Jermain Defoe to Sunderland in £14m deal?

Football transfer rumours: Jermain Defoe to Sunderland in £14m deal?

Today’s tell-all reckons the whole world of football has officially gone mad

Jermain Defoe, 32, is to be paid £80,000 per week by Sunderland. £80,000. 


While you were sleeping, Sunderland and Toronto FC seem to have entirely lost the plot. The Premier League club have agreed to exchange a big bag of money and Jozy Altidore (two goals in 70 appearances for the Mackems and Hull City) for Jermain Defoe, a player whose age and unhappy spell in MLS suggests his best days are almost certainly behind him.

Defoe is rumoured to be arriving on Wearside in a deal worth £14m and will earn an eye-watering £80,000 per week over three and a half years. For that kind of outlay, he’ll be expected to bolster an attack currently comprising a trio of strikers so low on confidence and goals that one suspects they would all struggle to score if they were sent into a knocking shop with a blank cheque. Meanwhile back in North America, whether or not Altidore will actually end up playing for Toronto remains to be seen. Decidedly complicated and ever-changing MLS rules regarding allocation rankings mean the former New York Red Bulls player could well end up back in New Jersey or elsewhere.

That melodramatic Arsenal fan at Stoke train station who urged Joel Campbell to “get out while you can” will be delighted to hear that Olympiakos are hell bent on rescuing the Costa Rican from his Emirates purgatory, but may have the rug pulled from under them by Benfica, who also like the cut of the 22-year-old’s jib. In the event of Campbell’s departure, his vacant training ground parking space and dressing room peg could be allocated to Héctor Moreno, the Espanyol centre-back whom Arsenal scouts monitored as his side beat Valencia in the Copa del Rey on Tuesday night. In a further attempt to strengthen their porous defence, the Gunners are also being linked with the 22-year-old Genoa goalkeeper Mattia Perin.

With the long term future of Radamel Falcao at Manchester United looking increasingly bleak, Serie A leaders Juventus are rumoured to be preparing a bid to bring the Colombian to Turin in the summer. The striker is on loan at Old Trafford from Monaco and his agent Jorge Mendes stated the £40m-rated striker “will play in one of the very best clubs in the world next season, whether that is Manchester United or not”.

Manchester City want to bring Southampton’s Jay Rodriguez to the Etihad and the Premier League champions will outspend Tottenham and Liverpool in their efforts to do so. A figure of £20m is being mentioned in conjunction with that potential deal and could fund a Southampton move for the £15m-rated Braga and Portugal midfielder Rafa Silva. The Daily Express reports that City have also invited their sister club New York City FC to come and experience the myriad delights of their opulent Etihad training campus next month in what is the paper describes as an “attempt to smooth over relations” in the wake of the hoo-ha prompted by the murky behind-the-scenes shenanigans surrounding Frank Lampard’s non-move to the Big Apple.

Alan Pardew is hoping to bring out-of-favour Liverpool full-back Jose Enrique to Crystal Palace on loan, while Brendan Rodgers will bring the Argentinian grafter Ezequiel Lavezzi to Anfield from PSG for a bargain £8m. At the Hawthorns, Tony Pulis is set to show Greek striker Georgios Samaras the door and replace him with Blackburn’s 26-year-old French striker Rudy Gestede, who is just a year into the three-and-a-half-year contract he signed at Ewood Park last January.

Not content with citing Irish Puskas award nominee Stephanie Roche as “the woman who made Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi see eye to eye” Spanish daily Marca has declared that West Ham are anxious to make the stay of midfield enforcer Alex Song at the Boleyn Ground permanent. The former Cameroon international is on loan from Barcelona, but is also wanted by Manchester United.

And finally, Stoke City are to offer Peter Crouch improved terms to keep him at the Britannia in a state of affairs that could come as a blow to QPR manager and noted “Crouchie” admirer Harry Redknapp, who is rumoured to be facing the sack if his team lose against Manchester United this weekend.

Guardian