Samuel Eto’o has been consistently linked with a move to the Premier League and, given Barcelona’s position in La Liga, languishing behind leaders Real Madrid, it is understandable that he is back on the transfer grapevine. Chelsea are said to be lining up a £40m bid for the 26-year-old Cameroon striker (Sunday Express) and Arsenal may be considering a similar move for the prolific goalscorer.

Injury has sidelined Eto’o for much of this and last season, but he still managed to net a fair few goals. He is clearly the complete finisher and one who is definitely worth big bucks, but would Arsene Wenger really consider paying such a fee? I think not. Chelsea, having recently forked out £15m for Nicolas Anelka, are also unlikely to pay such a huge sum, unless Didier Drogba gets his wish to leave Stamford Bridge for the Nou Camp. But then Drogba's whole reason for wanting to go to Barcelona was to link up with pal Eto'o!

Any deal for Eto'o won't happen until the summer as he is ineligible to play for anyone else in the Champions League this season. So this story will probably fill column inches for a long time yet.

‘Everyone in the world could see that Sidwell was going to be another Scott Parker, someone whose career was never going to take off at Stamford Bridge.’


Two stories seemed to have become entwined into one by some of the tabloids. Firstly, we have the continued speculation surrounding Dimitar Berbatov’s potential move to Man United which has now been linked with a possible move in the other direction by former Spurs midfielder Michael Carrick (Sunday Mirror) – this obviously leads us to the prospect of a swap deal.

Apparently, Sir Alex Ferguson would want at least £18m for England international Carrick and recent reports suggest that Spurs won't be happy with anything less than £30m for their Bulgarian striker. That would leave a nice little profit of at least £12m for Tottenham. Everyone's happy then – apart from Carrick, maybe. The Geordie is also said to be one of the players Kevin Keegan wants as he attempts to rejuvenate Newcastle – a return to his native north-east would be a great new challenge for Carrick.

The most crucial element of this deal is whether Fergie is willing to put in a realistic offer for Berbatov, now that Chelsea seem to have lost interest after splashing out on Nicolas Anelka, United are the only realistic buyers but do they really need Berba? With Rooney, Ronaldo, and Tevez on fire, no team has scored more goals in the Premier League than United.

David Moyes is keen to sign Chelsea’s second string midfielder Steve Sidwell (News of the World), but his Liverpool rival Rafa Benitez is also lining up a bid for the former Reading man.

Everyone in the world could see that Sidwell was going to be another Scott Parker, someone whose career was never going to take off at Stamford Bridge. If the 25-year-old Sidwell has any ambition beyond making money then he will have to take a pay cut and go somewhere else to get a game. That’s where Everton could offer him a lifeline. I don’t see why Liverpool would need the former Arsenal youth player ... unless Benitez has given up on keeping Javier Mascherano at Anfield. But Sidwell's hardly in the same class as the Argentinian.

West Ham and Fulham are fighting over Hertha Berlin striker Marko Pantelic (News of the World). This could prove to be one of those key signings – the 29-year-old Serbian has proved useful in the Bundesliga and could do a good job at either club. At £1.5m, he looks a snip – but Fulham are more in need of a £40m Samuel Eto'o if they are going to survive.