Rumor Roundup: EPL Version (7/8)

There has been a multitude of rumors and official movements concerning Tottenham targets or just affecting Spurs in the past 24 hours. Try to stick with me as I sort through them. This could take a little while.

Manchester United are now the favorites in the race to sign Real Madrid striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, as AC Milan to spend the money that they received from Madrid for Kaka on Sevilla's Luis Fabiano instead. Huntelaar was linked with Tottenham earlier in this transfer window, but everyone sort of knew that the move would never happen, as Huntelaar was pretty much in the same position as Karim Benzema (a young striker who all of the world's best teams want) until Madrid bought him in January and seemingly forgot about him. Huntelaar would be a very good fit for the Red Devils and could go a long way towards making Christiano Ronaldo (and his protracted transfer saga) fade into the past.

Another player who Spurs have been linked to several times in the past is Middlesbrough's Adam Johnson. The English U-21 midfielder is now being linked with Chelsea, the club that he seems destined to end up with. The reasoning, however, is the most interesting part in all of this, as Carlo Ancelotti reportedly realizes that he needs to prepare his squad for FIFA regulations concerning the number of English players there need to be on a squad. That probably doesn't affect Spurs too much yet (and Harry Redknapp seems to have a preference for English players anyways), but it could affect the way other teams approach the transfer window in the near future.

Wigan's Lee Cattermole has apparently caught the eye of Sunderland's Steve Bruce, no surprise considering that Bruce brought Cattermole to Wigan when he was the manager there last year. Bruce seems to have a fair amount of money to spend this summer and Cattermole would be a good fit on most sides in the EPL (Spurs reportedly wanted to link him back up with Wilson Palacios in the midfield). Bruce has been good at making something out of nothing in the past, so it will be interesting to see what he can do at Sunderland, where there already seems to be the beginning of something.

Blackburn apparently want strikers as bad as Tottenham do, but they are actually determined to make a move (unlike Spurs). The two players that they have seemingly targeted are Sunderland's Kenwyne Jones and Darren Bent (a player Sunderland are also interested in). Jones, who Redknapp wanted during the winter window, reportedly will cost about £9 million, while Bent will probably run about £10 million (more on him in a later post, though). The only thing clearing up Jones' move to Blackburn is seemingly Bent's move to Sunderland. Blackburn are a club that always seem to just stay up and I see Sam Allardyce and Jones clashing if this transfer does go through, as Jones has a tendency to disappear at times. He is, however, also a very good player when he chooses to be, so it could be a very good fit if Allardyce can keep Jones motivated.

These moves all seem to have a fair amount of truth to them, as they (oddly) all make a good degree of sense. What does and doesn't happen, though, will inevitably be as strange as ever. Luckily, there are no Ronaldo (or Gareth Barry) transfers in this batch, even though the Johnson move has been rumored for about as long as that one was.