Football transfer rumours: Carl Jenkinson to Liverpool?
Here, then, are the edited highlights, presented in News at Ten-style headline format: BONG! "Brendan Rodgers faces a battle to convince Sterling he should stay at Anfield." BONG! "Walcott is aware his career is stalling at Arsenal." BONG! "A swap deal looks increasingly like being the best solution for all sides." BONG! We actually don't have any more to say! And, well, that's it. Liverpool, they conclude, could expect Arsenal to cough up £20m in cash plus the whippet-heeled Arsenal and England forward in exchange for the nimble-toed Sterling. And while the two clubs are on the blower setting up that unlikely exchange, they can chat about Carl Jenkinson as well. Even though the Arsenal full-back, currently on loan at West Ham, doesn't seem a natural fit for the bustling all-action right-flank role into which Sterling, Jordan Henderson, Adam Lallana and Lazar Markovic have all been shoehorned at times this season, he is widely reported as being on Liverpool's radar all the same, what with Glen Johnson being on his way out this summer and all that. The Hammers would love to sign him on a permanent deal, the player having dropped down an Emirates pecking order he was never really at the top of, but Liverpool's interest - assuming it hasn't just been invented - could derail their bid. "I don't want to have another season sitting on the bench," the 23-year-old said at some point. "I've realised that I'm happiest when I'm playing regular football." In which case life as Johnson's replacement might not exactly appeal. All these Arsenal-based rumours, readers, come less than a day after Arsène Wenger said his club would no longer be providing the likes of the Mill with our daily fodder. "We are no longer in a position where we have to sell our best players," he said (Jenkinson might sneak through a loophole here). "In the past we had restricted finances and we had to sell our players just when they were starting to perform. Now we have a good balance and good financial potential. There is no pressure to sell." The tussle for Tom Cleverley has already begun, with Roberto Martínez - who worked with the player during a season-long loan at Wigan back in the day - having allegedly made him Everton's No1 summer target (a status that, according to the Manchester Evening News, might instead go to Adnan Januzaj, also a potential target for Paris St-Germain and David Moyes' Real Sociedad, but we digress). What's certain is that the Merseyside giants will have plenty of competition for the England midfielder, what's not certain is who it might be: Hull, West Ham, West Brom and Aston Villa are on the Sun's list of suitors, while the Mirror don't rate West Brom's chances, say that Villa have already been ruled out, and add Sunderland and Tottenham to the mix. As for Spurs, already rumoured to have completed a deal for Köln's Kevin Wimmer, they are linked with another German centre-back today in the shape of Schalke's Benedikt Höwedes, according to The Guardian .
PSV Eindhoven have insisted that the Manchester United target Memphis Depayshould stay at the club, and admitted that someone else should buy him, all in one only mildly puzzling sentence. "The chances are very high that he leaves," said director Marcel Brands. "When I talk for PSV I would say he is not ready and should continue here for another year, but I am realistic and if I worked at a big European club, I would buy him without question." Where exactly this leaves the 21-year-old winger, other than in a state of some confusion, remains to be seen.
