British tabloid The Sunday Mirror claims that Barcelona is interested in Arsenal central defender and French international William Gallas (30). Barcelona could make a bid of 6 million euro° for the player.
Gallas, who is a friend of Thierry Henry, has two years of his contract left and there have been no indications of an offer of an extension. This has alerted Barcelona where new manager Josep Guardiola wants to further strenghten the squad.
Arsenal captain Gallas might be given the permission to leave the English club. The Frenchman was given the armband by manager Arsene Wenger a year ago but there have been suggestions that Wenger is to make midfielder Cesc Fàbregas his new captain, which implies that Gallas will not be guaranteed first-team football.
Read more:
Ronaldinho's transfer fee reinvested in Adebayor
Sunday, 20 July 2008
Barcelona interested in Arsenal captain Gallas
Hleb's first interview
New Barcelona attacker Alexander Hleb gave an exclusive interview to the club's official media. Some quotes:
What does coming to Barça mean to you?
It’s a great opportunity for me. Since I was 7 my dream has been to play for a big club like Barça. I love Barça and I want to do my very best to try to win as many titles as possible.
You can play just about anywhere, but which position do you prefer?
I really don’t mind where I play – wherever the coach tells me. I learnt a lot at Arsenal from Arsène Wenger. He taught me to play in different positions and now I can play anywhere.
We’ve seen you shooting well with both feet. Are you left or right-footed?
I’m right-footed, but now I think now I shoot better with the left because I’m always practising shooting and passing with it.
Barcelona and Arsenal met in the Champions League final in Paris in 2006, when you were with Arsenal. What do you remember about that day?
Well, it’s a really important game in my life. We lost, but it was a great match. Now I hope I can win the Champions League with Barça.
You starred in the Bundesliga and the EPL, and now you’re in Spain. What do you know about the Spanish League?
It’s a tough League with high class football. We’ll see what I can do. I hope to be able to play and score a lot of goals. I really want the team to win titles.
At Barça you’ll meet up again with Henry.
Yeah, he’s my mate. We spent two years together. We understand each other and I’m real pleased to be back with him.
People have said a lot about how well you get on with Cesc Fábregas. What’s he told you about your new club?
He’s told me lots of things, his time in the academy with players like Piqué, Messi and so on. He loves this club, and though he’s at Arsenal, who knows, maybe one day he’ll come back here.
Read the complete Alexander Hleb transfer story from the first rumours to the official presentation
Read the first interviews of Seydou Keita, Gerard Piqué, Martín Cáceres and Daniel Alves
Looking for a left winger and a centre forward
Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that Barcelona is planning for two more transfers this summer: a left wing attacker and a centre forward. These are the transfer short lists for both positions (in order of preference):
Left winger
1. Robinho (Real Madrid - 24)
2. Arshavin (Zenit - 27)
3. Silva (Valencia - 22)
Centre forward
1. Adebayor (Arsenal - 24)
2. Drogba (Chelsea - 30)
3. Berbatov (Tottenham - 27)
Catalan sports paper Sport has today exactly the same centre forward short list.
Read more:
Looking for a centre forward
Looking for a left winger
The short list
Barça B: Ruben looking for another club
Barcelona Atlètic (previously known as Barcelona B) goalkeeper Rubén Martínez (24), who played on loan with second division team Racing Ferrol last season, will definitely leave Barcelona this summer.
Oleguer wants to leave for Ajax
Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad claims that Dutch club Ajax Amsterdam is negotiating the transfer of Barcelona centre and right back defender Oleguer Presas (28). Ajax general director Henri van der Aat and Ajax sports director Danny Blind travelled to Barcelona on Friday trying to finalize the deal.
Blind, who has given up the hope to bring Henrique to Amsterdam (read more here), confirmed the trip in an interview with football site Goal: "I was in Barcelona and now we have to see how things will turn out. Barcelona wants to keep Oleguer but the player wants to leave. He sure has no problems to play in the Dutch league."
New Ajax manager Marco Van Basten also confirmed the interest for Oleguer yesterday in an interview with Amsterdam local television channel AT5.
Barcelona board member Rafael Yuste admitted in an interview with Catalan radio station RAC 1 that there were negotiations going on: "It's true that Ajax has shown interest and that the player knows about that. We have started the negotiations and they will go on next week. I think it would be a good thing, both for the player and the club, if we could reach an agreement."
Dutch football weekly paper Voetbal International claims that Barcelona is asking 5 million euro° for Oleguer, whose contract expires in 2010. Catalan sports paper Sport claims that the Barcelona technical staff wants to hold on to the Catalan defender but will respect the wish of the player if he wants to leave. Barcelona would settle for a price between 3 and 4 million euro°.
Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that the negotiations are advanced and that a deal could be closed in the coming days. The transfer price would be 3 million euro° plus another possible 2 million euro° variables.
Madrid sports tabloid As claims that the negotations already started in December. Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola has now given his approval and Ajax could officially announce the transfer on Monday or Tuesday.
Read more:
Talks with Ajax on Henrique and Oleguer
How things stand: Central defenders
Ajax wants Oleguer on loan
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