All the Latest Transfer Gossip across Europe!

Here is a round up of all of today’s latest transfer gossip across Europe:

Is your club involved?

Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Napoli, Juventus, Sevilla, Roma, Benfica, Arsenal, Hamburg SV, Bayern Munich, Norwich, Swansea, Espanyol, Hull, Sporting Lisbon, Sunderland, Spurs, Velez Sarsfield, West Brom, Crystal Palace, Peterborough Utd, Vitesse Arnhem, Liverpool, Everton, Spartak Moscow, Marseille, Lille, Stoke, Newcastle, St Etienne, Lyon, Toulouse, PSV Eindhoven, QPR, Watford, Valencia, Millwall, Leeds, Bristol City, Nottingham Forest, Wigan Athletic,Blackpool, Celtic, Colchester Utd, Schalke 04, Mainz and Sheffield Wednesday ..........are all caught up in the latest transfer news/rumours across Europe, as we speak.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho will switch his sights back to Borussia Dortmund's 24-year-old striker Robert Lewandowski if he is unable to sign Napoli striker Edinson Cavani - Daily Mirror, transfermarketweb.com and footballgossip.org.uk

Bayern Munich striker Mario Gomez, 27 (right), tops the list of targets for Manchester City as they look to replace Carlos Tevez. Sevilla's Alvaro Negredo, Roma's Pablo Osvaldo and Benfica's Oscar Cardozo are also in contention - The Independent

Manchester City defender Aleksandar Kolarov, 27, has hinted he would be happy to follow striker Carlos Tevez in taking a pay cut and moving to Juventus - The Guardian

Arsenal's hopes of signing Swansea City defender Ashley Williams, 28, are fading as the Welsh club are refusing to lower their £10m asking price - The Times and Daily Mail

Marseille are closing on a £12million deal for Arsenal’s 26 year-old striker Gervinho - skysports.com

Arsenal defender Johan Djourou is close to completing a move to Hamburg SV on a season-long loan - BILD (German tabloid) and sportsmole.co.uk

Franck Ribery has agreed terms on a new four-year Bayern Munich contract, which will keep him at the club until the summer of 2017 - sportsmole.com

Chelsea have seen a £5millon bid for Norwich City keeper John Ruddy rejected by the Canaries - The Sun and footballgossip.org.uk

Hull have signed Ahmed Elmohamady (right) on a permanent deal from Sunderland. The 25 year-old Egypt international, has signed a three-year contract after the clubs agreed an undisclosed fee - skysports.com, transfermarketweb.com and sportsmole.co.uk

Liverpool remain in negotiations for Sporting Lisbon defender Tiago Ilori - Liverpool Echo

Everton are closing in on a £6million deal for Spartak Moscow's Aiden McGeady - Liverpool Echo

Manchester City's Gareth Barry or Liverpool's Stewart Downing will not be returning to Aston Villa during the summer - Birmingham Mail and sportsmole.com

Sunderland are close to signing Argentina right-back Gino Peruzzi, 21, who shot to prominence with Velez Sarsfield after he kept Neymar quiet over both legs of a Copa Libertadores tie - Daily Mirror, Daily Mail and www.rokerreport.com

Sunderland are in talks with Spurs midfielder Tom Huddlestone about a long-term move to the Stadium of Light - Sunderland Echo

Sunderland and Arsenal have agreed a fee for goalkeeper Vito Mannone. The player is expected to arrive on Wearside early next week - skysports.com

West Bromwich Albion are interested in Manchester City winger Scott Sinclair, 24, with the former Swansea player hoping to go out on loan - The Sun and transfermarketweb.com

Premier League newcomers Crystal Palace have agreed a fee to sign 22 year-old Peterborough United striker Dwight Gayle (right) - talkSPORT, skysports.com and Peterborough Telegraph

Swansea City are hopeful they will complete the signing of Wilfried Bony from , despite the Dutch club's denial that a deal has been agreed for the 24-year-old Ivory Coast striker - The Guardian

Espanyol's 24 year-old centre-back Jordi Amat has signed a four-year deal with Swansea City - transfermarketweb.com

Liverpool's Jonjo Shelvey could be on the move with Swansea and Norwich are poised to bid - Liverpool Echo

Marseille have confirmed the signing of Lille forward Dimitri Payet, 26, subject to a medical - sportinglife.com and skysports.com

Stoke City are reportedly the favourites to sign former Fulham player Chris Baird, who was released by the club at the end of the season - sportsmole.co.uk

Stoke City are closing on PSV Eindhoven defender Erik Pieters - Daily Express

Arsenal are pursuing Lyon midfielder Clement Grenier and Toulouse right-back Serge Aurier - Daily Express

Newcastle United could be poised to make a £15.2m offer for St Etienne's 24-year-old striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (right) - Daily Mirror, Newcastle Chronicle and sportinglife.com

Roma are stepping up their pursuit of QPR keeper Julio Cesar - The Sun

Watford's out-of-contract keeper Manuel Almunia is wanted by Spanish side Valencia - Daily Star

Millwall are closing in on a deal to bring 29 year-old Steve Morison back to the club on loan from Leeds United - skysports.com

Millwall and Bristol City are eyeing moves for free agent Marlon Harewood. Harewood is available on a free transfer after leaving Barnsley at the end of last season - skysports.com

Nottingham Forest striker Marcus Tudgay is hoping to make a decision over his future in the next 24 hours. Tudgay, who sees his current deal expire later this month, has been offered a new contract at the City Ground and he has offers from three other Championship clubs on the table - skysports.com

Mike Pollitt agrees to a new one-year deal with Wigan Athletic transfermarketweb.com and sportsmole.com

Wigan boss Owen Coyle expects to sign Celtic Norwegian centre-half Thomas Rogne today - skysports.com

Blackpool defender Stephen Crainey is having a medical today at Wigan - skysports.com and sportinglife.com

Colchester United have completed the signing of former Arsenal striker Sanchez Watt on a free transfer - skysports.com and sportsmole.co.uk

Wovles manager Kenny Jackett is closing in on a £1 million move for Crewe midfielder Luke Murphy - sportinglife.com and skysports.com

Schalke 04 have complete the signing of Adam Szalai from Mainz on a four-year deal - sportsmole.co.uk

Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Giles Coke has signed a new two-year contract with the club - sportinglife.com

'Hull & Portsmouth Set For Another Fruitless Weekend' - Betting Tips with Betfair

So far this season Hull and Portsmouth have been shambling along like a pair of old drunks trying to find their way home after a night out. Hull got lucky and managed to find a late bus but after a promising start to the journey, they promptly fell asleep and missed their stop. Portsmouth meanwhile have fallen into a ditch and are still trying to get up.

This weekend has actually thrown up two winnable fixtures for the duo, with Hull at home to Wigan, while Portsmouth travel to Wolves. Both sides will be hopeful of picking up points but the smart money is on another miserable day for the pair at the bottom of the Premier League table

Roberto Martinez has taken a while to settle in at Wigan but last weekend's shock win over Chelsea will rejuvenate the side and that confidence should be enough to see off Hull, who were knocked for six at Anfield last week.
The match is also likely to be a high scoring affair, with the two teams conceding a combined total of 32 goals already this season.

Wigan to win can be backed at 2.6, while the +2.5 goals market looks a steal at 2.1.

Down on the south coast, Portsmouth's problem has not been conceding goals but scoring them. Only Aston Villa and Arsenal have scored more than a solitary goal against Pompey this season and yet Paul Hart's men are still pointless, courtesy of just 3 goals in the 'for' column.

Their opponents have been no great shakes either but with a couple of wins already this season and the added bonus of home support, Wolves should have enough about them to pile on the misery.

A home win is priced at 2.14 but the pick of the Premier League bets may just be the 2.64 on offer for a Wolves clean sheet.


By Josh Allen.
(Guest writer from Betfair on behalf of Beer Footy and Birds!)

'CRAP TOWNS' - The worst places to live in the U.K

Whilst in the throws of reading some literature lately on ' The 50 worst places to live in the UK - The idler book of CRAP TOWNS' - I began to deliberate in my own mind as to whether there was any correlation with some of these 'crap towns' also being towns with football clubs attached.

Irrespective of the success or otherwise of any such football clubs, I was more interested in whether or not it was possible to argue that having a football club in a town made it a better or a worse place to live.

A form of investigative journalism if you like!
Now being an avid footy fan I have to say over the years I have visited, (for better and for worse as a priest would say) both some alluring and equally abhorrent places whilst following my team around the UK.


Britain is full of crap towns full stop. Why?

Well look at all the miserable faces you see walking around the streets of your very own town, the overcrowded trains, the filthy walkways, inner-city crime, poverty, the economic climate, the smell, the concrete monstrosities for housing estates, hospital waiting lists, CCTV on every street corner, kids pushing prams, speed humps, cycle lanes, plastic glasses...........

The UK is soiled and full of people with tales of all the various forms of misery their towns have inflicted on their lives.

The UK and its towns are full of 'Rules' and 'Fun is Forbidden.'


A few years ago Hull, the gateway to Europe was considered 'The UK's No.1 Crap Town' but having used the 'net to check if this was still the case I subsequently found out that Luton indeeds currently holds the crown!

Both footballing towns, Hull has been described as 'smelling of death' due to the combination of its own chocolate factory and on days when there is a a south-east wind blowing, the smell of nearby Grimsby adds a fishy staleness to the odour.

Windsor perhaps surprisingly, was voted the second worst place to live this time around.

One voter said: 'The big thing about Windsor is that its townsfolk believe that by living near the castle they are more or less royalty themselves.'

Sunderland was described 'not so much a town, more of a mortuary' and came in third.

Other towns to feature included Croydon where the slang phrase 'Croydon-facelift' derived - hair that is scraped back so tight in a pony tail that it pulls back the wearer's cheekbones.

Morecambe the seaside town that promoted itself as a smaller version of Blackpool has been in a sad decline since the late 1930's.
Why anyone would ever go there is beyond me, unless you were unlucky enough to be born and brought up there!

Hythe, a small town on the south coast is quite possibly the most 'spirit-crushingly tedious town in Kent.' (Quite a feat)
Hythe has been labelled as: 'the place that makes nearby Folkestone look like Las Vegas.'

Other 'crap towns' to make the list that also double up as footballing towns included: Middlesbrough, Nottingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Brighton, Stockport, Portsmouth and Peterborough.

It is claimed Portsmouth is one of the most densely populated areas in Europe and is said to have one of the thickest populations.

Stockport is a typical mill town in South Manchester made prosperous by the Industrial Revolution.
However the superseding 'look' for Stockport locals is a shaven head with optional designer label baseball cap/visor, a shellsuit, the legs of which are tucked into a pair of luminous socks accompanied by a pair of kicker-style boots.
Gold plated jewellery in the form of chains, bracelets and earrings are an accepted and necessary part of the 'look.'

Brighton, the home of the nearest beach to London and Tory conferences, trades on a misinformed reputation for coolness!
The town was once described as 'The World's End' despite the council beating on about it being a 'beautiful city by the sea.'
It is neither beautiful nor a City!

Half of it is dirty, noisy & packed with horrible, gobby young fashion victims, mainly students studying 'The life and times of Peter Ward' or 'All things football in London's SE25.'
The rest of Brighton is a grimy Southeast town with council estates, teenage mums and screaming kids.
The guys roam the seafront on a Friday night, looking for someone from the other half to knock ten bells out of.


Now for the results of my investigative journalism.
I could not find any rhyme or reason to link 'crap towns' and 'footballing towns' together. There was no reason to suppose a town hosting a football club was any better or worse off as a result..........but it was fun trying!

If you would like to nominate a town that you consider to be one of the worst places to live in the U.K then post the name of that town and one reason why it is so awful in the comment box below, and I will pass it on to the writer's of The Idler magazine.