Transfer Talk: RSC’s Price Tag, Jose’s Very Special Swap, Ashley Young to Buy Spanish Webcam

By: Daryl | December 15th, 2008

The January 2009 transfer window should actually be called the “January and a bit of February window” as it will stay open a little longer than usual this winter. Why? Because Jan 31st is a Saturday, so teams around Europe will be doing business up until midnight on Monday February 2nd.

Exactly who’ll be doing business with who and for how much remains to be seen, here are today’s suggestions:

The Mirror claim that Roque Santa Cruz has an £18m release clause in his Blackburn contract, but seem to suggest this is a problem for Man City. Compared to what other teams will be quoting City next month, this might turn out to be a bargain.

Jose Mourinho has dropped a not too subtle hint that he wants rid of Adriano. “In his place, I would consider whether it’s better to stay here with this image or change scenery,” said TSO after Inter beat Chiveo 4-2 sans Adriano. The Premier League rumour mill think this means a swap deal with Adriano going to Chelsea and Didier Drogba going the other way. Surely even Mourinho isn’t Special enough to convince Phil Scolari that’s a good idea, is he?

Harry Redknapp has willing to send £8m to Bordeaux in exchange for their Argentinean/Argentine (anyone know which is correct?) striker Fernando Carvenaghi. At current exchange rates, £8m gets you just enough euros for a small coffee.

And the £ to € exchange rate might explain why new Real Madrid boss Juande Ramos keeps getting linked with players in England. Apparently he’s interested in his former Spurs buddy Roman Pavlyuchenko, even though Madrid already have one big striker on the way in Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. So probably best to ignore that one. More interesting, Ramos is still being linked with Portsmouth defensive mid Lassana Diarra, which at the very least could spark a Man City vs Real Madrid bidding war to keep us entertained all through early 2009.

And Ramos’ quest for a right winger continues, with Marca suggesting a swoop for either in favour Villa winger Ashley Young or out of favour Inter winger Mancini. No one has been brave enough to link Ramos with Cristiano Ronaldo. Yet.

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