Premier League - Gossip Shop: Buffon to Man City

Eurosport - Fri, 21 Nov 23:34:00 2008

Sheikh Mansour must be a real pain in the neck when it comes to Secret Santa at Manchester City.

2008 Italy Gianluigi Buffon - 0

All the staff at Eastlands buy each other socks, Quality Street, maybe a cheap bottle of wine - sticking faithfully to the five pound limit.

Then in comes Mansour, having pulled Mark Hughes out of the hat, with a suspiciously large present.

He gives it to Sparky, who sets about tearing off the bows, ribbons and spangly wrapping paper.

"My God," he exclaims. "It's moving! It's got gloves! It's Gianluigi Freakin' Buffon!

"How much did this set you back?" asks the tea lady.

"Four ninety-five," the Sheikh replies, shifting uneasily on his seat. "Well, all right, I might have gone a bit over the limit."

"How much?"

"Sixty-three million."

"You flashy git. Dunnie loved the Bad Lashes calendar I got him, but now you've made me look like a right cheapskate," Elano chips in.

Anyway, you get the picture. Gianluigi Buffon to City for £63m - and they're going to pay him £250,000 a week.

Gazzetta dello Sport are all over it, so it must be true. Not a bad way to cover for Joe Hart's slight ankle injury.

Buffon himself said he would be receptive to a megabucks move from Juventus, saying: "If an offer of 100 million euros came in, I would go to the club to tell them to let me go: with that kind of money they could buy three superstars."

On now to the player City value at £135m, and Cristiano Ronaldo's move to Real Madrid is off. For sure. For certain. For definite.

Why? Because he has been accused of elbowing Real's Marcelo in Portugal's 6-2 thumping by Brazil on Wednesday.

Admittedly, it's only Marcelo doing the accusing, saying: "He elbowed me and I told him he didn't need to do that."

But once the wee wing-back tells his Madrid team-mates about this, the red carpet will be rolled back up and stowed away until they sign Cesc Fabregas.

Gossip Shop wants to know: what did football agent Dennis Latcher do before Andrei Arshavin got famous?

Since Euro 2008, Latcher has been talking non-stop (literally, non-stop) about his client's impending move from Zenit St Petersburg.

Let's dip into him now: "...he is being followed in England, Italy and Spain. Several things are happening, but we have no concrete offers. Real Madrid are in pole position but we have not entered into any negotiations..."

Martin Skrtel has denied saying he wants to leave Liverpool for Russia because it's dull: "I did not say the city (Liverpool) was boring."

On to stuff that isn't transfer news, but is funny - Portsmouth manager Tony Adams has been giving Jermain Defoe advice on how to avoid cramp - cut down on coffee.

Adams said: "I got cramp because I put 20 pints of lager down my neck and got dehydrated. It's different with Jermain. He drinks too much caffeine."

And it has been revealed that ex-Chelsea winger Jesper Gronkjaer 's current win bonus is two porn films from FC Copenhagen, who are sponsored by an adult film distributor.

Alex Chick / Eurosport

Comment 36 - 55 of 55

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  1. If the most ego centric player of all times was playing with Portugal against Brazil, then why Brazil thumped them 6-2 and this player who thinks that he deserves to be awarded the ballon d'or did not do anything worth while to put the money where his loud mouth is?
    He is going to Real Madrid or any other team. Man Utd shall be left feeling like fools on a parade day.
    It shall be Sir Alex one of his biggest blunder as he should have got rid of him in summer.
    I prefer Messi.

    From LIPPU, on Sat 22 Nov 7:03AM

  2. KEEP ON DREAMING .. KEEP ON TALKING ..... LET SEE IF MAN CITY GOT ANY SUPERB PLAYERS IN JANUARY ... I HOPE THAT GREEDY SUPERSTAR GO THERE AND MAKE MONEY ... JUST LIKE ROBINHO .. HE NEVER EVER WIN ANY CUP WITH MAN CITY ..

    From azhanm, on Sat 22 Nov 5:52AM

  3. Whats all this Man City dreaming @#$% they signed ROBINHO ffs and they are freakin loaded lots of jealous Chelski fans I think, if they do sign Buffon then Joe Hart to Spurs :)

    From Martin S, on Fri 21 Nov 10:51PM

  4. to kickd are you a @#$% its paper talk not city saying there getting him............

    From johnpercival80, on Fri 21 Nov 10:29PM

  5. MAN CITY .... COME ON ... PLEASE LIVE IN A REALITY WORLD ...

    From azhanm, on Fri 21 Nov 10:20PM

  6. man.city....keep on dreaming....

    From kathy, on Fri 21 Nov 9:42PM

  7. Looks like Man City are about to inherit the 'Chelsea syndrome' when it comes to the transfer market. They'll be paying double the market value on any player they look at.

    From pfy1101@..., on Fri 21 Nov 8:59PM

  8. inter INTER INTER

    From tasnadi i, on Fri 21 Nov 8:45PM

  9. Man city are rubbish and its not worth Buffon going there, they need to sort out their defence it is in shambles!

    From Eve, on Fri 21 Nov 8:41PM

  10. u say evry time a man united fan buys petrol he puts money in to shittys bank i mean citys bank well now that the price of petrol has hit its lowest price for a long time i might just go fill up some milk bottles with some attach a bit of rag light it and send it back to wer it shude be....now @#$% all yall blues sky my arse

    From kevin, on Fri 21 Nov 8:41PM

  11. Buffon is good, but he is definitely not worth that kind of money.

    From Boris, on Fri 21 Nov 8:32PM

  12. Oh my god what a load of rubbish, just because Buffon is slightly injured it doesn't mean he's going to Man City. Why do all the older injured players in Italy end up being rumoured for Man City? Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka now Buffon...

    From gbh08@..., on Fri 21 Nov 7:55PM

  13. samuel. yeah thats y elland road still gets better attendances than half the premiership u stupid @#$%. Come on u whites!!!!

    From big_g_leeds, on Fri 21 Nov 7:45PM

  14. Mattie West...i think you mean "retarded"??.... check your own Grammar first before slagging of a fellow Blue.

    From Chris W, on Fri 21 Nov 7:43PM

  15. Keep on nicking cars and trainers LARD.... our City will ALWAYS be better in everyway than your shithole on the docks

    From Chris W, on Fri 21 Nov 7:41PM

  16. mattie west u gobshite it's jd12cat not JD12CAT
    and it's a bit like your overuse of the word muppet u co.ck
    oooh i didn't use a capitol ohhh @#$%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    From Jd, on Fri 21 Nov 7:29PM

  17. JD12CAT, your overuse of exclamation marks and lack of commas shows that you are indeed gramatically retarted. Any idiot (apart from you) knows that a place name, a person's name, and the start of every sentence should begin with a capital letter.

    The 'Caps Lock' key is the one on the left with the words 'Caps' & 'Lock' on it. Muppet!

    From mattie, on Fri 21 Nov 7:17PM

  18. who the hell would want to play for liverpool?
    unless they wanted their houses robbed when they were on international duty!
    how many players is it now ? nine? nine players have had their houses robbed at liverpool!
    NINE FFS!
    dirty thieving scousers robbing their own.
    unbelievable. or is it!
    not really!
    king kev was right about you lot and leaving his car there LOL!
    c,mon u blues!

    From Jd, on Fri 21 Nov 7:04PM

  19. right about now man city need to play with 3 goal keepers not just one

    From Ian E, on Fri 21 Nov 6:55PM

  20. Too much caffiene?...

    From matthew, on Fri 21 Nov 6:22PM
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