Transfers - Transfer Talk: Henry and Drogba to City

Eurosport - Sun, 25 Jan 12:50:00 2009

Kaka's decision to snub Manchester City could be for the best, as a more realistic policy sees them adjust their sights to players that could actually be of use to them, such as Didier Drogba and Thierry Henry.

FOOTBALL Henry Drogba - 0

Nigel de Jong and Wayne Bridge are exactly what they need to counteract Dietmar Hamann's failing legs and Michael Ball's failing, well, everything.

And for all his faults, and boy there are many, Craig Bellamy has the kind of big, swinging cojones that Jo clearly lacks.

And now Chelsea's unhappy striker Drogba could be set for a move north, possibly in part-exchange if the Robinho row is not resolved.

The Ivorian is having a bit of a nightmare at the moment but if you get him fit and tell him he's the Drog's whatsits, he is possibly the best in the business.

Out-of-favour Chelsea winger Florent Malouda is also on the Middle Eastlands radar.

Henry is a less straightforward matter and one which could take effect in the summer.

The France striker is now banging the goals in alongside forward colleagues Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi after a difficult debut season in Barcelona.

But he is missing his daughter Tea, and City reckon they could get him to agree a switch back to England provided he wins some silverware with Los Cules.

A fee of £10 million and a weekly wage of £100,000 would do the trick, provided the City circus does not implode.

Despite Valencia's financial difficulties, they have demanded a whopping £135m for David Silva and David Villa.

Even City aren't stupid enough to pay that much, and Henry-Drogba would be a far more cost-effective solution that would not require acclimatisation to the England game.

Chelsea, meanwhile, could make a move for Fiorentina's Portuguese defender Manuel da Costa as cover for John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho.

Da Costa, 22, is unsettled in Florence and is a favourite of Luiz Felipe Scolari, who called him up to the Portugal squad despite him only being half-Portuguese - through his father: Da Costa is French born-and-bred, has never lived in Portugal, barely speaks the language and has a Moroccan mother.

Sam Allardyce is at it again. Eidur Gudjohnsen has tired of being on the fringes at Barcelona and Blackburn have offered him first-team football, with Roque Santa Cruz likely to end up at Manchester City.

A loan move has been touted, and Allardyce is known to Gudjohnsen as it was he who presided over the Iceland striker at Bolton in the season that saw him earn a move to Chelsea in 2000.

Fulham boss Roy Hodgson is preparing for life without Jimmy Bullard by bidding for Doncaster midfielder Brian Stock, who is being touted as the new, um, Jimmy Bullard.

Goal-scoring midfielder Stock plied his trade in the lower leagues until his mid 20's and rose to prominence at a side cutting their teeth in the Championship - just like Bullard.

Unlike Bullard, though, he does not have silly, Seventies hair and does not play the mandolin. Neither is he particularly good

Hodgson has not been impressed with how Dickson Etuhu has coped with filling in for the injured Bullard, while Leon Andreasen is viewed as no more than utility back-up.

The Whites have also been linked to Nuremberg's bustling Greek striker Angelos Charisteas.

The former Werder Bremen and Ajax man scored the winning goal against Portugal in the Euro 2004 final but, after a short spell at Feyenoord, his stay at Nuremberg was soured by their relegation from the Bundesliga.

He would cost £1.5m, although the German side's team manager Martin Bader said that "we are in no rush to sell Angelos and Fulham are in no rush to buy".

Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley has lost a massive wodge of cash in the credit crunch and Toon's transfer targets have been scaled-down accordingly. A couple of money signings are expected, but squad-fillers will be loans and free transfers.

One player who is probably going to don the black and white in the next week or so is former Rangers and Schalke winger Peter Lovenkrands.

The Dane has been on trial at St James' Park and, after impressing in a behind-closed-doors friendly with Carlisle, Joe Kinnear said that director Derek Llambias is "thrashing out some sort of deal to the end of the season". Which sounds a little violent but ultimately positive.

Former Dortmund defender Ahmed Reda Madouni is also on trial at the club.

West Ham's policy of bringing in cut-price players and making a profit seems set to continue with South Africa defender Bryce Moon the latest to catch Gianluca Nani's expert eye, Zenit St Petersburg striker Pavel Pogrebnyak has appeared on Bolton 's radar, Sochaux schoolboy Yven Moyo is being eyed by Manchester United while Germany Under-21 defender Serdar Tasci is expected to stay at Stuttgart despite interest from Arsenal.

Reda Maher / Eurosport

Comment 119 - 138 of 138

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  1. scolari is such a scum bag...he should be sent to Gaza!

    From osmond a, on Sun 25 Jan 11:31PM

  2. Chelsea signing yet another center back. We have 4­ established ones already with mancienne waiting to­ burst onto the scene.
    Scolari???????????????

    From george, on Sun 25 Jan 5:13PM

  3. It's amazing all of these "out of favor"­ Chelsea forwards....Scolari may be a genius with a­ Brazil team who only plays international games but he­ and Kenyon have terribly depleted Chelsea's depth. ­ Hey Scolari, in the EPL you play in 4­ competitions...simultaneously! They should have kissed­ Sheva butt and they should give Drogba his job­ back...Anelka has run up his gaudy stats on simple tap­ ins against weak squads...if Malouda is gone and Drogba­ is gone who is going to take shots? Baletti? or the­ unknown, inexperienced people Scolari brings off the­ bench? Pitiful pitiful.

    From T-Rex, on Sun 25 Jan 4:27PM

  4. 134 - SWP is a decent winger, had his career stuffed­ for a couple of seasons at Chelsea through lack of­ games, now firing again back where he is actually­ played... and Petrov was quality last season, made a­ monkey of many a right back... shame hes been out all­ of this season. Its clear the biggest issue is ­ central/defensive midfield. Last season when City got­ off to a flyer, they had Michael Johnson playing that­ role, and as soon as he got injured around Christmas,­ the season collapsed, a good world class signing here­ is vital. The defense is creaking, yes Dunne is having­ a nightmare - and Micah seems to have lost focus, but­ it can't help when there is noone playing in front­ of you. Players like Gelson are ok, but you­ wouldn't exactly put your house on them!­ Personally, Up front, I'm keen to actually see what­ Bojinov plays like too, everyone raved about him when­ he joined and he's completed about one game in a­ nearly 2 seasons!. Also, there are lots of rumours­ about not keeping Sturridge... are City mad!, what a­ prospect..

    From chris l, on Sun 25 Jan 1:49PM

  5. Thiery Honry should just stick at Barca and leave the­ Man City experiment. As for Man City they need to­ bring in a world class manager to start with then­ build their team around a strong defence and creative­ midfield. With this type of set-up all the strikers­ will need to do is tap in the goals, and anyone can do­ that. Man City don't forget to bring in good­ wingers too.

    Gregmut

    From Greg, on Sun 25 Jan 8:03AM

  6. jhr{122} i totally agree when ur getting 100' odd­ grand a week, what excuse can you have for not putting­ in 100% once a week of a saturday or sunday????
    drogba­ is a great player when he is not sulking but he really­ needs to man up and take his balls out of his handbag­ to be a truely great player and i hate chelsea more­ than i do rangers and im a celt so man up drogba and be­ the player ur ment to be

    From brian, on Sun 25 Jan 2:36AM

  7. that would be an amazing attack

    From Mike, on Sat 24 Jan 8:08PM

  8. i hope drogba goes man city and henry to i love man­ CITY

    From kevinrcross, on Sat 24 Jan 4:44PM

  9. City can buy all the players they want, but they wont­ be any good for the next couple of seasons, until they­ actually bring in the players and get them working as a­ team. It will be difficult to get into the big four as­ Villa have taking a few seasons to get a good team and­ look were that got them :)

    From karen.j.cook, on Sat 24 Jan 4:38PM

  10. d u fink i cud mek munny giffing spelwing lezzuns to­ fello psters?

    The Best team in the land and all the­ world CITY! CITY

    From twobirchy, on Sat 24 Jan 1:50PM

  11. city are being gready but they buy them because they­ have the money but they have already brought wanye­ brigde and they can buy dider drogba and terry henry

    From KEVIN, on Fri 23 Jan 6:32PM

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    From , on Fri 23 Jan 2:14PM

  13. would henry go back to arsenal maybe he would like to­ fnnish were he start for i season and go out on a high,­ what an idea .

    From silverfox296, on Fri 23 Jan 1:24PM

  14. its a shame that arsenal cant buy just one player

    From medugs, on Fri 23 Jan 11:15AM

  15. man city can buy all the best players in the world if­ they want to but they still wont win a thing if they­ cant play together just look at the england squad they­ are sh**e and im enlish

    From darrellmargeson, on Fri 23 Jan 10:18AM

  16. drog and henry are maestro of football and should be­ valued as high as kaka . its stupid and unrelevant the­ offer made for them and by the way man utd is thrash­ hold

    From ThanendranS, on Fri 23 Jan 9:28AM

  17. I've always thought Henry was quality,even though­ I'm a Liverpool supporter,but football aside,if he­ misses his daughter that much,why can't he just­ retire?He's a multi-millionaire,so what's the­ issue?
    As for Drogba.He can have great moments too,but­ why does he have to have his ego stroked in order to­ re-assure him he's good?His wage packet would­ encourage me to play 100% week in week out.
    Some of­ these players need to come back to reality.

    From jhr881, on Fri 23 Jan 7:28AM

  18. both henry and drogba are history...

    From Ashvin, on Fri 23 Jan 4:07AM

  19. ITS A MUCH BETTER DEAL FOR CITY TO GET DROGBA AND­ HENRY, BUT I DONT SEE THAT HAPPENING

    From kgotla, on Fri 23 Jan 2:09AM

  20. City are vast becoming the footballing equivelent of­ jordan, all t.i.t.s and no arse.
    Way too many attacking­ players ,what about signing some world class­ defenders.
    I mean like go out and sign 3 or 4.
    And some­ midfield players.
    The strongest teams around have the­ best midfields.

    From !, on Fri 23 Jan 2:03AM
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