned to fitness following a knee injury. (the Sun)
And any injury could scupper a potential £50m summer move to Premier League champions Chelsea. (Daily Telegraph)
Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp fears the new season could be centre-back Jonathan Woodgate's last as a player. The 30-year-old has been beset by injury problems during his career and made only three appearances last season - the last of which being in November's 9-1 thrashing of Wigan. Daily Star
Paul Simpson is set to be named League Two club Stockport County's new manager this week. Simpson, 43, has been out of work since being sacked by Shrewsbury in April. (Daily Express)
A Spanish fan wearing an anti-racism T-shirt tried to grab the World Cup trophy moments before players walked out for the start of the match. Daily Mirror
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