Top Stories

Thursday Ticker: Spurs want Morata as part of Real’s Bale bid; Lewandowski feels “cheated” by Dortmund; and more

AlvaroMorata (Getty Images)

By JUSTIN FERGUSON

After agreeing to a deal for Valencia’s Roberto Soldado, Tottenham Hotspur are looking at another Spanish forward to come to White Hart Lane—if they send Gareth Bale to Real Madrid in a world-record move.

Reports in England indicate Tottenham want Real Madrid to add the highly-touted Alvaro Morata to their bid for star winger Gareth Bale. Real Madrid have already made a record €100 million ($132 million) for the defending PFA Player of the Year.

Although the extraordinary cash offer was not enough to get Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy to accept, Real have shown a willingness to offer players from their deep roster to make the move happen.

Even though Real have made Fabio Coentrao and Angel Di Maria available as part of the transfer, Tottenham reportedly want Morata. The 20-year-old won the Golden Boot during Spain’s title run at this summer’s UEFA Under-21 Championship and is heralded as the “number nine of the future” at the Bernabeu.

Here are some more stories to get you through your Thursday:

LEWANDOWSKI FEELS “CHEATED” BY DORTMUND

The drama surrounding Robert Lewandowski’s potential move from Borussia Dortmund to rivals Bayern Munich took an interesting turn following a recent interview, but Dortmund management still believes the striker will stay and perform well for them this season.

Lewandowski recently told a newspaper in his home country of Poland that he has felt “cheated” by Dortmund this summer. Dortmund, who fell to Bayern in the UEFA Champions League final in may, rejected a transfer bid from the defending champions earlier in the transfer window.

“No matter how hard I will train and what I will do, the feeling that I’ve been cheated will still be there,” Lewandowski told Rzeczpospolita earlier this week.

Despite Lewandowski’s comments, Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp told German media that he felt like the Polish striker would play well for the club in the final year of his contract. Lewandowski, who reportedly turned down a large pay raise with Dortmund, was an active threat on Bayern’s defense during Dortmund’s German Super Cup win last Saturday.

“For me what he does is a thousand times more important than what he says because what he does needs no interpretation,” Klopp said on Thursday. “I am convinced we will clear up everything in the coming days.”

MARCHISIO WANTS TO END CAREER AT JUVENTUS

After receiving attention from defending EPL champions Manchester United and free-spending Monaco, Juventus midfielder Claudio Marchisio told reporters that he would like to end his career with his boyhood club—but anything can happen in the world transfer market.

“My dream is to still end my career with Juventus,” Marchisio said on Thursday. “Even if I know that in football, you never know.”

On Wednesday, reports in England indicated that Manchester United were going to submit a £26 million ($39.5 million) bid for Marchisio as a move for Barcelona’s Cesc Fabregas looks more unlikely by the day.

The 27-year-old Italian international, currently in the United States for the International Champions Cup, has been a part of the Juventus system since he was seven years old. After a successful loan to Empoli in the 2007-08 season, Marchisio has become one of the fan favorites with the defending Italian champions.

ITALIAN CLUB SASSULO, MILAN’S CONSTANT FINED AFTER LATEST RACIAL ABUSE INCIDENT

For AC Milan, 2013 has had several notorious incidents of racial abuse against their own players, from Kevin Prince-Boateng in January to Mario Balotelli in May.

On Thursday, fines were handed down in the latest incident to affect Milan’s black players.

Officials of the Italian league fined U.S. Sassuolo €30,000 ($40,000) for “racially discriminatory chants” during a friendly against AC Milan last month. Milan’s Kevin Constant, a French-born Guinean player, was fined the same amount for kicking the ball into the stands and walking off the field after hearing the chants.

Fans of Sassuolo, who will join Milan in Serie A for the first time this season after winning Serie B, chanted at Constant while he took a throw-in during the friendly. Police officers sitting nearby reportedly joined in the abuse of Constant.

QUICK KICKS

Fernando Gago, who signed with Real Madrid for €20 million ($26.4 million) in 2006, has returned to Argentina’s Boca Juniors in a €1.7 million ($2.2 million) move from Valencia. (REPORT)

Barcelona have confirmed that winger Cristian Tello has extended his contract through the 2018 season. (REPORT)

Scottish club Hearts has been hit with another transfer embargo, this one lasting until February 2014. (REPORT)

The official 2014 World Cup countdown clock in Rio De Janeiro has been stuck on 365 days remaining for the past several weeks. (REPORT)

New Atalanta midfielder Giulio Migliaccio is currently under investigation by the Italian football federation for allegedly helping club supporters run over two cars with a tank. (REPORT)

————

What do you think of these reports? See Real Madrid offering Morata as part of their bid for Bale? Agree with Lewandowski’s comments? Think Marchisio will stay at Juventus this summer?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

    • Joe, when did you lose your grip on reality? The second that levy got past the $$$ and on to additional players, he indicated tobeveryone that this deal is going to happen.

      Reply
    • The guardian is great… They never post rumors on the main site.
      They do however have a daily page that is full of your stand transfer bs. Its worth reading just for comedies sake.(They don’t take it seriously)

      I would love to know what newpaper you consider better than the guardian for football joe.

      Reply
  1. Think Levy smashing Spurs’ transfer fee for signing Soldado is only because he knows he’s going to get a boatload of money for Bale?

    And, am I the only one who thinks that it’s a bit premature to offer that kinda money for Bale? I mean, he’s clutch for sure but one injury and who knows, maybe he won’t recover. Also, my friends in Wales assure me his wife (who just had a new son) is a huge homebody. I think she might still live in Wales because London might be too different for her (but I’m not sure about this, I don’t read about WAGS or Brit tabloids at all).

    I hope Deuce has a good relationship with AVB. I think he stays and competes like hell for his spot. If he isn’t getting playing time come December, he’ll have to talk to Jurgen about what to do, he needs to play but he also needs to stay healthy for Brazil(cautiously not counting chickens yet….but don’t think we’ll implode)

    Reply
    • I think if Dempsey stays at Spurs he will definitely be playing. The question is, where is that playing time coming from? Premier league games? Tournament games? Starter or sub or mixed?

      Reply
  2. I truly wish another Spanish club like Atletico or Sevilla could get their shite together and knock Madrid and Barca down a few pegs. Would be so much fun to see them to spend such ridiculous sums of money and fail. Even better, have one of them miss the Champion’s League, but that may require a satanic ritual and the selling of souls, possibly my own, to make that happen which I’m unprepared to do.

    Reply
  3. do NOT give up Morata! this is ridiculous. we don’t need Bale! and he is NOT worth that much money. this is ridiculous!

    Reply
  4. According to Italy: responding negatively to racial abuse is now just as bad as racially abusing a player. I’m sure $4,000 means a lot more to an individual than a club as well. C’mon Europe, do something about this. If USA can deal with an openly gay player with no incidents (that I’m aware of) can’t Europe cope with black guys (many of which play very well for their respective EUROPEAN national teams)?

    Reply
  5. F*ck……reading about European spending cash on top talent and MLS can’t not even sign drogba or ronaldinho or even tevez. With expansion to 24 clubs, things should definitely change. I’m still saying MLS goes for 26 or 28 teams with even conferences but if I was garber, I would go for 28 teams BUT teams number 27 & 28 are division 2, and the ones that get promoted and relegated and no MLS team gets relegated.

    Reply
    • So teams 27 and 28 would be in their own 2-team Division 2 league? That sounds like an exciting rivalry would develop with them playing each other every week.

      Reply
      • No, they play in mls as normal mls teams but sincemls teams can not be relegated until years pass by n owners agree on it. So, like i said, garber should make it a 28 team league. Having an even number in each conference, but lets say team 27 and 28 are reserving spots for Nasl teams starting in 2022, one for the east and one for the west. Then, which ever team that was promoted to mls, has the lowest points earned in two seasons, will be promoted to nasl and another nasl team takes their spot. Since mls teams paid a huge amount to join mls, no mls team will be relegated until owners agree on a full relegation of mls teams.
        I think this is a good way, to START promotion and relegation in america. On the other hand, no way a promoted nasl team wins mls cup in the first season ir second and mls teams will be at a different level. But i repeat, this is a good wsy to START promotion and relegation and nasl teams will have to open their wallets if they want promotion. I think this method can be put into use as soon as 2018.

      • Remember no mls team is relegated until owners agree. So the 2 nasl teams who go to east or west, will be battling who makes the most points in 2 seasons, if not u go down and replaced by another nasl team. Simple and smooth, and good way to start promotion and relegation in america. If nasl implement west and east asap, it will really help this method of promotion and relegation.

      • If they can’t win, they why bother? Just because? Why add teams to the league who have no chance of competing?

        Also, since you’re so pro-rel. here’s a thought experiment. DC united (of which I am a season ticket holder for many years) was able halfway through this season to basically burn the team down and start rebuilding. They traded some veterans, cut some others an acquired young talent. Everyone knows that this is about getting better next year, and the year after. You could never do that in a relegation league, it would be suicide. relegation rewards mediocrity, punishes rebuilding and keeps leagues as oligarchies. So yeah, it works?

    • That makes no sense, that’s not how promotion/relegation works. What if one of those division 2 teams won the league, and you had an MLS team performing like DC United is this season – the D2 team could be relegated but the MLS team would stay up?

      For promotion/relegation to work, it has to apply to every team involved in every league in the ladder. For example, hypothetically, let’s say MLS and USL formed a promotion/relegation system. The bottom 4 or whatever teams at the end of MLS would move down to the second division league (USL, in this case), and an equal number of teams from the top of the USL standings at season’s end would play the following season in MLS. Promotion/relegation isn’t viable if teams are “protected”.

      Reply
      • If a team that was “visiting” the MLS had players that could drive that team to the top of the league, every team in the MLS would start paying some transfer fees.

        Of course that team would then come crashing down since their player pool was cherry picked, hopefully they could grab some academy kids in the process to ensure some playing time.

    • I agree, that’s getting a little greedy. If Spurs aren’t careful they may be ‘stuck’ with Bale. If you’re offering Di Maria to me plus that record fee, I’d take it and run if I’m Spurs.

      Reply
      • The 100 mil Euro transfer fee would probably go a long way towards Di Maria’s wages. Seriously, that guy shreds. He gets overshadowed by CR, but he would tear it up in England. I would trade Angel + 100 Mil for Bale in a heartbeat.

      • That’s not what they are offering. They are offering like 30-40 plus two players that they value at 60-70 making the “package” worth 100. The two players are overpaid and can’t crack the starting lineup. It stops sounding good the more you think about it.

      • Di Maria should not be let go. he is a fantastic player. i wouldn’t trade him for Bale + a ton of money. coentrao, that’s another story.

Leave a Comment