The
Rumour Mill spent time in Talksport Towers yesterday morning, helping
to probe the soul of Bournemouth chairman Jeff Mostyn as he discussed
his relationship with the club’s manager Eddie Howe, their owner Maxim Denim and their audacious coup in bringing Jack Wilshere to the south coast last week.
During the course of an interesting hour, Mostyn said he was not
concerned that Howe might be headhunted by other clubs in the near
future, stating the 38-year-old is “Bournemouth through and through” and
has every intention of finishing the work he started eight years ago by
establishing the Cherries as a Premier League force before taking his
highly regarded management skills elsewhere.
Less than 24 hours later, the Sun has revealed that Howe has admirers
at Arsenal, who are considering him as a potential successor to Arsène
Wenger, who has yet to make a concrete decision on what the future holds
for him once his contract expires at the end of this season. Should he
decide to leave the club or move upstairs and become technical director,
the Sun says Arsenal believe “Howe can be moulded as a direct replacement”.
Over at the Mirror, Roy Hodgson is being linked with
a return to West Bromwich Albion, where he spent 15 fairly successful
months before taking the England job in 2012. Current Baggies boss Tony
Pulis is believed to be unhappy at The Hawthorns
and despite assurances from the club that he will be staying in charge,
West Brom are understood to have “sounded out” Hodgson about a possible
return should the current manager resign. Neatly knitting today’s
opening rumours together, West Brom are also ready to offer Jonny Evans a new £75,000-per-week deal following Arsenal’s failed attempt to bring him to the Emirates.
Reports in Spain suggest that Barcelona have hoisted the white flag in their quest to bring Arsenal full-back Héctor Bellerín
to Camp Nou. Having been left out of Julen Lopetegui’s senior Spain
squad this week, Bellerín lined up for his country’s U21 side against
Sweden on Monday night and provided a sumptuous, inch-perfect assist for
Everton’s Gerard Deulofeu in the 1-1 draw between the sides. The
defender had been the subject of summer interest from Barcelona, who are
still looking for a long-term replacement for Dani Alves but have
apparently abandoned their interest in a player who has three years left
on his contract and insists he has no interest in going anywhere.
Having left Arsenal during the summer, free agent Mathieu Flamini
is wanted by Ligue 1 side Nantes, who will have to fend off interest
from Crystal Palace, Roma, Milan and Olympiakos if they are to lure the
Frenchman back to his homeland. Palace manager Alan Pardew has made no
secret of his interest in the midfielder, saying, “Mathieu is a player
I’m looking at, to give us a bit more experience in winning games.”
Having won only two out of their past 24 in the Premier League, Palace
could certainly do with it.
Yaya Touré’s agent Dimitri Seluk told Sky Sports
that both Manchester United and Arsenal are interested in securing the
services of his client, but added that a deal with either club would be
“impossible”, presumably on the grounds that he’ll be free to sign a
pre-contract agreement with foreign clubs prepared to pay him a lot more
money in January. “He will have many offers from clubs,” said Seluk of
his golden goose. “China and America of course they want him but we will
have a lot of offers from England and Europe.” Unwanted at Manchester
City, where he is in the final year of his contract, Touré is in peak
physical condition, according to his agent. “He is in very good shape,
very good condition, I think he lost seven kilograms,” said Seluk, who
didn’t mention how it was the player came to have more than a stone of
surplus blubber to shift in the first place. Clearly he summered well.
Chelsea boss Antonio Conte is already writing his summer shopping list and thus far it boasts the names of Benfica defender Victor Lindelof and Santos midfielder Thiago Maia.
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