Arsenal want winger Turan, Man Utd after Vermaelen

THE agent of Atletico Madrid winger Arda Turan has played down suggestions his client could be on his way to Arsenal in June. Metro reports that Ahmet Bulut did his best to quash recent rumours about the 27-year-old Turkey midfielder but ended up only fuelling speculation that Turan will soon have his own peg in the Emirates dressing room.

The former Galatasaray star, capped more than 70 times by his country, is similar in style to Tomas Rosicky, and Arsene Wenger believes that the Czech midfielder has at most only one more full season left in the tank before he joins the ranks of the bit-part players. To that end he has apparently identified Turan as one of his summer targets, and Bulut admitted that "[Arda] is interested in working under Arsene Wenger and Arda would like to play in England".

Asked then if a deal would be done in the summer, the wily agent replied: "We have received offers from English clubs. However, for now I would like to insist once more that Arda renewed his contract recently and wants to stay at Atletico."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

On the subject of wiliness, having offloaded Robin van Persie onto Manchester United just before the Dutchman began his descent into mediocrity, Arsenal are now looking to pass the Red Devils another of their rejects. According to the Sun, United manager David Moyes is "keen" on taking Thomas Vermaelen to Old Trafford as a replacement for Nemanja Vidic. The 28-year-old Vermaelen is used a bench warmer these days at the Emirates, but the Sun says United believe that the Belgian could still do a job for them in place of Vidic, who has agreed to join Inter Milan next season.

Vermaelen cost the Gunners £10m when he moved from Ajax in 2009 but the Sun says that despite "seeing his stock decline of late," Arsenal are confident they could convince Moyes to hand over as much as £12m.

Another tale of deviousness from the Emirates concerns Bacary Sagna who has reportedly told the Gunners to double his wages or he will leave at the end of the season. According to the Daily Star the full back reckons he has big offers on the table from Monaco and Galatasaray which are worth £20m net over four years.

The deal is simple, as far as Sagna is concerened. If they want him to stay the Gunners must propose a three-year deal worth £120,000-a-week, plus a £6m signing-on fee and a testimonial. Given that Sagna is 31 and currently earns £60,000-a-week his chances look slim.

In other news the Daily Mail claims that Paris Saint-Germain are "weighing up a £41.5m" bid for Chelsea ace Oscar ahead of the World Cup. The brilliant 22-year-old Brazilian arrived at the Bridge from Internacional for £25m in July 2012, and has since become a fans' favourite. With three years to go on his existing contract, the Mail says PSG would have to climb a mountain of wonga to reach Oscar and quotes a figure in excess of £40m as being Chelsea's asking price. But it's believed the French champions aren't the only European club sniffing around Oscar and the Blues could yet spark a bidding war with the final fee for the midfielder reaching as much as £50m.

Talking of PSG, the Daily Star reports that Liverpool hitman Luis Suarez is "refusing to rule out a switch" to the French capital at the end of the season. The Uruguayan striker has been linked in the past to PSG but though he has remained loyal to Liverpool it's alleged he could move on if the Reds suffer a collapse in form in the coming weeks and miss out yet again on Champions League football.

Reds fans should not be unduly worried. They are sitting pretty in the league and the basis of the claim appears to be Suarez's bombshell announcement that if he were to ever live in France he would learn to speak French.

Suarez, who has scored 24 goals already this season, was asked by French TV programme Telefoot if he would like to join international teammate Edinson Cavani in Paris and replied: "Learn French with Edinson Cavani and come to Paris? More than speaking a language I like to learn the culture of a country... So if I play abroad in the future, I'll learn the language and I'll learn French if I play in France."