The fuss surrounding the club’s bid for Brazil international Ronaldinho refuses to die down despite comments from the player’s agent saying that he was keen to join Manchester United and comments from Paris Saint-Germain’s president that they didn’t want to sell the player.
Already this week French newspapers have claimed that Freddy Shepherd has held a second round of talks with the player’s agent and the Daily Mail claimed that PSG would rather sell to us than Manchester United after Sir Alex Ferguson was reported to have held secret talks with the player.
At this stage it is probably sensible to expect Ronaldinho to be wearing Manchester United’s number seven shirt next season.
Meanwhile the widely reported deal to buy Brett Emerton from Feyenoord appears to be some way from completion, with Middlesbrough apparently preparing a bid of their own.
A couple of older rumours have reappeared this week as the Bolton Evening News claimed that we were vying with Bolton Wanderers for the free transfer signings of Roma’s Pep Guardiola and Barcelona’s Frank de Boer. Although the paper did rather seem to ignore our current ‘buy young’ transfer policy in the article and fail to explain why we’d want either player.
Reports in the Polish press have again linked Schalke 04 defender Tomas Hajto with a move to St James’ Park, despite club officials dismissing this story back in January.
Elsewhere Chelsea defender William Gallas’ agent has claimed the player is set to sign a new four-year deal with the Blues despite his recent outspoken criticism of the club, while Arsenal have said Patrick Vieira is going nowhere despite reports of interest from Manchester United. Presumably this is on the basis that the Premiership would become virtually pointless should Vieira move to Old Trafford.