2013 Summer Transfer Thread

[Lineker]

Burnley have rejected an offer from Bournemouth for 20-year-old striker Danny Ings, reports the Lancashire Evening Telegraph. I love how Eddie Howe's strategy is basically to resign everyone the club has sold over the past few years.

Simon Mignolet's agent says that his client wants out of Sunderland. Can't blame him.

Elsewhere, the Babelcopter has landed, this time in Turkey. He;s signed for some team over there alonmg with WBA-flop Ryan Donk.

Stoke have released seven players: Jermaine Pennant, Dean Whitehead, Rory Delap, Mamady Sidibe, Matthew Upson, Carlo Nash, and Matthew Lund.

EDIT: Originally typed Donk out as Ryan Doink. Amusing.

[Noah]

I think its great because the distribution of wealth in football is already hugely lopsided. It's pretty much the only way to inject excitement into domestic title races.

Yeah I totally remember Liverpool/Spurs/etc. fans getting excited when Chelsea spent a lot of money to break the United/Arsenal title duopoly.

Maybe it was just the circles I was travelling in at the time but I did notice a lot of fans I knew cheering on Chelsea because it wan't "yet another United/Arsenal title win"

Granted those same fans then cheered on United a couple of seasons later because "they didn't want moneybags Chelsea to win their 3rd title in a row."

[Lineker]

Mark Schwarzer has confirmed he will leave Fulham this summer after the signing of Maarten Stekelenburg.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Some seem to think Strootman to United is basically a done deal and will be tied up after the U-21 stuff.

I'd be happy with that if it happens. All day long over Fellaini.

[Lineker]

Sky Sports understands Leeds United are closing in on the signing of former Reading striker Noel Hunt on a free transfer.

[Lineker]

David Moyes' first signing, it seems:

Manchester United are set to tie up a deal for Uruguayan starlet Guillermo Varela, his club Penarol have confirmed.

Varela spent time on trial at Old Trafford at the end of last season and he is know to have impressed United's coaching staff.

Now the 20-year-old full-back is flying to England to finalise the move for a reported £1million fee.

Penarol club treasurer Rodolfo Catino is travelling with Varela to conclude the deal on their behalf.

He Tweeted on Wednesday: "In San Pablo airport waiting for the connection to London, with Guille [Varela] about to board."

[Ant]

RMC Sports Radio in France have announced Belhanda has chose us.

Are they normally on the ball with this sort of thing or is basically like a French version of Talksport?

[Jimmy]

If so, that's a huge signing for Villa going by word of mouth. Didn't they accept offers from Milan and such? And he had Arsenal, Spurs etc sniffing around at some point. I'd be surprised, but a great signing.

[stokeriño]

Official tweet from @sscnapoli : " There is interest in Cavani from Chelsea,Chelsea will talk with the president in the next few hours" #CFC

Not news per se...unless anything comes of it.

[TCO]

Their Twitter account/google translate also says that they'd only sell him for the €63mil release clause. Surely Chelsea wouldn't spunk that much money on a striker the wrong side of 25 again?

[Lineker]

Swansea have agreed a deal to sign Real Betis midfielder Jose Canas on a pre-contract agreement.

Manchester City have secured the signing of Shakhtar Donetsk's Brazilian midfielder Fernandinho on a four-year deal, believed to be worth around £30m.

[Ant]

Part exchange for Torres?

[stokeriño]

Part exchange for Torres?

Possibility that Chelsea would try for that, but no signs as yet that Napoli would go for anything less than the release fee in pure cash.

Their Twitter account/google translate also says that they'd only sell him for the €63mil release clause. Surely Chelsea wouldn't spunk that much money on a striker the wrong side of 25 again?

I remember this being said after Shevchenko...

[Ant]

Either way though if Torres stays at Chelsea beyond this summer, especially with Mourinho in charge, i am convinced he is a Horcrux for Abramoviches soul

[stokeriño]

To be honest the most likely thing to happen after Napoli make that tweet is for them to sit impatiently by the phoning, waiting for Man City to call.

[stokeriño]

Hulk reveals that Chelsea have made offer for him possibly maybe

[brenchill]

Didn't Torres score over 20 goals last season?

[MJB]

Only about seven of those were in the league, though.

[stokeriño]

22 goals. The fact is he's a perfectly serviceable striker provided you have another one who's contributing as well, which we didn't for a lot of last season. It can also be pointed out that his form picked up once he started being played every other game [when Ba arrived for rotation] rather than 90 minutes every game every 3 days.

A lot of online Chelsea fans have gone completely off the rail though and dub him the Worst Striker Ever ("even *x inanimate object* would be better than Torres", "Let's give *x club* cash to take Torres off our hands", etc.) without even a glimmer of irony. It's strange and I can only really think of it being a bit like pro wrestling smarks in a way because at Stamford Bridge the fans are forever vocal in support for him.

Anyway, long story short we can't rely on Torres alone. Whether Lukaku picks up the slack or a new guy does, whatever.

[Nerf]

...what about Ba?