Jo in Toon loan rumour
The Mail reckons Jo is heading over the Pennines in an article that rounds up a few ongoing rumours; Wenger says it's no go-go on Kolo and there's reaction to our aborted trip to the south coast.
Daily Mail
"He’s struggling, but Newcastle go for Manchester City's Jo"
Newcastle are interested in taking Jo on loan from Manchester City until the end of the season, six months after the Brazil striker moved to Eastlands in an £18million deal.
Jo has scored just one Barclays Premier League goal and is being offered to several clubs, but there may be problems with a work permit. Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear has not ruled out reviving a swap deal with Middlesbrough involving Mido and Alan Smith.
If City boss Mark Hughes fails to land Newcastle goalkeeper Shay Given, he would consider a move for Chelsea's Carlo Cudicini.
Portsmouth have enquired about taking their former striker Benjani on loan from City. He will fall down the pecking order if Hughes signs Roque Santa Cruz and Craig Bellamy. City are waiting to hear from West Ham after raising their offer for Bellamy to £10m, but are pessimistic about landing his team-mate Scott Parker.
City could let Richard Dunne leave and Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp would welcome the opportunity to take him to White Hart Lane after showing interest in him for Pompey last summer.
The Independent
"Wenger shuts the door on any Arsenal departures"
Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, has put an end to talk of his central defender Kolo Touré joining Manchester City by insisting that no one will be leaving the club during the January transfer window. As for players joining the club, including the Russian forward Andrei Arshavin, the manager was a little more cryptic.
"We do not want to talk too much about who we want to buy," Wenger said. "At the moment I cannot give you any good news but in this job no news is good news. Nothing has fallen through. We are on alert in the transfer market."
"Nothing has fallen through" would suggest talks are ongoing over the deal with Zenit St Petersburg over the price for Arshavin, who has been linked with a move to Arsenal. The clubs are in disagreement over the price for the playmaker, with the Russian club asking for up to £20m.
Wenger also hinted that he was in the market for a defensive midfielder to bolster his injury-hit squad. "That is also a priority," he said. "We are not in the big league. We are a little short because we wanted a player like [Tomas] Rosicky to play 80 per cent of games and he has not played at all. We want to spend money but as everyone knows, and as the chairman has said, we have money available but we have limited resources, and you want to spend it in the best way possible.
"That [Touré story] is finished. We will not sell any players this month."
MEN
"Blues anger at icy Pompey"
CITY will discuss practical ways of helping their fans get to the rearranged fixture at Pompey after Saturday's Fratton Park contest fell victim to the cold snap.
Hundreds had left Manchester for the south coast before finding out the pitch was not fit for play and, though they could do nothing about the situation, the Blues feel bad for their loyal supporters.
Blues fans returned from their wasted trip, frustrated and angry and frankly it beggars belief that the multi-billion pound football industry cannot deliver its product because of a dip in temperatures. Premier League clubs who lavish vast, almost obscene, sums every week on sometimes modest players, simply have no excuse for postponing games thanks to frozen pitches.
Portsmouth and Fulham this morning both stand in the dock accused of lack of investment in their infrastructures and a callous attitude to the fans of City and Blackburn Rovers.
And football's authorities should be accused alongside them because as long as they allow their own rules to be bent and flouted then fans will continue to be treated with contempt.
The fact that the vast majority of City and Blackburn fans were well on their way south before their games were axed at the weekend is an indictment on the home clubs.
Fans from Manchester and East Lancashire will have spent hundreds of pounds in a futile attempt to watch their favourites with no recompense except for a `very sorry' from Pompey and Fulham - and that's not good enough.
Not only will supporters have wasted fuel, transport and in some cases accommodation costs but now they will have to find even more hard-earned cash to attend the re-scheduled fixtures which are likely to be on a midweek night and far more inconvenient than the original time and date.
Should Pompey be knocked out of the FA Cup at Bristol City tomorrow night they should make every attempt to fill the fourth, fifth or sixth round date with the rescheduled game against City.
What really irked about the postponement of the contest was the lack of information from Fratton Park. None of the Manchester media outlets were warned to tell fans of any potential problems facing the fixture and City officials were even told that the Fratton pitch - that had been subjected to hot air treatment for 48 hours - had passed an inspection on Friday afternoon.
The next anyone knew of a problem, including the Blues hierarchy, was at 8.45pm - after most City fans had set off from home - when Five Live suddenly declared that there would be a pitch inspection at 9am by referee Mike Dean.
That whole process lasted nearly 90 minutes before the game was called off during which time supporters had moved well down the M6, were on their trains or at Manchester airport.
Blackburn fans had an even worse deal at Fulham who didn't call their contest off until 1.15pm when at neighbouring QPR they managed to stage a Championship contest against Coventry.
Under-soil heating is supposed to be a pre-requisite at all top-flight grounds and the rule should be re-enforced rigidly so that supporters do not end up paying through the nose for something that doesn't even take place. If the clubs say they can't afford it then perhaps they should have a whip round in the dressing room!
Pompey explained that the surface had been playable on Friday afternoon but that temperatures of -7 degrees were too much for the covers and the hired in, dozen-strong, diesel heaters to deal with.
A stubborn patch in the centre of the pitch which refused to thaw, was the culprit and was deemed a danger to the players.
"We will certainly be asking the clubs concerned, and the match officials, to give their accounts of what happened," said a Premier League spokesman. "If it was found that inadequate precaution was taken then it would be referred to the Premier League board. We stipulate that clubs should be able to stage games when the temperature drops to -3C.
"Portsmouth have been in touch with us all week about the extreme temperatures they have been getting and they worked hard to try to get the game on. However, we will still be asking about what efforts were made."
Pompey defended the situation by saying they had done all they could to get the game on. "We've had heaters on the pitch for most of the week but unfortunately some frost got in down the middle of the pitch and that's where the problem was," said Peter Storrie, the Portsmouth chief executive. "We wanted the game on because we had got key players back and City had got key players missing."
Blues' boss Mark Hughes was frustrated that the game was called off, but having seen the pitch for himself, he felt there was no other option for referee Dean. He said: "We are disappointed that the game did not take place and we feel particularly badly for all our loyal fans, who made a wasted journey."
City will now be without the suspended Stephen Ireland for next week's visit from Wigan.
The Sun - Football Confidential
Portsmouth will offer Manchester £6million for their former player Benjani and Michael Johnson.
City zip in late for Zenit star?
Claims are made that we are now in for the much-touted Zenit St Petersburg striker Arshavin, a bid for Shay Given is rejected - allegedly - and Kolo Toure is staying put.
Sunday Mirror
"Manchester City to hijack Arsenal deal for Andrei Arshavin"
Manchester City are closing in on Andrei Arshavin after agreeing an £18million deal with Zenit St Petersburg.
The 27-year-old striker flew into London last week amid speculation he was poised to join Arsenal.
But City have stormed into pole position and Arshavin isoncourse to boost manager Mark Hughes's strike options at the struggling club.
Dennis Lachter, Arshavin's agent, has claimed a move to the Emirates was unlikely because of Zenit's massive financial demands.
Arsenal's valuation of the player was closer to £15m - and there was also an issue about the wages that Arshavin wants to seal a move to England.
He sees himself in the £85,000-a-week bracket and at Arsenal only Cesc Fabregas earns anything like that.
Manager Arsene Wenger refuses to undermine the salary structure within the squad and that has opened the way for City's move.
City officials, backed by the wealth of owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, met Arshavin and have agreed to meet his club's demands of full payment up front to clinch the deal.
Arshavin had been linked with a host of club's following his impressive form for Russian during Euro 2008.
But the vast majority of them baulked at the asking price that initially stood at £24m.
Arshavin's agent claimed the player's departure was inevitable once the transfer window opened for business in January.
"That is what is going to happen," he said. "There are 10, 15, 20 teams who are interested in him. The question is, can they afford him?"
City can and, following the arrival of Wayne Bridge for £13.5 million from Chelsea last week, Arshavin looks likely to follow him into Eastlands this week.
Daily Star Sunday
"Toon boot out Shay bid"
NEWCASTLE have angrily rejected a cheeky £3million bid from Manchester City for wantaway keeper Shay Given.
A Toon spokesman described the offer by City – owned by mega-rich Arabs – as “laughable”.
The insider said: “We received a bid for Shay in writing from Manchester City and we dismissed it out of hand.
“It was for between three and four million pounds, which is laughable when you consider we are talking about the best goalkeeper in the Premier League.”
Toon boss Joe Kinnear insists he is still detemined to keep hold of the Republic of Ireland international, 32.
Kinnear said last night: “I do not want to lose any of my best players and Shay is one of those.”
The insider said City would have to bid at least £8m to prise Given away.
The People
"Kolo Toure u-turn riles Man City"
Manchester City are fuming with Arsenal after Arsene Wenger did a U-turn on Kolo Toure - to leave Mark Hughes still looking for a new centre-half.
City made an offer of about £8million when the Ivory Coast defender was out of favour and looking to leave the Gunners, and they were asked to wait for "seven to 10 days" to let Wenger find a replacement. But now the mega-rich Manchester outfit have been informed that Toure is staying because the Gunners boss cannot bring in anyone and has a doubt over William Gallas' fitness.
City could increase their offer and try to bully Arsenal because City manager Hughes is struggling to find defensive alternatives. He could try again for Matthew Upson at West Ham and Joleon Lescott at Everton, but both have been valued too highly for his liking.
There are even some of the more ambitious voices at City suggesting a wild bid for Chelsea skipper John Terry but that seems unlikely. Hughes is having a tough time landing his targets - City's bid for Roque Santa Cruz is still about £4m short of Blackburn's valuation.
Hughes expects to land Craig Bellamy from West Ham in the next few days for about £10m and is still considering Mikel Arteta, who is valued at £20m by Everton.
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