Spurs bid accepted for Arsenal and Manchester United target Kjaer

Just as Arsenal seemed to have been on the verge of nipping in, Sky Italia have confirmed tonight that Tottenham Hotspur's bid for Palermo's Danish defender Simon Kjaer has been accepted.

Simon Kjaer

Whether Spurs actually know anything about this bid yet is open to conjecture, but the story was running at the weekend without denial from London and the Italian media are fairly convinced that a double deal for Kjaer and Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani will go through...........but Inter Milan could still step in.

Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and City were all linked with the big blond stopper, but Palermo president Maurizio Zamparini is clear on who has got in first........unless he's just hiking the stakes for Internazionale at the last minute, which just wouldn't be cricket, would it;

"Tottenham have bid €35m, an offer we cannot refuse, seeing as the two players have both said they want to leave," said Zamprini on Monday.

Both players certainly fit the current Spurs identikit; with central defenders Ledley King and Jonathan Woodgate spending most of their lives on the treatment table, the signing of Kjaer, one of the worlds most highly rated defenders aged just 21, would be a significant coup.  In addition, Uruguay forward Cavani, who scored 13 Serie A goals last season, will bring further firepower to the Tottenham ranks.

Edinson Cavani

Kjaer has been a huge success this season for Palermo, who like Udinese and Sevilla have targeted the worlds rising youngsters over the last few years with a view to developing and selling on for a tidy profit.  The young Dane had already passed a trial at Real Madrid in 2007, but his club, FC Midtjylland, turned down the Madristas offer.

23-year old Cavani first arrived in Italy from Montevideo club Danubio in January 2007 and has developed well at Palermo.  Fairly tricky and a good mover at over 6 foot tall, Cavani looks the type of player that will thrive in an attacking team.  Whether he can dance like a robot is not yet known.

IBWM rates both, so fingers crossed for you Spurs fans, these are excellent players, primed for the Champions League........just hope Inter are sleeping.........

Will Manchester City or Real Madrid get Argentina's Angel Di Maria?

I dare say there will be a fair few rumours about who is going where over the coming weeks should topics of conversation ever move away from Vuvuzelas and Jabulani's....or how crap England are.

99% will be mere speculation and most of these will involve Manchester City, as is always the case with these things, but some just look inevitable. Especially where the shrinking violets that are Real Madrid are concerned. 

 

Di Maria; Bernabeu bound?

Currently in the Madridistas sites, (and I’ll include the word ‘allegedly’ here) allegedly, is Argentina’s fleet of foot young left winger, Angel Di Maria, who looked a little more into his stride against South Korea this week....but Manchester City have also been linked

"I have not been called about anything new, I hope it is true that my transfer goes ahead, because it will be a great option," stated Di Maria, speaking to Spanish sports daily Marca this week.

"I have not spoken to anyone about my move to Real Madrid, because right now I am solely focused on the World Cup", added young Angel. The fee is suggested to be somewhere in the region of £30m, which certainly sounds like a Real Madrid type amount of dosh to this correspondent. There have already been reports of medicals being carried out for the player.

Of course I should add a word of warning here, as the majority of quotes do seem to be emanating from the player, rather than the club, and we all know how Real Madrid like to keep these things quiet. (Ahem).

Quite exactly where Di Maria would fit in considering that Cristiano Ronaldo is already in situ at the Bernabeu is one issue; another is whether new Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho quite fancies the player.   All encouraging for Roberto Mancini at Manchester City.

The enigmatic Jose may well prefer to send his large amounts of cash in the direction of his former employers at Milan, with Inter reluctantly sticking the likes of Maicon, Milito or even Samuel and Cambiasso onto a train bound for the Spanish capital.

No doubt there will be more to come.

Comments welcome.