Transfer window: Crystal Palace target Yann M'Vila on top of Van Aanholt deal – as it happened
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Crystal Palace were busy on Tuesday, agreeing personal terms with Patrick van Aanholt, trying to conclude a deal for Yann M’Vila and inviting Christopher Samba for a trial
Crystal Palace take Christopher Samba on trial with view to free transfer
Ed Aarons
And what a way to finish this transfer blog. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised but I still am. Big Sam, Big Chris and Crystal Palace - a match made in heaven? Thanks for reading and see you all tomorrow. Good night
News from Germany and that fantastic publication Kicker. Werder Bremen have said that their Greek midfielder Thanos Petsos is considering leaving the club after all. Several clubs are interested, apparently, with the Werder sporting director Frank Baumann saying: “I can confirm that Fulham is one of the clubs.”
Done deal! Would you believe it. Luis Hernández has completed his £1.6m move from Leicester City to Málaga. Arrived last year but only made four Premier League appearances for the Foxes.
Quiz time! (and then click on the interactive to see, club-by-club, every transfer in the top five leagues in Europe in January so far). Pescara have been busy ...
Could Sebastian Giovinco be the latest star to join the Chinese Super League? Well, his agent, Andrea D’Amico, has said that there is interest from China in the Toronto player – but that it would be tricky to tempt him to leave his current club. “The Chinese seem very interested but think it will be difficult to move him away from Toronto. They have made a substantial offer and we are talking to the club to see, together with Sebastian, about what to do.”
Tjaronn Chery might already be on his way to China but Yaya Touré definitely isn’’t going to be joining him anytime soon. Having rejected the chance to earn lots of dough at the infamous “unnamed Chinese Super League club”, the Manchester City midfielder has been speaking about how he came to his decision.
Lazar Markovic has a point to prove. And he’s pretty keen on showing Liverpool in particular what he can do after completing his move to Hull on loan. The Serbian international also happens to bear a striking resemblance to Hollywood actor Joaquin Phoenix so at least if it doesn’t quite work out he could find an alternative career as a celebrity lookalike...
An update on the status of former Manchester United defender Patrice Evra now, who has been in talks with Crystal Palace, among others. According to reports in France, the 35-year-old is now most likely to move to Marseille this month...
Hull’s attempt to sign Leon Bailey is definitely a surprise: the Jamaican-born winger has been linked to some of the biggest clubs in Europe and featured as one of our top transfer targets from last month. He also has rather an interesting back story...
Another story hot off the press from Louise Taylor, who is doing her best to impression of Andy ‘three phones’ Burton, formerly of Sky Sports News. And it’s an interesting one...
The Marco Silva revolution at Hull now involves the pursuit of Leon Bailey, Genk’s Jamaican winger who is 19 and would cost around £10m. Meanwhile Middlesbrough are reluctantly prepared to let their playmaker Gaston Ramirez, apparently unsettled at the club, to leave - if only for the right price - and are contemplating the prospect of having to loan rather than sell Jordan Rhodes as Championship clubs balking at paying his wages and high transfer fee. Aitor Karanka, who brushing off rumours he’d been sacked last night, took training yesterday is still desperate to sign Robert Snodgrass from Hull and also wants Stoke’s Bojan. Karanka is expected to use Thursday’s weekly press conference to apologise to fans for claiming the atmosphere was “awful” during last Saturday’s 3-1 home defeat to West Ham and accusing supporters of demanding the sort of long ball game that makes him shudder. It seems their chants of “Attack, attack,” got lost in translation.
Remember Hugo Rodallega, the former Wigan and Fulham striker? Well he’s just signed for Turkish side Trabzonspor after a couple of seasons at lesser-known Akhisar Belediyespor.
Here’s more from Louise, who says Sunderland signing Joleon Lescott will feel right at home in his new surroundings
On a day in which the realities of Sunderland Ladies going part time were emphasised by the defection of Beth Mead, their start striker, to Arsenal, the men’s side has been, augmented by the arrival of Joleon Lescott on a short term deal. Lescott was a free agent, AEK Athens having terminated the former Everton and Aston Villa defender’s contract in November. Lescott will be reunited with his old Goodison Park pals Steven Pienaar, Jack Rodwell and Victor Anichebe on Wearside - although David Moyes is anxiously awaiting the results of a scan on Anichebe’s knee. In the worst case scenario, the striker - a key player - could be out until well into March. Lescott may find himself playing at left back should Patrick van Aanholt’s £12m - yes you are reading that correctly - move to Crystal Palace goes through but if Wearsiders harbour mixed feelings about PVA they will be distinctly miffed should the excellent Yann M’Vila ends up swapping Rubin Kazan for Palace.
Newcastle fans are out in force on Andros Townsend watch and we have an update from Louise Taylor
Newcastle are displaying serious interest in taking Modou Barrow, the Banjul born, Swedish bred winger on loan until the end of the season. The Gambian/Scandi has struggled to establish himself in south Wales and Newcastle fans would be infinitely keener on Robert Snodgrass or Andros Townsend. A mooted move for the latter has hit an impasse but only time will tell if Barrow is merely a red herring in a possible game of bluff designed to ensure Townsend ends up back on Tyneside - or a player genuinely coveted by Rafa Benitez......And, remember, Mike Ashley doesn’t really want to spend this month but Benitez feels investment is necessary so much hinges on whether the owner or manager wins that particular battle of wills......
Lots of you (probably) remember the move that took French teenager Ousmane Dembélé from Rennes to Borussia Dortmund last May but you may not be aware of some of what went behind the scenes. Here’s my story on how he ended up in Germany despite interest from Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City, among others
Returning to the theme of player nicknames, South African football provides a very rich seam of them. Here’s a link to some of the best, with my own particular favourites being Thomas ‘Who’s Fooling Who’ Hlongwane and Andrew ‘Jesus Christ’ Karajinsky
“Tjaronn approached me a few weeks ago and told me he wanted to leave. When he heard of the interest from Guizhou, he made it clear that was a move he wanted to pursue. Whilst it’s disappointing to lose a player of Tjaronn’s ability, I only want players at QPR who want to be here. As a manager, when a player tells you he wants to leave with 18 months left to run on their contract, it’s in the club’s best interests to part ways and bring in players who want to play for the club.”
Here’s one we missed from earlier: confirmation that Dutchman Tjaronn Chery has completed his move to Chinese Super League side Guizhou Hengfeng Zhicheng for an undisclosed fee believed to be around £4m. According to Ian Holloway, it was all down to the player wanting to leave...
I’m handing over to Ed Aarons now, have a good afternoon everyone....
Thanks Michael and I’ll start by recapping some of the news we’ve had so far today. Southampton’s €16m bid for Napoli striker Manolo Gabbiadini has got some tongues wagging but unfortunately it’s not the man who famously replaced Ian Wright at Selhurst Park in the summer of 1991. A quick internet search tells me he has just celebrated his 49th birthday so a return to the top-flight appears unlikely....
As things stand, Swansea are looking at bringing in only one more player in this transfer window and that would be a central defender. They’ve identified their target but a deal is not thought to be imminent – and it’s not Phil Jagielka at Everton. After signing Luciano Narsingh, Martin Olsson and Tom Carroll already this month, Swansea’s focus is now on moving players on, not least because they need to trim their squad in line with the Premier League’s 25-man limit. Newcastle remain in talks about signing Modou Barrow, who has not featured since Paul Clement was appointed head coach, and it seems certain that either Neil Taylor or Stephen Kingsley will leave now that Olsson is first-choice left-back. Crucially, Swansea are confident they will hold onto Gylfi Sigurdsson and Fernando Llorente, who both scored in the shock 3-2 win at Anfield.
Once tipped as the next big thing to come through at PSG, Henri Ongenda has joined Dutch side PEC Zwolle on a three-and-a-half-year contract. And he seems ruddy delighted about it:
I knew from the moment the club acquired Hachim Mastour on loan from AC Milan that I wanted in the Premier League with PEC Zwolle – it is a competition in which I want to take the next step.
Hachim Mastour, remember him? Málaga terminated his two-year loan from Milan a year early in the summer, and he’s now slugging it out near the bottom of the Eredivisie.
Arsenal Ladies have signed England U23 striker Beth Mead from Sunderland. Mead won the PFA’s Young Player of the Year award in 2016, after being voted as the WSL 1 Players’ Player of the Year in 2015.
The 21-year-old has signed an undisclosed full-time contract, after Sunderland Ladies reverted back to part-time status prior to the new 2017 Women’s Super League season, which starts in April. Here she is in action …
Thanks to Marcus for covering my lunch break. If you want to get in touch with any thoughts or fantastic nicknames, you can email michael.butler@theguardian.com or tweet @michaelbutler18.
“There are some great South African nicknames, like Vusi ‘Computer’ Lamola [for his vision and fast thinking],” emails Chris Hodge. “But the best of the bunch must be Jabu ‘Shuffle the Pack’ Mahlangu.”
Apparently for his ability to turn defenders inside out. Lovely. Here is ‘Shuffle’ in action.
More Palace news! And yes, it is another Sunderland link, this time Allardyce is considering a move for Yann M’Vila.
Crystal Palace could decide to make a move for former Sunderland midfielder Yann M’Vila, with Sam Allardyce keen to strengthen his options in midfield ahead of next week’s deadline. The France international, 26, had been due to re-join Sunderland this month having spent last season at the Stadium of Light but instead chose to sign a new contract with his current club, Russians Rubin Kazan. However, it is understood the new contract contains a clause which would allow the player to join a Premier League club for £11m and that could persuade potential suitors to make a move. The Russian transfer window is due to open on Wednesday but Palace will have to act quickly given the complications experienced by Sunderland when they originally signed him on loan last season.
Remember Andrea Ranocchia? The Inter centre-half – who I thought would be a regular for club and country for a long, long time – can’t get into Stefano Piolo’s team at the moment and is, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, allowed to leave the club in this transfer window. I think he would be a good signing for a host of clubs. Reports in Italy say that clubs such as Hull City, West Ham United, Hamburg and Wolfsburg are all interested.
Patrick van Aanholt update! This is the latest on what seems like quite an expensive acquisition (if you ask me).
Crystal Palace have agreed personal terms with Patrick van Aanholt over his proposed move to Selhurst Park for an initial £9m, with the Dutchman now set for a medical. Sam Allardyce has been keen to recruit a new left-back and held discussions with former Manchester United defender Patrice Evra as well as making a £7m bid for Leeds’ Charlie Taylor. But having worked with Van Aanholt at Sunderland, Allardyce has now settled on the 26-year-old former Chelsea player, who has made 20 appearances this season, scoring three goals. The move, which could eventually rise to £12m with bonuses, could be complicated by the fact he was withdrawn from Sunderland’s starting XI just 15 minutes before kick-off against Tottenham in September due to a heart scare, despite the fact he was later cleared by extra tests.
Also, you can receive Facebook/Messenger notifications on your favourite club in the top five European leagues throughout the January window, whether it is Málaga, Torino or Manchester United or, indeed, Angers
So ... about Alexander Isak. Well, I am delighted that he chose Borussia Dortmund rather than Real Madrid. Dortmund are obviously on a mission to sign up the best young players in Europe – such as Christian Pulisic, Emre Mor, Ousmane Dembélé and Julian Weigl – and the prospects of getting anywhere near the first team is obviously greater in Dortmund than in Madrid. Is Isak already good enough to play in the Bundesliga? I think he is. Just such a natural goalscorer and full of confidence.
Southampton submit €16m bid for Napoli striker Manolo Gabbiadini
Thanks Michael. Well, who isn’t excited about Alexander Isak? But first, some news from Italy where our Italian transfer expert Fabrizio Romano reports that Southampton have just submitted another bid - this time for €16m – for the Napoli striker Manolo Gabbiadini – but the Serie A club are currently holding out for nearer €18m.
Reports that Liverpool are looking to wrap up a deal for long-time Rumour Mill fave William Carvalho from Sporting Lisbon are thought to be wide of the mark.
Portuguese media outlet A Bola had claimed that Liverpool club suits were in Portugal negotiating a £25m figure for the Euro 2016 winner – which is hefty chunk of change cheaper than some figures that have been quoted in the past – but this is thought to be poppycock. As you were.
Not a new transfer, but definitely one that passed me by: former Portsmouth midfielder Sully Muntari joined Serie A side Pescara last week on a free transfer, after leaving Saudi Arabian side Al Ittihad last year. He’s not fit enough to play, with Pescara manager Massimo Oddo announcing on Sunday that “Muntari needs at least a week to be at his best.”
All this a good excuse to remind ourselves of the time he scored a game-winning penalty against Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand in Portsmouth’s 2007-08 FA Cup quarter-final victory at Old Trafford.
Sky are reporting that Newcastle are keen on signing Mo Barrow from Swansea. Again, a strange one, Barrow impressed me at the start of the season – one of the only attacking players at Swansea with genuine pace – but he’s evidently fallen out of favour under Paul Clement and has recently been demoted to the club’s U23 side.
If you’re catching up with the Krul story, he’s been mooted as the replacement for Asmir Begovic as Chelsea’s No2. Begovic is wanted by Bournemouth.
Milan manager Vincenzo Montella has been talking about his new signing Gerard Deulofeu, who finally completed his loan move from Everton yesterday.
He’s a player I know very well, because I’ve been following him for some time. He has all the talent in the world, but hasn’t expressed it fully. One of my tasks will be to see why, because he’s a very strong player. We signed him to play him. We’ll see how he is physically, but he’s keen to make his mark. Will he be in the squad? We’ll see, but I think we’ll take him with us.
It is understood that Liverpool have opened contract talks with Philippe Coutinho over a new deal. With reported interest from Barcelona, Liverpool are keen to tie the Brazilian to a contract beyond 2020, when his current deal expires. It is also understood that Liverpool won’t be including a buy-out clause, which is nice for Jürgen Klopp and co.
Done deal! Joleon Lescott has signed for Sunderland until the end of the season!
After having his contract with Greek side AEK Athens terminated by mutual consent in November, Lescott has been training with David Moyes’s side and has done enough to earn a short-term deal. For any Sunderland fans thinking of getting his name on the back of their shirts, he will wear the No15. Should slot in nicely at left-back once Patrick van Aanholt’s move to Palace goes through …
Done deal! Michael Olunga, the man who asked Arsenal for a move whilst he was still playing in his native Kenya …
… has signed for newly promoted Chinese Super League side Guizhou Zhicheng from Swedish side IF Djurgardens for a fee around £3.5m, along with the Egyptian Ali Ghazal, who signs from Portuguese team Nacional.
“Guizhou Zhicheng FC hope the two African players will integrate with the team as soon as possible and show their mettle, intrepidity and fighting spirit to the team,” read the club statement.
Olunga is affectionately known as ‘The Engineer’, because he studied geospatial engineering at the Technical University of Kenya. Personally, I love a nickname with a ‘The’ preceding it: see ‘The Doctor’, The Divine Ponytail, The Baby-Faced Assassin, etc.
Transfer-heads, take a break from idle speculation and actually read something of substance, like a Philip Roth novel or this cartoon from David Squires.
Gedion Zelalem, the Arsenal midfielder, is set to join the Dutch club, VVV-Venlo, on loan until the end of the season. Zelalem, who turns 20 on Thursday, has been a target for Borussia Dortmund but VVV have convinced him that the next phase of his development would be best served with them. Zelalem enjoyed prodigy status when he first emerged at Arsenal but he has not made the strides that were expected of him. I’m reliably informed that Zelalem’s contract at Arsenal has two-and-a-half years to run. VVV are seven points clear at the top of the Dutch second division.
Done deal! Bruno Henrique joins Santos from Wolfsburg!
Bruno Henrique has joined Santos from Wolfsburg for a fee believed to be around £3.4m. The Brazilian only moved to Europe this time last year but has only started one match this season, a 5-1 defeat to Dortmund, in which he was pulled off at half-time.
I watched Bruno Henrique play last season in Wolfsburg’s 2-0 Champions League quarter-final first leg win over Real Madrid, where he was given a shock start, and he was probably the best player on the pitch that day, tearing Marcelo to pieces and setting up Max Arnold for Wolfburg’s second. The guy is rapido, disappointing to see he didn’t make the grade.
Baba Rahman looks set to return to Chelsea from his loan spell at Schalke, after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee whilst playing for Ghana in the Africa Cup of Nations. The 22-year-old will be out for a minimum of six months, and with his loan deal expiring at Schalke in the summer, Rahman is expected to return to Chelsea for his rehab. Rahman has already returned to London for tests, and reportedly needs surgery to repair the damage.
Breaking news! Leicester's Luis Hernández has completed his medical at Málaga
Leicester defender Luis Hernández has completed his medical at Málaga. He’s only been at Leicester since June and made four league appearances, losing every game. Expect that one to be confirmed very shortly.
Delofeu’s arrival on loan at Milan from Everton means that Vincenzo Montella is keen to offload M’Baye Niang, who had a promising start to the season but has recently struggled for minutes (and hasn’t scored since mid-October). Gazzetta dello Sport are reporting that Milan could do a straight loan swap for Lucas Ocampos, who is on loan from Marseille to Genoa. Apparently the only thing holding this one up is the personal terms for the two players.
Don’t know an awful lot about Ocampos although I do remember this bicycle kick he scored for Monaco a couple of years ago. Woof.
Niang has also been linked with a permanent move to West Ham, but that probably hinges on whether Scott Hogan’s move from Brentford goes through. Hammers’ co-chairman David Sullivan and David Gold are apparently very keen to get that one over the line, but there’s a sticking point over the price. Brentford are holding out for £15m.
Why Sunderland would want to sell one of their best players for £12m is beyond me, particularly when they have no replacement lined up. Then again, Joleon Lescott has been training with David Moyes’ side. No, seriously. Lamine Kone is also still at the Africa Cup of Nations, they are already depleted in defence. Very strange.
From Palace’s point of view, it makes sense. Since Pape Souaré broke his thigh bone and jaw in a car crash on the M3 in September, Palace have been woeful. Martin Kelly has failed to impress in Souaré’s absence and although Jeffrey Schlupp has played that position in the past, he has been signed more as an attacking threat. Van Aanholt emerged as a key player for Sam Allardyce when he was manager of Sunderland, and it is no surprise to see the former England manager back in for the Dutchman. Interesting to see if this one goes through today.
West Ham have rejected a third bid from Marseille, thought to be £22.5m, and are rapidly running out of patience with the Ligue 1 club. Payet’s family have already returned to France, and their unhappiness in London is one of the reasons why the 29-year-old has become so unsettled recently. West Ham still value the midfielder at £30m, and whilst Marseille are set to make a fourth bid, it is not expected to be at that level. Another sticking point is the bumper £125,000-a-week five-year contract Payet signed last February - it remains unclear whether Marseille are capable or willing to match that figure.
Hello! The long slow march towards the end of the month has begun. Just seven more sleeps until the close of the transfer window. For those of you still persevering with Dry January, you have my eternal respect. I don’t know how you are doing it.
Here are some rumours to get things started. Gorge yourselves.
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