Football transfer rumours: Iker Casillas to Arsenal?
Stunning work. Classic Wenger, if you like; not giving a flying eff about what others think. The King of Contrary. So when Arsenal need a steady presence in goal to shore up a defence collectively recovering from traumatic flashbacks to high-profile maulings at Anfield and Stamford Bridge last season, who does he go for? Of course, a man who is recovering from a traumatic flashback to a high-profile mauling in an even higher-profile setting, one Iker Casillas. A goalkeeper who has forgotten how to keep. A keeper who Real Madrid deem not worthy of keeping. He'll hand him a five-year deal worth £1.4m per season too. Did you see that one coming? No, the Mill didn't. And, as is the way with Casillas these days, he probably didn't either, Kazinform quotes the Guardian. Elsewhere, Liverpool suits are hoping to wave £42m around outside Juventus Stadium in the hope that Arturo Vidal will be bundled out of the door after the player ruled out a move to Manchester United. If he does appear, he'll join the queue of new Liverpool players waiting outside Wirral estate agents. Canny José Mourinho is going to fill the void left by the departure of 36-year-old Chelsea legend Frank Lampard with 36-year-old Chelsea legend Didier Drogba. "We want to win matches and win titles and Didier is one of the best strikers in Europe," cooed Mourinho. "We are thinking about it in a non-emotional way." Never go back Didier, never go back. And Marko Marin, who is still a Chelsea player apparently, will go on loan to Besiktas. Andy Carroll is knacked again. So West Ham will sign the tallest striker they can to replace him. Monaco's Lacina Traoré, at 6ft 8in, is top of Big Sam's Big-Man list but Peter Crouch is also considered Big-Man enough to be able to chest the ball down to Kevin Nolan at least 38 times per game. It's another day. So, of course, Manchester United are linked with another Dutch international. Today's Dutch international is Memphis Depay, the 20-year-old PSV Eindhoven left-winger who they may buy and loan out immediately in the kind of deal that proved so successful with Wilfried Zaha. Meanwhile, Diego Simeone wants to pay £15m to have Javier Hernández warm the Atlético Madrid bench for 70 minutes of each match next season instead of Internazionale's. Leicester, Crystal Palace and QPR want to attach some jump-leads to Lewis Holtby, a one-time hot-hatch who stalled spectacularly in 2013, and loan him for a season from Spurs. Ronald Koeman wants to begin plugging some of the holes in his leakySouthampton squad by firing £10m the way of Celtic for the Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk before then fluttering his eyelashes the way of Feyenoord's midfielder Jordy Clasie. And Roberto Martínez has finally got in touch with Bill Kenwright, who has a habit of going missing in summer transfer windows, and asked him to part with some Everton beans for the Bosnia and Ferencvaros midfielder Muhamed Besic.
