Thursday's breaking transfer window gossip
Last updated on .From the section Football
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TRANSFER GOSSIP
Manchester United are leading the chase for Crystal Palace's England winger Wilfried Zaha, 20, and hope to tie up a £12m deal.
Tottenham's hopes of signing Brazilian forward Leandro Damiao, 23, have suffered a blow after his agent said he expected him to stay with Internacional.
QPR have made a £5m bid for West Brom's 29-year-old Swedish defender Jonas Olsson.
QPR boss Harry Redknapp also wants to sign Tottenham's William Gallas, 35, to strengthen his struggling defence.
Manchester United are lining up a double bid for Chelsea stars Frank Lampard, 34, and Ashley Cole, 32, who are surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge.
But Juventus midfielder Andrea Pirlo, 33, wants Lampard to play alongside him in Italy.
England's 19-year-old keeper Jack Butland, who is rated at £6m, says he will only leave Birmingham City for first-team football - not to be a reserve.
West Ham are ready to move for Everton defender Sylvain Distin, 35, which could pave the way for 23-year-old centre-half James Tomkins to join Newcastle.
However, Distin is set to sign a new contract with Everton.
Arsenal winger Theo Walcott, 23, has committed his future to the club after agreeing terms on a new four-and-a-half-year contract.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers wants his scouts to make the most of the wealth of emerging talent on their own doorstep.
West Ham could be priced out of a move for Blackburn left-back Martin Olsson, 24, as Rovers want £7m for the Sweden international.
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson sent his brother Martin on a scouting mission to Spain to watch Rayo Vallecano striker Leo Baptistao, 20, who could be available for as little as £1.6m.
Newcastle United have edged ahead in the race to sign France midfielder Moussa Sissoko, 23, on a pre-contract agreement in January with his deal at Toulouse expiring this summer.
Full story: the Times (subscription required)
Everton are lining up Wigan's James McCarthy, 22, as a replacement for Marouane Fellaini if the Belgian midfielder moves to Chelsea or Manchester United.
GLOBAL GOSSIP (sourced by BBC Monitoring)
Arsenal are keen to sign Mainz striker Adam Szalai "immediately," according to German newspaper Das Bild. Borussia Dortmund and Wolfsburg are also interested in signing the Hungarian, although not until the end of the season.
Full story: Das Bild (in German)
Inter Milan President Massimo Moratti has said the club are happy with a bid made by Galatasaray on Wesley Sneijder, 28, Gazetta della Sport reports. "It now depends on the player, even though we would prefer him to stay if he accepted our conditions," Moratti said.
Full story: La Gazetta della Sport
OTHER GOSSIP
Manchester City forward Carlos Tevez says manager Roberto Mancini has fired up his strikers by praising Manchester United forward Robin van Persie.
Liverpool are preparing to offer former manager and player Kenny Dalglish another Anfield comeback, lining him up for a return to his role as a club ambassador.
Tottenham striker Emmanuel Adebayor, 28, has hinted that manager Andre Villas-Boas is not happy that he has teamed up with Togo for the Africa Cup of Nations Cup.
Birmingham City's supporters trust has criticised the club's governance after City's 2011-12 accounts revealed a bizarre sponsorship arrangement, the club still owing £14m to Carson Yeung who is awaiting trial for money-laundering, and an unnamed director being paid £687,611.
AND FINALLY
Just nine days into the new year, Portsmouth's official calendar is already out of date, with just three of the 12 featured players still at Fratton Park.
Ahead of their match this Sunday, Manchester City have reportedly sent 900 tickets back to Arsenal as fans are finding the tickets too expensive. Are you finding football tickets too expensive?
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Well they have both served their apprenticeships now and I think they are ready for the step up to the next level ;-0
Christine would love it in Salford, it is a bit like Belfastand Numpty might even tempt Cheryl back with the delights of Manchester!
Salford is in Greater Manchester. If it has to be part of the City of Manchester to be considered Manchester then we have to apply the same to London.
How many teams are based in the City of London? Zero. How many in Greater London? Loads.
No-one claims Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs et al aren't from London!
Cole,Lampard,Scholes,Giggs,Ferdinand - no wonder they call it OLD Trafford - Van Persie isn't exactly a spring chicken either
Old legs with old heads. Top of the league...FACT
Although I think City wouldnt have filled their allocation even if the prices were £5 Ive still got to disagree with your point.
Arsenals board members are in fact rich they have loads of money, they just care more about profits than anything else, there is no exuse for the extortionate prices Arsenal charge, it simply looks like they think they are bigger than they are!
NO YOU DID
But we bought it gradually over years
SO, WE HAD TO CATCH UP
Your fans weren't there when you were rubbish
YOUR FANS DON'T COME FROM YOUR CITY
We have 100 mil fans!
WE HAVE £100Bn
You're a small club
WE HAVE A BETTER HISTORY
we're a big club
WE'RE A BIGGER CLUB
We have the best manager
WE HAVE A BETTER SQUAD
We're top of the league
It's January!
ad naseum...
57.Tremor
Manure is the organic matter I put on my vegetable patch, made up of rotted stuff (not a very technical description I realise) and the reason why some 'football fans' use it for man utd is for the same reason they call Liverpool Loserpool or Chelsea Chelski.
You took the words right out of my thoughts. A consolation is that despite the multi-millions spent by Chelsea, they've crashed out of the Champions' league, lost the club world cup and almost definitely won't win the Premiership. 3 trophies already missed and still waiting for £50M man Torres to "hit form". This makes miser Arsenal look really smart.
If City have 1000 under and another team have 3000 under but a bigger ground, is it all bad? I cant afford £62 plus transport-fact of life