Transfer Talk: Quagliarella to Man U, Ben Haim to Chelsea, Dhorasoo Reappears

By: Bob | June 14th, 2007

Round and round it goes where it stops nobody knows. The transfer season wheel continues to turn and it likely will continue to turn until the end of time. Or until the end of the transfer season which is still roughly seven billion hours away. Here is the latest and probably not the greatest from the transfer talk world today.

It is now official. Joey Barton is moving from Manchester City to Newcastle where the police will stay busy investigating all his wrongdoings for the next five years.

Injecting himself into the sectarian struggle, God may have chosen Rangers.

Way back in January – the equivalent of 27 years in Transfer Talk time – Chelsea tried their darnedest to pry Tal Ben Haim away from Bolton. After all the months of anguish and waiting, the Israeli international (I don’t write that every day) has agreed to a four-year deal with the Blues where he will likely keep Jose Mourinho company on the bench.

Speaking of Israeli internationals (ok, that is my quota for the week), Liverpool have made it public knowledge that they would like to have Yossi Benayoun leave West Ham to join in the reindeer games at Anfield.

Would you swap defender Gerard Pique for forward Eidur Gudjohnsen? I sure as heck would but I am not in charge of the decision making process at Manchester United. Evidently the other solution to the Red Devils’ scoring woes, as small as those woes may be, is to bring in Sampdoria striker Fabio Quagliarella whose stock has really risen since he scored twice for the Azzurri against Lithuania in Euro 2008 qualifying. Only in the football transfer world is being referred to as a “starlet” a noble thing.

He has spent eight years at Inter Milan and it is time for Alvaro Recoba to have a new address. He may be forwarding his mail to Atletico Madrid, but that isn’t signed, sealed or delivered.

Speaking of new addresses, a few of the players that helped Napoli escape Serie B might be shown the door.

Remember Vikash Dhorasoo? Of course you do. He’s the one who got in trouble for filming France’s national team in their skivvies during the World Cup and he’s the one who was the first player ever fired by a French club. Those credentials are more than enough to have Sochaux interested in his services.

Sun Xiang was the first Chinese player to play in the Champions League when he laced them up for PSV Eindhoven, now he may be on his way to Vitesse Arnheim.

You may not know this, but his full name is Rafael Ferdinand van der Vaart. That is a mouthful. The Van Man is captain at Hamburg and he is also the object of much love from Juventus where he may or may not end up in the future.

Andrea Barzagli may also join Juve but first he must complete his vacation.

Tottenham want Jermain Defoe to sign his name on the dotted line. If he doesn’t, they will listen to offers from all comers. By all comers I mean teams willing to spend boatloads of money.

Energie Cottbus have signed eight players this summer and Christian Bassila is the eighth one that I’ve never heard of.

Ronaldinho wouldn’t mind having Thierry Henry at Barcelona next season. I wouldn’t mind having a beer and sitting on a beach right now.