Advertisement

Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Chelsea ‘scupper’ Man Utd Gabigol plans, Balotelli ‘set for Port Vale’

Gabigol. On the name alone, he’s worth buying. No one, surely, would be nicknamed Gabigol if scoring “gols” wasn’t a big part of what they do. It’s a goal guarantee, you pay extra for it. Like buying a M&S beef lasagne instead of an Aldi one. You know the beef will be beef. That’s why Manchester United were apparently ready to bid £30m for the player otherwise known as Gabriel Barbosa.

Except the Express says that Chelsea have “scuppered” Gabigol’s move to Old Trafford in a very weird way.

According to the paper, Blues “officials” have met with the president of Santos, Barbosa’s club, in London. But they didn’t make an offer for the player, they just told the president that no club in England would want to buy Gabigol. And now the president is sad, because he thought he was going to get £30m from Man Utd for the 19-year-old striker.

It seems odd that Chelsea would meet this president just for the purpose of upsetting him in this way. It’s almost as if they did it entirety out of spite, like when you’re eight years old and you try to stop a girl you fancy getting together with your mate by telling her that he thinks she’s ugly when he doesn’t.

Anyway, whether it’s true or not, the Express says that Santos’ president wholeheartedly swallowed the Chelsea chiefs’ version of events, evidently believing them to be trustworthy English gentleman like Hugh Grant and Prince Andrew. So despite all this alleged interest in Gabigol from United and Leicester and others, the poor guy has gone back to Brazil believing “the clubs aren’t interested”. Ridiculous!

But if you think that story is stupid, wait until you hear what the Sun has come with. They are literally reporting - through the medium of a man named Wally Downes Junior - that Mario Balotelli is going to sign for Port Vale.

We haven’t got time to get into all the reasons why they are saying this, but in a nutshell it’s because Jose Mourinho is mates with Port Vale’s manager and is also - apparently - mates with Balotelli. He’s just decided to help them both out because he’s nice like that.

And if Super Mario doesn’t sign for Port Vale, the Sun says he will sign for Wolves instead. Mourinho is mates with them too. Hot Football Transfer Gossip is not making this up.

Moving back to the land of reality - and a cold, hard version of it - Joe Hart has told his Manchester City team-mates that he will leave the club before the end of the transfer window (Mirror). Everton and Sevilla are still the only clubs that appear to want him.

Cesc Fabregas, however, is set to stay at Chelsea and fight for his place despite growing evidence that Blues boss Antonio Conte doesn’t think he’s very good (Standard).

Elsewhere, the Blues are once again being tipped to make a “mega bid” (that’s £40m) for Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly (Mirror), Arsene Wenger’s managerial career will hit a new low as West Brom reject his bid for Jonny Evans (Sun) and Southampton manager Claude Puel says Jose Fonte has “not been affected” by Manchester United’s interest in him (Mail). Although that could mean he wanted to join them before, and he still does.

@darlingkevin