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Gossip: Liverpool 'target £100m Bailey', Arsenal and Reds 'battle for Butland', Allardyce 'face sack'
The Premier League is great and all that, but one does frequently get the sense that Premier League club chairman are the least intelligent in the world.
Sure, they’ve got more money than anyone else, but all they essentially do is waste it. They pay obscene wages and exorbitant transfer fees, but offer very little in terms of actual business acumen.
The case of Leon Bailey is a perfect illustration. When West Ham United wanted a striker last season, they went for tried and tested yet ageing Bayer Leverkusen man Javier Hernandez. The Hammers are currently paying the Mexican £140,000 a week and he has scored seven goals this season.
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Leverkusen, meanwhile, reinvested the £16m they received for the Little Pea in 20-year-old Genk forward Bailey. He is on a lot less than £140,000 a week, has scored 10 goals this season and is now valued at £100m.
And who’s going to pay that kind of money for him? Premier League clubs, of course!
The Sunday People reports that Liverpool have turned their attentions to the highly rated Jamaican as an alternative to Thomas Lemar (cost Monaco £4m, now valued at £90m). The Reds are expected to face competition from Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham for Bailey, who is now regarded as “the Bundesliga’s hottest property”.
But if any of those clubs had shown just a little bit of imagination and financial nous last summer, they could have bought Bailey for £16m and saved themselves a lot of bother. (And yes, Bailey is a winger while Hernandez is a striker. But you can still bet West Ham wish they’d taken the Jamaican.)
Gunners and Reds chase £40m Butland
Liverpool and Arsenal are also set to compete for another player, with the Sun on Sunday claiming both clubs are keen on Stoke City goalkeeper Jack Butland.
Between them, Petr Cech, Simon Mignolet and Loris Karius have made enough mistakes this season to convince both Arsene Wenger and Jurgen Klopp to target the 24-year-old Englishman.
Butland hasn’t exactly been in sparkling form himself, but that evidently hasn’t affected his transfer market value. The Gunners and Reds and both reportedly prepared to pay £40m for him.
Another man who could be leaving Merseyside this summer is Michael Keane, who the Sunday Mirror says will be “dumped” by Everton just a year after making a £30m move from Burnley. The Toffees are now ready to take a “big financial hit” on the 25-year-old centre-back, if anyone still wants him.
Not that it will be of any great concern to his manager Sam Allardyce, because Everton are also allegedly planning to get rid of him.
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The Mail on Sunday says Big Sam will shown the door in the summer, despite guiding the Toffees to mid-table security, and replaced by Shakhtar Donetsk boss Paulo Fonseca. Oh well, at least Sam can console himself with yet another multi-million pound survival bonus.
Elsewhere, Chelsea want Antonio Conte to stay at Stamford Bridge until the summer and leave “by mutual consent” rather than sacking him now (Sunday Telegraph), Tottenham are confident that Mauricio Pochettino will stay with the club despite interest from Real Madrid (Sunday People) and former England gaffer Steve McClaren is fronting a group of seriously rich “mystery backers” who want to buy a football club (Sun on Sunday). The only condition is that Schteve wants to play the theme tune, sing the theme tune and be the manager.
