TRANSFER SPECULATIONS

Congratulations to Brazil for winning the Confederations Cup with a 2-0 scoreline which ended the American dream! The Americans probably gone into the match with low morale after the death of Michael Jackson. Spain managed to win 3-2 against South Africa to get 3rd place. Here are the latest transfer speculations, some of them are confirmed, some are probably just rumours while others are still in negotiation. Some of the players started to find some fame after getting the attention from performing in the latest Confederations Cup.

Alexandre Pato - Chelsea
Alvaro Arbeloa - Real Madrid
Aly Cissokho - AC Milan
Andre Santos - Juventus, AC Milan
Andrea Pirlo - Chelsea, Real Madrid
Andrey Arshavin - Barcelona
Andriy Shevchenko - AS Roma
Arjen Robben - Manchester City
Carlos Tevez - Manchester City
Cristiano Ronaldo - Real Madrid
David Beckham - AC Milan
David Silva - Real Madrid,Barcelona
David Villa - Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester United
Deco - Inter Milan
Didier Drogba - Inter Milan
Diego Alberto Milito - Genoa
Douglas Costa - Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Manchester United
Edin Dzeko - AC Milan
Emmanuel Adebayor - AC Milan
Federico Macheda - Parma, Inter Milan
Felipe Melo - Arsenal, Barcelona, Inter Milan
Fernando Gago - AC Milan
Filipe Luis - Barcelona, Juventus
Franck Ribery - Arsenal, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Chelsea
Gaetano D'Agostino - Juventus
Goran Pandev - Juventus
Giuseppe Rossi - Juventus, Manchester United
Javier Mascherano - Barcelona, Real Madrid
Jo - Everton, Fulham
John Heitinga - Galatasaray
Joleon Lescott - Manchester City
Julio Cruz - AS Roma, Napoli, Fiorentina
Kaka - Real Madrid
Karim Benzema - Real Madrid, Arsenal, Manchester United
Keirrison - Barcelona
Klas-Jan Huntelaar - AS Roma, Manchester United, Galatasaray, Olympique Lyonnais, Juventus, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Wolfsburg
Lucio - AC Milan, Real Madrid
Luis Antonio Valencia - Manchester United
Luis Fabiano - AC Milan
Maicon - Chelsea, Real Madrid
Marko Arnautovic - Inter Milan
McDonald Mariga - Manchester United, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Fiorentina
Michael Owen - Olympiakos, Hull City, Stoke City, Manchester United
Oscar Cardozo - Blackburn Rovers
Pavel Nedved - AS Roma
Peter Crouch - AC Milan
Ricardo Carvalho - Real Madrid
Robinho - Barcelona
Royston Drenthe - Olympique Lyonnais
Ruud van Nistelrooy - Blackburn Rovers, Tottenham Hotspur, Fulham, Galatasaray
Samuel Eto'o - Manchester City
Sergio Aguero - Manchester United
Sergio Asenjo - Atletico Madrid
Xabi Alonso - Real Madrid
Yuri Zhirkov - Chelsea, Barcelona

Raul Albiol is the most sound signing by Perez so far as Real Madrid need good defenders to defend their offensive system. This is the first non-business move made by him. I hope he made at least two of these non-business moves to give Real Madrid some defensive strength to face the new season. I am also happy for Javier Saviola for his move to Benfica. It is really the time for him to see first team football regularly for the whole season! I agree Arjen Robben should leave as he is a liability with injury problems. He should not have been bought in the first place. I am a big fan of Franck Ribery and I will welcome him to the La Liga. I just hope Zinedine Zidane does have great influence over his potential move. The player who gets the most interest is Klas-Jan Huntelaar, from as much as 8 clubs. I have not seen much of him last season to give comments but I believe Real Madrid should give him one more chance.

Samuel Eto'o's possible move to Manchester City could weaken Barcelona. I hope they will reconsider this as he is one of the most consistent goal scorers in the La Liga for the last 5 seasons. I believe Barcelona have a good side and should not follow Real Madrid's footsteps by selling at will and changing the whole squad. They should make minimum changes for stability's sake. The expected arrival of wonderkid Keirrison to Barcelona is also creating anticipation for another prodigy to be born since Messi.

We see Arsenal being serious about spending some money this season. At least that's the signal I am getting for targeting some huge players. I guess Arsene Wenger is pressurized to deliver something this coming season or his young stars will leave one after another. Manchester United is also having great pressure to bring in some big names after the exit of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez. Let's face it, these two are their biggest stars which I admire. What is left of Manchester United for the new season if nobody comes? Rooney the fat diver? Old men Giggs and Scholes? Come on, they must sign someone big to cover the loss of C7.

Manchester City with the super rich owners from the Middle-East are probably the most active club in the English Premier League in the transfer market. If they can pull off some big signings, Robinho may be convinced to stay and try his luck one more time. AC Milan also have to spend to strengthen their ageing squad while maintaining some of their good players like Pirlo and Pato. They need to do that in order to be able to give a strong assault for the upcoming Champions League.

What will happen to Newcastle United and injury-proned Michael Owen? Will Newcastle United become another Leeds United in the making? We have to watch next season to see where they are heading.