Borussia Dortmund have announced the signing of Shinji Kagawa for £6.3 million from Manchester United on a four-year contract.
Kagawa struggled to find a place in the XI ever since arriving from Dortmund in 2012 for around £14 million.
March 2014 - Soccer Wiretap
Chelsea have signed the QPR striker Loïc Rémy on a four-year deal. Chelsea triggered a £10.5 million release clause in his contract on Saturday lunchtime and he was subsequently left out of their squad to face Sunderland.
“I feel very happy and very proud. When I heard Chelsea wanted to sign me I said ‘let’s go’ straight away because they are one of the best clubs in the world,” said Rémy. “I remember the amazing atmosphere at Stamford Bridge when I played there for Marseille and I can’t wait to play for the first time in front of my new fans.”
There were reports that Arsenal were also interested in signing the striker but decided not to pursue the deal any further.
Monaco has offered Radamel Falcao to Manchester City and Arsenal at a cost of £55 million.
Arsenal has a need at striker, particularly with Olivier Giroud out until December.
City would need to offset the acquisition of Falcao by selling one or more of their players to comply with Financial Fair Play.
City would need more than to double the money available to them and would be willing to move on Álvaro Negredo, Micah Richards, Matija Nastasic and Scott Sinclair to close the gap.
City could potentially agree upon a loan deal with the option of buying him in January or next summer.
Falcao’s camp have been pushing to get him to Real Madrid but have encountered unexpected resistance from the decision-makers at the Bernabéu.
Chelsea at Everton (12:30 PM EST, Saturday): José Mourinho travels to Goodison Park to face a pair of strikers in Romelu Lukaku and Samuel Eto'o that he decided he would not need this season while he manages the neverending hamstring issue of Diego Costa. Chelsea has looked quite impresssive in their first two matches and it will be particularly interesting to see how Cesc Fabregas performs against a more formidable midfield.
Bayern at Schalke (12:30 PM EST, Saturday): Bayern doesn't commonly take on a player of Xabi Alonso's age unless they're despearate, which they are due to an inordinate number of injuries in defensive midfield. Schalke is one of the few clubs in Germany capable of stealing a result from Pep Guardiola.
Liverpool at Tottenham (8:30 AM EST, Sunday): The best match of the weekend means an early Sunday morning for those of us living on Pacific time. Tottenham has outscored their opponents 10-2 across a pair of Premier League matches and a Europa League tie against AEL Limassol. Drawing a Liverpool club ready to work in Mario Balotelli that is coming off a 3-1 loss at City this early on their own pitch will be an intriguing test if Mauricio Pochettino has a Spurs' side worthy of being top-4 material.
Daley Blind has been sold to Manchester United by Ajax for €18 million.
Blind is a 24-year-old defensive midfielder.
Gerard Piqué still has a future with Spain, but he's been dropped by Vincente del Bosque for their two coming matches.
The decision to drop Piqué is somewhat surprising due to Spain's dearth of options at the back.
Although Pique is expected to feature for Barcelona in their La Liga game at Villarreal on Sunday, the veteran coach said at Friday's news conference that the decision had been made on fitness grounds.
"There are eight players from the World Cup who are not coming," Del Bosque said. "We have very fluid contact with [Piqué]. We spoke recently and he was not fully recovered. He had some discomfort from his hip injury. He wants to keep coming with the national team, but at this moment we thought he should not come."
Diego Costa will be available for Chelsea on Saturday in their match at Everton.
Costa suffered a hamstring injury during training this week and there were fears he could miss up to six weeks.
"Yes. It's a better scenario, but what matters now is the match tomorrow, not the match in three or four weeks time," José Mourinho said. "He's a doubt. Everyone else is fit, yes."
Chelsea and AC Milan have agreed to loan striker Fernando Torres to AC Milan.
A statement on the Chelsea website read:" Chelsea Football Club and AC Milan have agreed terms for the two-year loan deal of Fernando Torres to the Italian club.
"The move is now subject to Fernando agreeing personal terms with AC Milan and passing a medical examination."
Manchester United are determined to unload several unneeded players before the end of the transfer window with targets such as William Carvalho, Arturo Vidal, Nigel de Jong and Daley Blind in mind.
United’s status as one of the world’s best paying clubs has caused them difficulty all summer to unload players, with the Guardian having learned that salaries are far higher that previously thought.
United has already paid £59.7 million to Real Madrid for Ángel di María.
United could begin by selling Danny Welbeck, who could fetch up to £20 million.
Javier Hernández, the subject of a bidding war between Valencia and Juventus, has two years remaining on a basic salary of up to £88,000, a total of £9.15 million.
Roberto Martínez has claimed Romelu Lukaku’s value to Everton cannot be measured by his £28 million fee and denied the price is excessive compared with the £32 million Chelsea spent on Diego Costa.
Everton will face Chelsea on Saturday.
The Everton manager said: “They are different ages [Lukaku 21, Costa 25] and the situation at Atlético Madrid is very different in how they work. Sometimes as a club you have a say and sometimes you have investment groups who have a say. That could be one reason.
“Second, it’s not about the value. I would have paid £100 million for Lukaku if I had the money. The figure is insignificant. It is about the character and type of player you want in the group. Sometimes a player at £3 million can be an expensive buy and sometimes a player at £28 million can be a very cheap buy.”