THE FOOTBALL MARKET – Sanchez to China?

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Alexis Sanchez

On Wednesday the Alexis Sanchez rumours started to grow and ran for the rest of the week although details were scarce, suggesting the stories may all have been planted by his agent.  Sanchez was supposedly being offered £400,000 a week to play in China and wanted by a host of unnamed clubs. Headlines like “Contract talks with Arsenal stall” suggested he was having second thoughts about re-signing with the Gunners. English media including Gooner Talk, metro.co.uk, CaughtOffside, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express and the Daily Mirror, all reported.

On Thursday there was still a lot about Sanchez but still without details. The Irish Independent, The Boot Room and Arsenal Mania carried reports. Meanwhile on ITV Roy Keane was advising Sanchez against this move.  Anorak.co.uk added another strand to the story by headlining, “Chelsea too now after Sanchez.”

On Friday Arsenal were forced into making a statement despite the fact that Sanchez hadn’t uttered a word. “Wenger responds” was the headline on Arsenal Fever.

TheSportsBank.net confidently opined that they think Sanchez will not be going to China.

Carlos Tevez

 Fox Sports and goal.com reported that Carlos Tevez was considering a move from Boca Juniors to Shanghai Shenhua. 

On Thursday goal. com was quoting Shenhua manager Gus Poyet who said that, “It would be a pleasure to see Tevez at Shenhua.” The English Daily Mail followed up with “Tevez to Shanghai Shenhua” on Friday.

Meanwhile, according to goal.com Shanghai Shenhua's technical director, Wu Jingui, has launched a scathing attack on big-money imports to the Chinese Super League but nonetheless says that the club are "pulling out all the stops" to sign Carlos Tevez.

On Saturday in Sports Mole, “Tevez says future undecided” and a day later Tevez was thinking of retirement according to the Daily Mirror.

Ki Sung-yueng

Chinese football clubs have reportedly offered "astronomical figures" for midfielder Ki Sung-yueng of Swansea City in the English Premier League claimed chosun.com. Hebei China Fortune Football Club and SIPG were mentioned. Wales Online and the South Wales Evening Post also carried this story. On Friday Ki again featured with a story in footballfancast.com, “Villas Boas to return to Premier League to pick up Swansea star.“

John Terry

The John Terry to China rumours re-emerged towards the end of the week in the English Daily and Sunday Express, “Huge January offer for star defender.” On Sunday the rumours continued in Sports Mole, “Shanghai Shenhua hoping to lure John Terry with £12m deal.” The UK Daily Star, West London Sport and Ninety Minutes Online all carried similar stories although the latter only had him earning £11.9m.

Sven Goren Eriksson

Early in the week there were many reports about Sven Goren Eriksson’s appointment as Shenzhen FC manager and this was carried by the likes of Reuters, ESPN.co.uk, Firstpost, BTsport, goal.com, FourFourTwo, ITV Sport, the Daily Mail, The Sporting Life, and Fox Sports. 

ON Tuesday there was more news on Eriksson with ESPN.co.uk revealing what he might expect at Shenzhen, china.org.cn ran with the headline “Eriksson takes charge at Shenzhen” while the Pakistan Observer declared, “Eriksson to lead 2nd tier club Shenzhen FC.”

The Milan Takeover

The long running saga of the Milan takeover by Chinese investors reappeared in the news on Tuesday. Football Italia had it that the deal would be postponed until February with another €100m deposit to be paid this week and it stated, ”there appears to be no sign of the Chinese government authorising the necessary transfer of funds from the country.”

There was more definite news about Milan the next day Wednesday as it was now confirmed that the deal was to be put back to March 3rd and not February as had been thought. The €100 million would still have to be paid. This news was carried by such as Reuters, FourFourTwo, EBL News, Gulf Today, Outside 90 and Vanguard, Nigeria.

Meanwhile Italian media outlet calciomercato.com reported that, ‘Nobody in China knows the AC Milan buyers.’ They were quoting former AC Milan boss Alberto Zaccheroni in an interview with Tuttosport.

Other rumours

There were less widely reported rumours about Hungarian international Nikolic Neimanya coming to China Fortune in chinafootballdaily.com. Leicester City striker Leonardo Ulloa was rumoured to be coming to China said www.sunderlandecho.com. Sport360.com claimed that a mega $11 million deal, to buy South Korean utility man Kwon Kyung-won is being negotiated by CSL new boys Tianjin Quanjian.

Then a couple of rare reports of foreign players actually considering leaving China as Brazilian media reported that Changchun Yatai’s Bolivia international striker Marcelo Moreno could return to his former club Cruzeiro in January. Likewise in goal.com it was rumoured that Nice are looking to bring former PSG star Ezequiel Lavezzi back to France from China.

On the managerial front The English Daily Star reported that, “Roy Hodgson is keen to return to management and has had several lucrative offers from China.” 

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