Premier League Transfer Rumors: Arsenal, Tottenham Battling For Juan Mata

Not so fast:

For more on Arsenal and Spurs, visit the Short Fuse and Cartilage Free Captain respectively.

“We are very close to Manchester United,” agent Alessandro Lucci told LaSignoraInGiallorosso. “The meeting was yesterday and there were no formal offers, but the English club made it clear they very much appreciate Mirko. We will know more in the next few days.”

During United’s preseason tour of the U.S. Sir Alex Ferguson said that he wouldn’t look to add any more players and that he was happy with his squad. Chief executive David Gill thinks otherwise though.

It’s not a huge loss for the Gunners, of course - they’ve been doing without Eboue for some time now, with the 28-year-old only featuring in 13 league goals last season. As for Galatasary, they’re getting a decent enough player for the Turkish SuperLig, at a decent enough price as they attempt to push to regain relevance in a country that’s been stung by corruption and scandal.

For more on Arsenal, visit The Short Fuse.

“Certainly, we will have to find one more defender,” Wenger told Arsenal’s official website. “We [are] working on it. I don’t want to comment individually because I do not want to destabilize clubs. I do not want to do to other clubs what some clubs do to us so I wouldn’t like to comment individually on any player.”

Despite speculation that Queens Park Rangers would sell Adel Taarabt, it appears as if the newly promoted club’s star will stay at Loftus Road and help them do battle in the Premier League. The Moroccan initially drew interest from clubs in La Liga, but recently it looked as if newly rich Paris Saint-Germain would snatch him away when they entered into advanced talks to sign the player. Those talks have broken down though and Taarabt will stay with the Hoops.

Taarabt scored 19 goals for QPR in their Championship winning year last season and made him a top target for several other clubs. The former Tottenham player is not leaving Loftus Road though according to the club’s majority shareholders Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone.

Ultimately, if Villa can manage to get those two for not much more money than they’ve received for Downing, the team isn’t much worse (if at all) than where they left it at the start of summer. Considering that they still have the funds raised by Ashley Young’s sale to play with to reinforce the squad, that’s not such bad going.

For more on Aston Villa, see 7500 to Holte.

Meanwhile, Fabregas looks set to move back to boyhood club Barcelona after what seems like it’s been the longest pursuit of all time. I think this has gotten to the point where everyone - except Wenger, apparently - just wants to see him go, and it’d be a major surprise if he isn’t elsewhere come next season. But still, Arsenal’s manager is fighting to extract every last pound from his stars’ suitors:

I imagine they wanted to keep Gael Clichy too. Wenger’s not foolwing anyone, and may be finally paying the price for six seasons without a trophy.

On the face of things, this move would solve a number of problems for Martin Jol’s side, who’ve been missing a competent left back for a good amount of time (many would contest that they’ve never actually had one, given Paul Konchesky’s performance after moving on from Craven Cottage). However, Riise is hardly a long term solution, and even should they sign the Norwegian they’ll have to look hard for replacements within the next few years. Fortunately, he’s versatile enough to play at more than just left back, so if Jol does indeed find the left back of the future, Riise could still easily find a place in the squad.

For more on Fulham FC, check out Cottagers Confidential.

For more on Fulham FC, check out Cottagers Confidential.

N’Zogbia is in the final year of his contract at Wigan and he was arguably the most important outfield player to the Latics in the last couple of seasons. Wigan chairman Dave Whelan has said in the past that they will let N’Zogbia go if they receive a suitable offer, but who really knows what constitutes a suitable offer. In any event, after selling Young, Villa are probably in a position to make one.

For more on Aston Villa, visit 7500 to Holte.

Pogrebnyak, 27 years old, had a fantastic scoring record in his time with Zenit St. Petersburg in the Russian Premier League. However, since moving to the Bundesliga, Pogrebnyak has struggled to replicate that form. If Stuttgart, a big club who barely stayed in the Bundesliga last season, have lost their patience with Pogrebnyak, they might be willing to sell him for a cut-rate price just to get him out of the locker room and his wages off the books. Pogrebnyak got off to a hot start last season, but completely fell off in the second half of the season.

For more on AFC Sunderland, check out Roker Report.

We could be very well looking at the disintegration of Arsenal’s core here, although that might not be a bad thing considering their performance compared to their obvious talent over the last few years. For Arsene Wenger and the Gunners, a mass exodus might be just what the doctor ordered. Should they lose the three mentioned above they’ll see a huge influx of money, perhaps enough to kick-start the development of the next great (maybe) Arsenal team.

For more on Samir Nasri and Arsenal, visit the Short Fuse.

Wickham has shown flashes of brilliance in his young career, and Sunderland will be expecting him to develop further into a top-tier home-grown talent. Steve Bruce and company aren’t the only side after him, however, with several clubs expected to join the chase now that Ipswich have accepted the bid. Blues manager Paul Jewel has indicated that he’s not in any particular rush to sell, meaning that he may be hoping a bidding war begins for Wickham’s services:

For more on Connor Wickham and Sunderland, visit Roker Report.

The European champions are insisting that Fabregas is now worth less than the £40M they were willing to pay for him last summer, when the Arsenal captain’s time with the Spanish national team in South Africa culminated in him donning a Barcelona jersey during the celebrations post-World-Cup-win. And no matter how much Arsenal fans might complain about it, it’s true - a year’s come off the contract and a year’s been added to Fabregas’ legs in a season that hardly increased his value.

By now, it’s pretty obvious that Arsenal aren’t selling for anything like Barcelona are offering, which means that we’re getting another summer of this nonsense. At least. What fun, eh?

News of his decision will frustrate the other clubs rumoured to be courting him, including Real Madrid. There is no mention of the fee involved between the clubs, although the Colombian has a release clause of £26.5m in his contract.

Then again, since the agent overseeing things is none other than your friend and mine, Jorge Mendes, it may not be over until it’s over...

Well no he wouldn’t, actually.

Fergie, I’m afraid, has no idea when it comes to buying midfield players.

A double pivot of Modric and Ramires behind an advanced playmaker sure is an ambitious setup that lacks the defensive midfielder that has become such a staple of modern football, but at least that team wouldn’t be giving the ball away of they were ever able to obtain it in the first place. Modric would certainly be a positive addition to Chelsea, but the question still remains: Will he leave Spurs?

At Cartilage Free Captain, SB Nation’s Tottenham Hotspur blog, Kevin McCauley agrees - even saying that he’d be doing the same thing if he were in Modric’s situation. Kevin doesn’t see much hope Tottenham can compete, which means they can’t offer Modric the kind of success (or wages), he might get at Stamford Bridge:

If true - and the Mail would be in deep trouble if it isn’t - this is obviously huge news. Modric was one of the league’s best midfielders last season in an area where Chelsea struggled, and acquiring him from Tottenham would seemingly represent a major coup for the still-managerless Blues. It’s unclear whether Chelsea will increase their bid for Modric, but the die has been cast. one way or another, it sounds as though the Croatian is on his way our of White Hart Lane.

Varane is also taking a Baccalaureate at present, and sits his philosophy exam today. With that, and Phil Jones’ grammatically-correct tweeting, the IQ of United’s backline could be about to take a sharp increase - particularly if Ferdinand is injured.

Sanchez is regarded (and rightly so) as one of the top wide attackers in the game today, and at 22 years old any team acquiring him now will have him through the prime of his career. He’ll cost an arm and a leg, but there’s a very real chance that he’s the best player to move clubs all summer. This transfer saga is going to be extremely interesting.

For more on Manchester City, visit Bitter and Blue.

Unlike Jones, Young is an established Premier League star and a fully-fledged (and immensely impressive) England international. He’s only got a year left on his contract and with the interest from top teams has been reluctant to sign a new deal with the midlands club, meaning that he shouldn’t be too expensive. Young should fit in neatly on one of the wings at his new club, and his ability to cut inside or play in the middle should prove very useful for Sir Alex Ferguson.

For everything Manchester United and Aston Villa, see the Busby Babe or 7500 to Holte respectively.

In what would be a highly controversial move, the French midfielder is allegedly open to the idea of a move to Manchester, and could force the issue with only a year remaining on his contract. And now United are allegedly determined to land their man.

Of course, interest does not imply that a deal will be concluded - Wenger has recently insisted that the midfielder will under no circumstances be sold to United - but there does appear to be substance behind the story, rather than just a contract negotiation ploy.