Let’s have a look at what’s happening in the transfer rumours today.

The story that immediately got my attention was the one linking Manchester United with an audacious bid for Liverpool’s Spanish striker Fernando Torres. The Sunday Express claim that Fergie will use most of the 80 million Pounds they made from the Ronaldo sale to bring Torres to old Trafford.

The story has no real substance though, there’s not even a sign of the usual “source close to the club revealed this” nonsense that the papers usually use when making up stories. This is clearly a bullshit story because there is no way in hell Liverpool would sell any of their best players to their arch rivals (and vice versa – remember Heinze?). Hell they wouldn’t even sell Djimi Traore to the Red Devils. Got to love lazy journos…

Speaking of the Red Devils, they have apparently been told that highly rated French striker Karim Benzema would not be for sale. The £35m-rated Benzema has been one of Ferguson’s targets for a couple of season’s now but according to The Mirror, Lyon won’t be selling their start striker after the club failed to win the League 1 title for the first time in seven years. “Our idea is to keep Karim for another season,” said Bernard Lacombe, Lyon’s transfer’s adviser.

Carlos Tevez will follow Ronaldo out of old Trafford after the Argentine striker reportedly agreed terms with Manchester City. The Mirror reports that Tevez is close to signing a whopping £140,000-a-week deal with Mark Hughes’ Manchester City as soon as his loan deal with United expires at the end of June. Looks like United will be without two of their best attacker’s next season.

One player who was not quite so keen on joining the Billionaires at the City of Manchester Stadium is Barcelona’s hitman Samuel Eto’o. The Cameroonian striker reportedly turned down a £160,000 offer from City, in favour of playing Champions League football, leaving Chelsea, Liverpool and Inter Milan to fight it out for his services according to The People.

In other stories, Real Madrid are set to add French winger Franck Ribery to their growing list of Galacticos (stars) after reportedly promising Ribery that they will sign him next season (with Benzema reportedly also promised a similar deal). A similar promise was made to Ronaldo so it should not be taken lightly. News of The World reports that Real can’t afford to break the £50m barrier again this pre-season after the £80m deal for Cristiano Ronaldo, but they have made assurances to Frenchman that if he hangs on he will be their big signing next summer.

Real are also reportedly still interested in adding Inter Milan’s Swedsh striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic to their list of stars at the Bernabeu but according to The Times the Madrid giants have been shocked by Inter’s price tag rumoured to be in the region of £80m. This was enough to end Barca’s interest in the striker but Perez usually gets what he wants and is reportedly tabling a player plus cash bid for Zlatan, with Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain moving to Inter.

Liverpool may be in danger on losing out on their Argentine defensive midfielder Javier Mascherano after the player threatened to leave the Merseyside giants. The News of the World reports “exclusively” that Mascherano is considering ditching Liverpool for Spanish Champions Barcelona due to the fact that his pregnant wife has failed to settle in England. She returned to South America with the couple’s daughter Lola before the end of last season and it is believed that she would be more comfortable in the Spanish capital. I find this quite laughable to be honest but there are rumours that Barca are preparing a £30million bid for the tough tackling Argentine captain.

Finally, Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly lining up a bid for Bayern Munich’s Italian striker Luca Toni while Manchester United are looking at bringing Barcelona keeper Victor Valdes to Old Trafford as a long term replacement for the ageing Edwin Van Der Sar.

Silly season indeed…

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

I was watching Bafana Coach Joel Santana speaking at a press conference on Thursday after he had announced his 23 man squad for next week’s Fifa Confederations Cup and it was quite concerning hearing what the coach had to say when questioned about South Africa’s opening match opponents, Iraq.

When members of the media questioned Santana about The Iraqi team his response was brief: “They are a good team with lot’s of tall players, they have a tall striker, number 5″. Not exactly what I would call in-depth analysis but it could be that Santana’s analysis was lost in translation. Being the curious football fan that I am I decided to do some investigation to see what I could find out about our opponents on Sunday.

Iraq are probably more famous for their wars than their football but they managed to pull of a huge surprise when they beat Saudi Arabia 1-0 in the finals of the AFC Cup back in 2007 , which sparked mass celebrations in the war torn country. Their Asian Cup victory earned them a place in the Confederations Cup ,although they were in danger of missing out after FIFA provisionally suspended the Iraq Football Association from competition for one year, following a decision by the Iraqi government to disband the country’s national sports federations. However the decision was overturned by FIFA on May 29, 2008, since the Iraqi government reversed its earlier decision in dissolving the Iraq Football Association.

So they aren’t exactly a super power of World Football, and this is confirmed by their current Fifa ranking of 77th in the world, five places below South Africa. Majority of their players are based in Iraq, with only two players plying their trade in Europe. Coincidentally both of them are midfielders, Nashat Akram (the number 5 Santana was referring to) plays for Dutch First Division side FC Twente while right winger Hawar Mulla Mohammed plays for Cypriot Champions Anorthosis FC.

Hawar will definitely be the danger man for Iraq as he his rated as arguably the best player in the Iraqi National side after racking up an impressive tally of 15 goals in 71 appearances for the National side, which makes him a real goal threat from midfield. In fact he has even been credited with scoring the goal of the century(according to Iraqi fans) after he scored with an esquisite lob from well inside his own half.

Up front the Iraqis will be relying on captain Younis Mahmoud, and his strike partner Ehmad Mohammed to bang in the goals.

In the coaching department the Iraqi’s have fired Brazilian coach Jorvan Vieira who lead them to the Asian Cup victory, after the teams poor showing at the Gulf Cup and their failure to qualify for the 2010 World Cup. However they have appointed a very experienced coach to take his place in the form of Serbian Bora Milutinovic. Milutinovic, who has coached five different teams at World Cup tournaments. Milutinovic was previously in charge of Jamaica but was let go in November 2007 over a contract dispute.

Iraq are not in the best of form at the moment either, with the country having thus far failed to pick up a single win in 2009, so you have to fancy a South Africa win on Sunday. I’m definitely looking forward to the opening match and hoping that our players will do our country proud as host.

Ashraf Stakala writes on the SA Football Fans blog.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News