SOCCER NEWS ROUND-UP:THE WEST Ham United co-owner David Sullivan will seek a "substantial" loan fee before he is prepared to let Scott Parker go on a season's loan to Chelsea, where the England international has been earmarked as a short-term replacement for the injured Michael Essien.
Essien has been ruled out until February at the earliest after undergoing surgery on a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament and torn meniscus in his right knee.
That has prompted Andre Villas-Boas to explore adding to his options in midfield, with the manager conscious that he can register only 17 non-homegrown players in his 25-man squad. In that sense, a temporary move for Parker, ahead of a pursuit of a player such as Newcastle’s Cheik Tiote, would be beneficial.
It may also be relatively cost effective, with Chelsea prepared to cover the 30-year-old’s €80,000-a-week wages, provided agreement can be reached on the size of the loan fee.
West Ham are understood to be seeking around €4.5 million, citing the example of the €1.15 million they paid to Tottenham Hotspur for the six-month loan of Robbie Keane last season and arguing that Parker is worth substantially more than the Republic of Ireland captain. Chelsea, however, would be prepared to pay only around €1.7 million, meaning the cost of the deal would be €5.7 million including wages.
Compromise could yet be reached in time for Parker, who is at West Ham’s pre-season training camp in Switzerland, to conclude a deal before Chelsea depart for a four-game tour of Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong on Sunday.
Chelsea could yet return to Porto to secure their Colombian striker Radamel Falcao, whose release clause is set at €30 million though the Portuguese club’s president, Pinto da Costa, is confident his club could recover from the loss of any key players, the Brazilian Hulk aside.
“If 10 players leave I have replacements for each one of them,” he added. “There is only one who I don’t have a replacement for, who is Hulk. If a player such as Alvaro Pereira or Falcao left, FC Porto would continue to play in the same style. But as there is no player with the same characteristics as Hulk, our game would have to change.”
Meanwhile, Jack Wilshere and Xavi have waded into the debate over Cesc Fabregas’s future, with the player still the subject of a transfer wrangle between Arsenal and Barcelona.
The Arsenal skipper is a long-standing target of Barca, where he played his football as a boy before joining the Gunners in 2003, although the clubs have still not been able to agree a fee for the player.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said on Monday he was hopeful Fabregas would line up again for the Premier League club next season, and teenage midfielder Wilshere called the Spain international a “role model” and claimed his skipper proved last summer he was a “real man” by remaining loyal to the club.
He said: “Loyalty is a big part of football and it shows if you are a real man or not.
“We have got loyalty at Arsenal – players have shown that in the past. Cesc showed that last year and hopefully a few more players can show it this year. Then we will see if we can get a trophy or not.
“We have to keep our best players if we want to win things.”
However, Barcelona midfielder Xavi, who revealed he had been in contact with Fabregas, said the Arsenal man had told him he has been “suffering” because of his desire to rejoin the Catalan club.
Xavi told Barcelona’s official website: “I spoke to Cesc in Ibiza and he said he was suffering because he wanted to come. It’s more like, he did everything he could to come and wants to leave Arsenal – although he made it clear that now everything depends on the selling club.”
Guardian Service
