Thursday 8 January 2009

Thursday paper round up

  • Some progress on Santa Cruz, according to The Times' Oliver Kay. Apparently 'it emerged last night that City have finally established formal contact with Blackburn' at a boardroom level. I don't really know exactly what that means - but I guess it means something. Why a formal bid wasn't made on New Years' Day is beyond me, and I don't know where the '£18m+Ben Haim some time this week' story that emerged on Sunday night came from either. I've given up hope of seeing RSC or Scott Parker at Fratton Park, though.
  • Colin Young writes in The Daily Mail that we have bid £8million for Shay Given. This would be a fantastic signing, but is not really an immediate priority. Can we focus on midfielders, defenders and strikers first?
  • The Sun claims that a new deal will be offered to Stephen Ireland, and that talks have just started. His wages will be doubled from £30k/week to £60k/week, bringing him in line with our top earners who are not Robinho. Regardless of what happens to Hughes, new deals for Ireland and Sturridge must be a priority.
  • David Hytner in The Guardian speculates that we could make a move for David Bentley, who is unpopular at Spurs. Bentley, of course, starred alongside Santa Cruz in Mark Hughes' Blackburn side. We do need a right winger, but only for the next month while Wright-Phillips is out injured.

3 comments:

satis said...

Could it be that City are deliberately playing things slowly with Santa Cruz? They're confident of being able to sign him quickly later in the month but they'll only do that if Hughes can't find the marquee signing that the owners crave.

BluePeter said...

You could well be right - I wonder how good Cook, Hughes and the other geezer are at poker?
It could either be the ultimate in brinkmanship or a hand played to soon.
The whole RSC thing could be a smokescreen for an as yet un-named striker target.
What do you reckon to Tevez? Would it be a good signing? Would it be a real poke in the eye for Taggart?
We're now supposedly chasing Trezeguet at Juventus, who ius supposed to be out until next month with an injury.

Ben said...

Statement on the official site says no approach has been made for Given, but that Blackburn has turned down an increased offer for RSC and that no decision has been made about going back for Bellamy and/or Scott Parker.