The Rumour Mill

Napoli courting Fellaini

03/06/2013 |

Comments (36)

Napoli have emerged as the latest suitors to Marouane Fellaini if press reports are to be believed.

The Italian club recently appointed Rafael Benitez as manager and he has apparently drawn up a list of midfielders he would like to pursue and Everton's Belgian star is prominent on it.

Chelsea and Manchester United have been linked with a move for Fellaini whose release clause would command a fee in excess of £24m to leave Goodison and there were reports last week that his agent had had an approach to Juventus rebuffed.

Fellaini himself was quoted as saying that his "destiny lies with Everton," although it's not clear if he meant he wanted to stay with the Blues or if his future was up to the Club to decide.

Napoli are also front-runners to land £20m-rated Everton target Alvaro Negredo from Sevilla according to Sky Sports News.

Original Source: Express Rumour source ranking:
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Reader Comments

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Sam Hoare
851 Posted 03/06/2013 at 18:18:39

More like 'Fellaini's agent desperate to sell him to somebody'. Probably being helped by BK!

Stephen Coles
858 Posted 03/06/2013 at 18:33:04

Fellaini has just found out Pulis is our next manager and got his agent to find him aclub quick

Patrick Murphy
861 Posted 03/06/2013 at 18:36:40

Was it a Five Iron or a putter he was looking for?

Peter Thistle
863 Posted 03/06/2013 at 18:38:33

So Negredo's value has gone up 7 million cos he scored 4 at the weekend ?
Wasn't he valued at 13mil.

Chris Regan
868 Posted 03/06/2013 at 18:44:48

Benitez would love to undermine Everton by buying Felli.

Colin Glassar
877 Posted 03/06/2013 at 18:59:34

Sell him. No one is bigger than the club.

Frida Ericsson
880 Posted 03/06/2013 at 18:58:10

Negredo will leave Sevilla at the end of the season that much is certain. He has maintained he wants to come and play in the premier league.

Sevilla will be forced to sell the striker for around 7m Euros in July. Everton are still reportedly interested in the striker, and he has shown he would be willing to make the move. Sevilla are in heavy debt, and could find themselves banned internally from any European competition after next season, if they do not begin making immediate sales. Pretty much everyone knows the financial trouble that Sevilla, Betis and Malaga are in, despite making the quarter final of the champions league.

Cut priced quality players, who seem to think they see their future in England. Isco a 20 year old striker with Malaga, who is very highly rated in Spain could find himself the Target of either Arsenal or Chelsea when the window opens.

Dan Dorrington
883 Posted 03/06/2013 at 19:02:52

As i've said before. Over valued in my opinion. Could quite easily get some quality players for that amount of money, if invested wisely... Or at least a like for like replacement.

Jeremy Benson
885 Posted 03/06/2013 at 19:02:43

Just idle gossip. The papers have nothing better to write at the moment.

To this day, I don't understand why people buy these rags. I haven't bought a "news" paper in 20 years.

Frida Ericsson
886 Posted 03/06/2013 at 19:08:43

Negredo is quality. 3rd highest goal scorer in BBVA Liga, he is only over shadowed by two of the best strikers in the world, Messi and Ronaldo. 7M Euros is a bargain for his quality.

Sam Hoare
887 Posted 03/06/2013 at 19:09:36

Frida, there's no chance Negredo will be going for 7m. Even double that would probably not be enough despite Sevilla's financial difficulties.

As for Isco I expect he will follow Pellegrini to Man City for somewhere in the region of 25m.

Mark Frere
895 Posted 03/06/2013 at 19:13:37

Negredo has become one of the most sought after strikers recently, because of his scoring record in Spain. Even if by some miracle we can find the money to spend on the transfer fee required, Negredo will be now be commanding in excess of 100k a week. Thats us totally out of the equation then

Colin Glassar
896 Posted 03/06/2013 at 19:24:26

Roberto Martinez would get us at least 4 top quality players for £20m so, at that price, it would be a no for me.

Frida Ericsson
899 Posted 03/06/2013 at 19:17:49

Sam - You need to understand the situation at their club in particular. In Spain unlike in England, the league agreed that if any club where to fall into debt during the previous season, then they would have a very limited time to get back into the black or they would face a self imposed European ban, very similar to what Malaga is facing now. I really don't expect Malaga to win their appeal to the spanish league.

Sevilla are being forced into making some drastic changes to comply with the league to prevent them being banned after next season.

They are so much in debt, that they will literally offload the more expensive players for a cut price.

Further more, it's important to understand this wouldn't be the first time Spanish teams have had to sell cheap, to ensure they comply with the league.

No smaller sized team as ever been able to command a high fee for their players, regardless of how great they are. They are pretty much forced into selling cheap so they can comply with the league. I have a couple of close friends who live and work in sevilla and follow their team religiously, in one of their papers this morning, the headline was Negredo will be on the transfer list at 7M Euros along with a few lesser players, both in the region of 2M and 3M respectively. At the end of the day, they need to make quick sales, and I suspect they are wishing the window was opened now. It will be interesting to see the developments there. He scores 4 against a very poor Valencia team, does not put his value up in the slightest.

Frida Ericsson
903 Posted 03/06/2013 at 19:31:10

Mark Frere – I agree totally. It's not the value he sold at, it's his wage demands. I am not really that convinced he would command £100k right off the bat, he is only getting £30k a week at Sevilla.

He would need to prove himself wherever he goes before he commanded such a huge wage.

Frida Ericsson
908 Posted 03/06/2013 at 19:33:00

I should say outside of Real Madrid, Barcelona and to a lesser extent Bilbao and perhaps Malaga and the season before last Levante. It is the wage demands, rather than the fee's for buying a player, that puts off a lot of teams.

Unless you happen to be the above teams in which case you can demand what you want.

Talking of which David Villa is in the transfer Market next month. Not the most prolific goal scorer of all time, but a hell of a player for the spanish national side. He is reportedly on 125K a season at Barca

Sam Hoare
910 Posted 03/06/2013 at 19:34:39

Frida, I understand the situation however its demand that drives the price. You only cut the price if no-one wants to buy and plenty of people will want Negredo after the season he has just had.

Unless there is some strange clause in his contract then I will be amazed if he goes for less than €16m. As such he maybe out of our range I suspect. The lower profile players however who may be more cut price might be worth looking at.

Mark Frere
911 Posted 03/06/2013 at 19:31:41

Frida Ericsson
Even if Negredo is available on the cheap, do you think we are going to be the only club interested in signing him? With Negredo's goal scoring record and his growing reputation, he will most certainly caught the attention of the rich clubs that can offer him in excess of 100k a week in wages

Rob Esteva
016 Posted 03/06/2013 at 20:21:03

Have to disagree with you Frida. I don't see any way in which they sell him for 7m Euros. Navas is being sold for significantly lower than his clausula (25m Euros to Man City), and while Negredo may not go for 20m, it will be much higher than 7m.

Paul Ferry
024 Posted 03/06/2013 at 20:29:40

Chris Regan - 868 - Benitez would love to undermine Everton by buying Felli.

Just don't see this at all. We will be a better team next season if we sell Felli and IF the money is put in Martinez's hands to fork out on three or four players

Dean Adams
034 Posted 03/06/2013 at 20:34:21

Paul, if he gets the right 3 or 4 players! He wants most of his Wigan team to follow him, so I will wait and see.

Peter Knight
139 Posted 03/06/2013 at 21:32:45

Fellaini missed 7 games (6 for suspension); we won 3, drew 3, lost 1, Chelsea, which we should have won. So, if we can sell Fellaini, Heitinga, Anichebe, Naismith bring in Kone, McManaman, McArthur, McCarthy and couple of more players, I would be very happy.

Paul Ferry
289 Posted 04/06/2013 at 00:14:29

Spot on Peter (139)

Sam Hoare
393 Posted 04/06/2013 at 09:58:30

McManaman played well against us and city in the final but I'm not convinced he is yet worth the exaggerated figure that Wigan will charge. He's only had one season in the top flight. McCarthy on the other hand is an established premiership player at 22 and looks the real deal.

Noel Early
396 Posted 04/06/2013 at 10:16:42

Best possible scenario would be to sell him to a team outside the Premier League, hopefully get £24M for him. We should be able to get James McCarthy and a top class striker for that amount of money... Soldado or Negredo would be ideal or be nice to have them both. Sell Heitinga and put some of the TV money towards more players and exciting times lie ahead hopefully...

Jon Ferguson
411 Posted 04/06/2013 at 11:07:00

I agree with selling Fellaini to raise some cash and I like the look of McManaman but I don't want to sign half the Wigan team. We want to be aiming for 4th and a domestic cup next season, we want a couple of high quality acquisitions.

Maloney and Kone looked good in a relegated team. Maloney is defo not as good as Peinaar.

I hope Mr Martinez is more aspirational in his aquisitions!

Andrew Ellams
451 Posted 04/06/2013 at 12:40:48

Kone score more than Anichebe and Jelavic put together and missed a month for the African Champs. He allegedly has £6.5m release clause too which all makes decent sense to me

Jon Ferguson
530 Posted 04/06/2013 at 15:19:20

I would argue that we can't afford to spend £6.5 million on a 29 year (unless they were unbelievable).

Sam Hoare
549 Posted 04/06/2013 at 16:19:53

I agree Jon. He will be 30 in November and as pace is one of his main assets I'm not sure a large expenditure could be justified. Though maybe if he's as fit as Distin....

Steve Ashton
557 Posted 04/06/2013 at 16:47:26

I saw Negredo play against Sociedad a couple of weeks ago and frankly he was awful: laboured and disinterested for most of the game. The Sociedad striker on the other hand was excellent: led the line brilliantly, scored a good goal, and looked far better suited to the Prem. I can't remember his name... something Basque and unpronounceable beginning with A. Navas was poor as well!!!

Christopher Brierley
562 Posted 04/06/2013 at 17:21:01

I don't get all the buzz over wanting to bring Kone here. We need a 20 goal a season striker and he aint it. If we have got money to spend then we should look at getting a top quality striker.
Negredo I think may be beyond us with all the supposed interest in him but I think we could have a seriously good punt on Soldado at least

Colin Glassar
576 Posted 04/06/2013 at 18:13:13

I think it's more a case of Fellaini's agent/dad courting/whoring his client/son all over Europe/Prem.

David Hallwood
635 Posted 04/06/2013 at 20:19:09

It looks like the Mancs are going to sign Kevin Strootman from PSG who's a midfielder in the Fellani mould, so it looks like he ain’t going to man U

Eugene Ruane
638 Posted 04/06/2013 at 20:20:43

Can anyone remember a player in (I think) one of the play-off games who had that physically-big, Fellaini-type look about him. Think he was from..erm..'abroad'. I remember watching him thinking 'he played really well and he was just brushing fellers aside'. Maybe for Palace or Watford? Just..curious like.

Rob Esteva
845 Posted 05/06/2013 at 14:04:38

Steve Ashton 557 - Agirretxe....best season of his career, but I sense it is more down to the three players behind him Xabi Prieto, Vela and Griezmann, than him being top class.

James Stewart
477 Posted 06/06/2013 at 12:36:49

Frida there is no way you could get Negrado for 7m. They just turned down 15m from west ham

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