Fazio, Gotze, Witsel, Musacchio

TRANSFER TALK

There has been no movement on the Federico Fazio situation. We rejected the first bid from Espanyol and they are now considering asking for the 29-year-old on loan for a season with an option to buy. We would obviously prefer a guaranteed buy clause at a set fee so we are guaranteed to have sold him. The last thing we need is to get him back with a year less on his contract as despite any improvement he would be worthless.

As expected a German World Cup winner has stayed in Germany despite the supporters of the club venting their fury at him for suggesting he wanted to stay at the club and promptly leaving. Sounds like a Sol Campbell type situation.

Mario Gotze has rejoined Borussia Dortmund says German newspaper Bild in a five-year deal which always seemed the obvious outcome for the 23-year-old.

Talks between Belgian midfielder Axel Witsel and Napoli have broken down leaving the way clear for Everton unless there is another twist. Everton are prepared to pay him £5.86-million (€7m - AUS$10.19m - US$7.75m) annual wages, around £110,000-a-week.

AC Milan have submitted a second bid for 25-year-old Argentinian centre-back Mateo Musacchio. Villarreal turned down their first offer of £12.56-million (€15m - AUS$2.84m - US$16.60m) plus bonuses of £2.09-million (€2.5m - AUS$3.64m - US$2.77m) and AC Milan have now submitted a second offer of £15.49-million (€18.5m - AUS$26.94m - US$20.47m) plus the same bonuses, based on performance. While Tottenham are interested the price for a backup to Toby Alderweireld may not be right for us.

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