The final death throes of a poxy transfer window – for Arsenal fans at least – draws to a close with a burst of frenetic linking activity.
The Sun has a double header – with Tevez to Arsenal – Mascherano to Man United. Maybe the wrong way round for Arsenal fans.
It says Tevez was swung by the proposed five year contract and the fact he prefers London to Manchester – despite less money on the table from Arsenal. It says he's in London at the moment negotiating, while elsewhere he's in Paris.
The Daily Star sees it completely differently with Man U favourites to land the Argentine star Tevez – as a replacement for van Nistelroy.
Sister paper, the Daily Express, has an exlusive by Harry Harris – that Arsenal will land Julio Baptista – with Reyes going the other way – after Atletico upped their offer to £13.5m.
But wait…The Guardian says Arsenal will make a final effort to land Franck Ribery, if the Reyes deal goes through who says he wants to stay at Marseilles [err three weeks ago].
Some merky details emerge over both the Reyes and Cole deals. The Telegraph claims Arsenal's demand started at £30m and was dropped to £20m, while Chelsea were prepared to pay £20, but took it back to £16m when they discovered Arsenal were prepared to sell Cole to other clubs for less. [I ask you, the club with the biggest carbon footprint in the world refusing to pay a carbon tax for Cole – whatever next?].
A negotiator was brought in who suggested William Gallas a part exchange. It appears Chelsea were upset by Arsenal's valuation of £5m and suggested a straight swap, which upset Arsenal. And so on.
The Times has a different take, saying if the Cole deal hasn't gone through, then Chelsea will be chuckling to themslves, as Arsenal potentially have an unhappy player on their hands – and unhappy players cause unhappy dressing rooms. Forgetting of course William Gallas on the other side. Roll on the UEFA recommendations for transfers in their May report.
On Reyes, Atletico are proposing to pay euros 16m up front, with the rest in annual instalments over four years dependent on them qualifying for the Champions League, which will match the 20m euros Arsenal are demanding.
Reyes has reportedly signed an agreement with Atletico, committing himself to the club in the event of leaving Arsenal. The agreement apparently says that should he leave Arsenal and join a club other than Atletico, he would be liable to pay them a euros 3m penalty. So one way to punish him would be to sell him to another club.
Meanwhile, sounder news: Tomas Rosicky has been elected captain of the Czech Republic team by his team-mates for the duration of the Euro 2008 qualifiers.
Kilmarnock's young striker Steven Naismith, who was on trial at Arsenal the last two days, returned to Scotland last night and is waiting and see if Arsenal make a move for him before tomorrow's transfer deadline. Who knows, given past history, it could be the only one that goes through.