Man United & Arsenal to Fight for Alvaro Morata

Manchester United and Arsenal are said to be preparing for a summer move for Real Madrid's 18 year-old striker, Alvaro Morata. The player is highly regarded as a big future prospect who can hold the ball up well, finish clinically in front of goal and has excellent movement and heading ability, described as similar to former Madrid and Liverpool striker, Fernando Morientes.

Real Madrid's current forward positions are tough places to win, with former United star Cristiano Ronaldo a nailed on regular, as well as competition from Karim Benzema, Gonzalo Higuain and Manchester City loanee, Emmanuel Adebayor. It is reportedly likely that due to a busy transfer market on the horizon for Madrid in the attacking department, including the prospective signing of Athletico Madrid's Sergio Aguero, Jose Mourinho will have to let go some of the youngsters, despite their promise and potential.

The top teams in England are ready to pounce, with United, Arsenal and Chelsea all said to want Morata, who has been very impressive for Madrid's reserves, recently scoring a hat-trick in a 7-1 win against Deportivo's reserve side.

Manchester United apparently made a late bid for Morata at the end of the latest January transfer window, with TalkSport claiming that a "concrete" interest was shown by United only to be rejected by the Spanish club. There was no mention of what United may have bid for Morata, but the player has a contract which runs until June 2013 -  two more years, so he would not be out of Arsenal's, Wenger's or United's price range.

When Real Madrid's Higuain was injured during the season, the Spanish media asked Mourinho whether he would bring in Morata to the first team, to which the former Chelsea manager responded:

"He's not prepared to be in the starting lineup of Real Madrid. He needs to grow up and finish his formation with the Castilla [Madrid's reserves]"

Arsenal will be looking for a new striker in what Wenger has described as an unusually busy summer for him, especially as their Danish talent, Nicklas Bendtner has more or less confirmed he will be leaving the club in search of more game time. Arsenal seem happy to let him leave, as the profit made from him will be more useful than the player himself who has not lived up to his own high expectations.

Meanwhile, Manchester United's attacking department is already very strong, with Michael Owen signing a new one year extension today as well as Dimitar Berbatov rejecting rumours of him leaving the club due to being left out of the Champions League final squad. United will also see the return of Danny Welbeck to their ranks, as all three mentioned strikers will fight for a starting place with Rooney and Hernandez.

However, the Spanish media have been somewhat sceptical over any possible transfer of Morata to England, especially on a permanent deal, citing the reason that Madrid are well aware of the huge potential he possesses. Despite the possible signing of Aguero, Madrid would do well to keep the Spanish Under-19 talent Morata at the Bernabeu and away from the clutches of top European clubs like United and Arsenal, whatever the cost.

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£58m Fabregas - Aguero No Go - De Gea Deal Done

Yes, your suspicions from the headline are true - another summer, and more rumours concerning the Arsenal captains future. Will he stay, will he go? Well the answer to that is almost impossible to know, with pretty much the same rumours being thrown about - namely, the one that Barcelona will return in an attempt to persuade the Spaniard away from Arsenal.

This time, Manchester City are involved, just like they are with every other possible player they can be, with Mancini reported to be ready to offer an unbelievable £58 million, according to The People. Of course any deal would need the support of the Abu Dhabi group which owns the club, and apparently, Mancini has that backing for this particular move.

With City's money, absolutely any player can be linked to them at any price and be a believable rumour, so this rumour - although potentially rubbish is, with City's audacity and money is certainly believable - though I cannot see Fabregas wanting to go to City. 


He wants to play football, and preferably at Barcelona. That dream of his has however been stalled for a while by Arsenal, and now Barcelona are the ones stalling, with the Barcelona director of football saying of the proposed Fabregas deal:

"Right now, everything is dead regarding a transfer."

That certainly will please Arsenal fans, who no doubt would despise seeing their captain leave the club, especially to the side who have been a massive pain for the past few summers.

Moving on to Sergio Aguero, and only yesterday, I said on the blog that he had announced his desire to leave Athletico Madrid. The situation however was made slightly awkward when his club said today that he would be going nowhere, with Madrid ready to force the Argentinian to honour his contract:

"We are not going to change our thinking. We will not sell or trade for Aguero. If anyone wants to know something new, ask him directly."

"There is no getting around it. El Kun has a signed contract. He has shown his desire to leave, but we say the same thing. We do not want to sell. We respect his decision, but he also has to respect ours. He has a commitment to us."

"In his recent statements I heard him say he had no intention of leaving. I do not know how we will address this issue, but this is not the end of the world.''

And as Athletico fight to keep hold of one star, they have conceded defeat on another, David de Gea. Manchester United will apparently announce the signing of him on Monday - two days after the Champions League final. 

Guillem Balague said that a deal between the clubs was struck two months ago, but now De Gea has finally agreed to a deal - initially reluctant to leave his home club. Sir Alex Ferguson said at Gary Neville's testimonial match:

"We’ve been working on it for quite a while. We identified him quite a while back as one we should go for." 

"He’s a young goalkeeper, very quick, good composure, presence and an oustanding replacement for van der Sar." 

We were looking for someone with the same types of qualities. One great quality Edwin always had was his composure and organisational ability. David De Gea is very similar that way.”

£18.3 million has apparently sealed the deal for United, who have now replaced Edwin van der Sar, how successfully is another matter, and will be found out next season. He has though, a tough job in replacing the big Dutchman who is universally popular at Old Trafford.

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"Active Arsenal" - Aguero on the Move - CL Countdown

Arsenal will be having a "very active" summer transfer market according to the manager Arsene Wenger. The window hasn't even opened yet, but apparently Arsenal have already signed Ricardo Alvarez in a pre-contract agreement from the Argentinian club Vélez Sársfield.

Add that to countless other rumours circulating, linking Arsenal to players such as Bolton's Gary Cahill, Blackburns Chris Samba and PSG's Mamadou Sakho, and you see a pattern developing. Defenders are the priority, and Wenger, although cauious with how much he spends, said:

"The market will be hyperactive because everyone believes financial fair play will happen soon," Wenger said, referring to Uefa's tighter regulations on club spending. "So we are quickly doing the last buying before the stores will be closed. And for the first time for a while, I will be very active, too."

Arsenal may well be saying goodbye to Nicklas Bendtner, whose father, Thomas, confirmed his son wants to leave the club: "Nicklas has made his decision and told Arsenal: he wants to leave the club." Arsenal are quoting the figure of £8.7 million for anyone interested in his services, with Bayern Munich said to be interested in the confident 23 year-old striker.

A player whom Arsenal would no doubt love to have leading their line is Diego Maradona's son-in-law, Sergio Aguero of Athletico Madrid. He is of Athletico for now, as he recently confirmed like Bendtner that he will be looking for a new club in the summer. I suspect he would cost too much for Arsenal anyway, but the 22 year-old is not short of admirers.

Liverpool, City and Chelsea have all been linked to him - and they are only from the Premier League. Real Madrid are apparently early favourites for the Argentinians signature. He is a fine finisher, scoring 20 League goals this season for Athletico, while assisting 2. Aguero said:

"I said long ago that when I wanted to go, I would say so publicly. And the time has come."

"So I keep to my word and here I am. I find it hard to leave Atletico. It hurts and saddens me. I've thought long and hard and I am convinced that I must be true to myself."

"I do not think I put a ceiling on the ability to keep learning, to keep growing. After five intense years, this stage for me personally is over and I have to give way to a new one."

"I'm about to turn 23 and I have everything before me. Suffice it to say that this is not an economic issue but strictly a sporting one. So I want to clearly express my appreciation to the club for the efforts they have made for giving me a salary that equates with the largest clubs in the world."

Meanwhile, the biggest game of the year is fast approaching, as Manchester United and Barcelona prepare for their Champions League final at Wembley. In light of recent off-field events however, regarding Ryan Giggs, Sir Alex Ferguson was said to be "beside himself with anger" at the alleged revelations.

Some said that Giggs feared for his place in the Champions League starting line up for United, but the Daily Mail have just reported that Giggs will in fact start the massive game. United could win their fourth Champions League trophy - Sir Alex's third, and these sorts of distraction are most unwelcome.

Hopefully, Giggs will continue to do what he has done for his long, fruitful career, and be fully professional throughout, to set an example as always to his fellow players. United will have a supremely tough test on Saturday, and they need all the togetherness and quality they can muster.

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