Whilst most Football fans are preoccupied with the enthralling Euro 2012 Championship and the upcoming Olympics, you can rest assured that we’re just about at the time when managers will be hectically starting to hassle each other for players. Of course, there’s not really any time off when it comes to football, and with the summer comes the time when player contracts expire and managers look to bolster their squads ready to challenge next season. We’re already in the midst of a Managerial merry-go-round, and you can expect the players to jump on in the coming weeks. Here are some of the biggest transfer rumours of the summer.
Luka Modric to Manchester United – This is a rumour that just wont go away, United are said to be in for Modric once more, and Tottenham will demand in excess of £30 million for the player, currently with Croatia on International Duty.
Grant Holt to Aston Villa – The Second highest English goalscorer in the Premier League last season has already requested a transfer, and could well follow his former Norwich skipper Paul Lambert to his new club Aston Villa.
Gylfi Sigurdsson to Liverpool – It looked like a done deal that Sigurdsson would sign for Swansea after his successful loan spell there last season, but now it looks like he will follow Brendan Rodgers to new club Liverpool.
Jan Vertonghen to Spurs – The young man looks like a replacement for the outgoing Ledley King, and will join Spurs this summer for just shy of £10 Million. He is currently at Euro 2012 with his native Holland.
Hulk to Chelsea – This is one of the most talked about moves of the summer, Hulk has a £38 million release clause in his contract if you believe the rumours, and Chelsea are ready to pay up to capture the young forward’s services.
Leighton Baines to Manchester United – The Everton Left-Back would be seen as a replacement for Patrice Evra, who isn’t getting any younger of course. Baines will have to wait until after Euro 2012 to sort out his future, too.
Mario Goetze to Real Madrid – The young Dortmund Squad that impressed so many last season has started to fall apart as the giants of football pick of their most talented players. Goetze, the young German, is hot property, and looks like he could join Real Madrid this summer.
Robert Lewandowski to Man Utd – As talked about in the following post: http://thenorthstand.com/robert-lewandowski-to-join-manchester-united-says-poland-coach/
Whatever happens this summer, I’m sure we’ll be in for some dramatic transfers and exciting signings to get us in the mood for next season. Man United will be keen to bolster their squad for a title challenge, and Chelsea will be in a similar boat after last year’s successes.
Football and Music have gone hand in hand for many a year now. Songs are played before matches, sang during matches, and played ov…
Claudio Reyna is an American former Footballer. He was born in New Jersey in 1973, and comes from both Portugese and Argentinian roots. Through his schooling, Claudio was touted as a future star and won numerous awards for his footballing ability, as the team he played for (St Benedicts Prep School) went 65 games unbeaten with Reyna in the heart of their midfield.
Reyna went on to the University of Virginia, and played for three years in their Men’s soccer team, under the leadership of future USA coach Bruce Arena. Reyna continued to impress, and was named the 1992 and 1993 Soccer America Player of the Year, a magazine which also placed him on its Team of the Century and named him the male player of the century in 2000.
Claudio was scouted by a number of clubs, and after playing for the USA in the 1994 world cup, was snapped up by Bayern Leverkusen. He struggled to settle at the club who quickly shipped him out on loan to Wolfsburg, where he played 48 games. During his second year in Germany he was linked with a move to the UK, and Rangers paid around the £2 million mark to take him to Ibrox in 1999.
During his time in the SPL, Reyna changed from a more creative, attacking midfielder to a defensive, holding player. He scored 10 goals in just under 70 games for the Glasgow club, and having become a fan favourite and proved himself in the Scottish leagues, Sunderland took a punt on him, paying a fee of almost £3 million.
Claudio’s time at Sunderland was hampered by a cruciate ligament injury which kept him out for a large chunk of his time there, when he managed just 28 appearances. After a couple of years with the club, they decided to cut their losses and flog the American to Man City, who paid roughly half of his previous transfer fee to bring him to the club.
Although Reyna did continue to be hampered by injury, he managed 87 appearances for the Blue team in Manchester, and became a real fan favourite in his time there. In 2007 though, he and Stuart Pearce agreed to terminate his contract so that Reyna could return to the USA. He finished his career with 29 appearances for the New York Red Bulls.
Reyna is a legend of the game in the USA, and went to an incredible Four world cups as a player, making appearances in three of them. He made a total of 111 appearances for his country. Nowadays, Reyna is the USSF US Youth Soccer Technical Director.
Claudio Reyna, The North Stand Salutes You!
It has been widely reported today that Borussia Dortmund’s Polish striker Robert Lewandowski will join Manchester United in coming weeks, after Poland Coach Franciszek Smuda reported so in a press conference ahead of Euro 2012. He claimed “Lewy is going to Manchester United, Kuba also somewhere in England, Piszczek to Real,”. “They have a goal and they want to grow. I base the squad on them.”
Poland will be underdogs at Euro 2012, but with a relatively easy group (not that such thing really exists at International level), and talent players such as Lewandowski, Lukasz Piszczek (much touted to be joining Real Madrid this summer) and Jakub Błaszczykowski also of Borussia Dortmund, Poland will feel like they have a chance to cause a few upsets at the tournament.
If Lewandowski is to join United, he will be following fellow star of the Bundesliga Shinji Kagawa, who recently agreed his deal to head to Old Trafford. The Polish striker is said to be available for a similar price to his compatriot Kagawa, and will perhaps outline United’s transfer policy this summer, as they look to bring young, talented pl
ayers into their squad without parting with the sort of cash Man City have been spending in recent years, and if anybody is to get the best out of these type of signings, Sir Alex is certainly the man for the job.
To talk about Lewandowski in terms of potential is perhaps slightly unfair, he may be just 23 years old, but managed to score an impressive 22 goals last season for Dortmund, and has drawn attention from the highest rungs of European football in the process.
Signing the Pole could well spell the end for Dimitar Berbatov, who we all expect will leave the club this summer, as Sir Alex looks to bolster his squad in preparation for a campaign to regain the title they have held for so much of the last 20 years from bitter rivals Manchester City. United look like they’re in the market for a few more players, too, and I don’t expect their transfer efforts to stop at Robert. An official announcement regarding the transfer could come sooner rather than later, as they try to avoid paying inflated prices based on performances in Euro 2012.
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