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HOT FOOTBALL GOSSIP: Higuain, Hernandez, Carroll, Perez
Do you fully understand the enormous power of Martin Keown? Not many people do. Diego Costa probably didn’t - in fact he has probably never heard of Martin Keown - but he is finding out the hard way about the man’s sweeping influence on English football. All it took was for Keown to say a couple of unflattering things about Costa on Match of the Day and, suddenly, the Spanish Brazilian is the root of Chelsea’s problems. It’s natural that the finger of blame would wind its way towards the Blues’ attackers eventually. At first it pointed accusingly at defenders John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic, then midfielders Cesc Fabregas and Nemanja Matic copped it, while Jose Mourinho has also been consistently blamed. But disappointingly none of them been dropped or sacked, so now it’s Costa’s turn, and that means Chelsea are being linked exclusively with new strikers.
The most exciting is Gonzalo Higauin, the Napoli centre-forward who has been in fine fettle this season, scoring nine goals in 11 league games. The Mirror says the Argentine, a former target for Arsenal, is high on Mourinho’s “wish list” for next summer.
But Martin Keown thinks the Blues need a striker sooner than that, and the name being bandied about to sate him by ESPN is Javier Hernandez. The Little Bean, or whatever he’s called, only left Man Utd for Bayer Leverkusen in the summer, but ESPN’s “sources” think the Blues could swoop for him in January. The same sources believe Valencia’s 22-year-old Paco Alcacer is another striker on Chelsea’s radar. Whoever they sign, it shouldn’t be difficult to overhaul Costa’s record of two league goals this season, one behind the Blues’ top scorer, Mr Own Goals, who has three.
A striker who Chelsea haven’t been linked with - yet - is West Ham’s allegedly fit-again Andy Carroll, who the Mirror reports could be heading back to his native north-east in January. Newcastle boss Steve McClaren apparently wants Carroll to “spearhead the Magpies’ climb up the table” - presumably for a fraction of the £35m the club sold him for.
This move makes more sense in the context of Newcastle’s Spanish forward Ayoze Perez continuing to be linked with a January move to Man Utd and Arsenal (the Telegraph) along with Tottenham and Man City (the Star). Liverpool’s alleged pursuit of Corinthians forward Alexandre Pato is another one that won’t go away, with the Independent reporting that the Reds have reached an “agreement in principle” with the Brazilian over a January move.
Finally, Louis van Gaal’s recent comments about needing a winger have prompted the Daily Mail to speculate wildly about United signing every wide man under the sun, including Southampton’s Sadio Mane, Leicester’s Riyad Mahrez and Lazio’s Felipe Anderson.
