Gabriel Agbonlahor is said to be close to an England cap under new boss Fabio Capello, such is his rise to fame. The Aston Villa striker has also been linked with a multitude of Premier League clubs looking to cash in on his potential. It's now rumoured that he could become part of a swap deal that would see him move to White Hart Lane in exchange for Tottenham’s unwanted forward Jermain Defoe (various).

I am assuming that as well as a player exchange, Juande Ramos would also have to hand Villa a decent wad of cash for the 21-year-old Birmingham boy. It does seem likely that Defoe will have to look for pastures new and maybe a JD/Gabby partnership would be what Martin O’Neill has in mind. However, to me they too similar in their play to work as a partnership. So while on paper this deal seems possible, in reality it will never happen.

Arsene Wenger’s pursuit of Olympique Lyon attacker Hatem Ben Arfa seems to be gathering pace - that’s if you believe everything that you read. Apparently Arsenal are ahead of fellow suitors Real Madrid but it will take a club record fee of around £14m to nab the exciting prospect (Controcampo).

'How exactly do you manage to keep both Berbatov and Carlos Tevez happy? They surely can’t BOTH play with Rooney'


Apparently Wenger’s gift for getting the most out of his young talents is giving the Gunners the edge over the Spanish champions as they go head-to-head to capture the 20-year-old French international. I wouldn’t be so sure that Arsene would be ready to offer such a large sum for the player, so this battle is more likely to be settled in the summer, not least because Ben Arfa is out of Champions League contention this season as he has already figured for Lyon.

Things couldn’t get much worse for Rafa Benitez after a series of distinctly average performances have left his Liverpool side well of the title pace. And after that shambles of a display against Luton, he has now been linked with a move for comedy defender Jean-Alain Boumsong, who is also a loan target for Roy Hodgson’s Fulham (The Sun).

I am sure Newcastle fans, and to a lesser extent Rangers supporters, can attest to the ineptitude of the sometime French international, and however much he has improved with Claudio Ranieri’s Juventus side, he is going to be hard pushed to convince Anfield fans that he is worthy of a place in their team. A move to Fulham may prove more likely; however, I would have thought that such a move would put the kybosh on their Premier League survival hopes.

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson is allegedly putting the finishing touches on a club-record £40m bid for Dimitar Berbatov (various).

Manchester City and Chelsea are the two main competitors for the Bulgarian star, and Ferguson wants to edge them out with a mega-bid. The question surely must be, do United need a striker THAT badly? Granted, without Wayne Rooney in the fold they do struggle to put away chances and find themselves depending too heavily on Cristiano Ronaldo to bail them out with his goals.

But how exactly do you manage to keep both Berbatov and Carlos Tevez happy? They surely can’t BOTH play with Rooney and therefore pretty soon one of these fantastically-gifted strikers will inevitably get disillusioned with a substitute's role.