Man Utd 'agree Carvalho deal', Song next instead of Kroos?

HAS much-maligned Manchester United manager David Moyes made his first move into the summer transfer market? Yes, says Talksport, which reports that the Old Trafford club "have agreed a stunning deal" to sign Sporting Lisbon midfielder William Carvalho.

Apparently the mediocre Manchester club have already agreed a fee said to be in the region £35m with the Portuguese outfit although the deal won't be officially announced until the transfer window opens in June. The contract is for five-years, which gives Carvalho an outside chance of tasting Champions League football with the once great Red Devils at some stage in his Old Trafford career.

It's reported that Moyes has been tailing the 22-year-old Carvalho all season and has beaten off competition from Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Liverpool and Monaco, which is "no mean feat" given United's travails of late.

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Talksport adds that Carvalho, expected to appear for Portugal in the World Cup. is just the first of many new faces soon to be seen at Old Trafford, with the Southampton pair of Luke Shaw and Adam Lallana also close to agreeing to step down a level in order to play for United. Shaw's potential move has also been

And there's more Old Trafford gossip emanating from the usually reliable corridors of Goal.com. The website claims that United have also "made a shock move" for Barcelona midfielder Alex Song. Astonishingly, Goal.com believes that Moyes is willing to spend £12.5m to bring the 26-year-old Cameroon international to Old Trafford in the summer, although he may face competition from AC Milan, Atletico Madrid and Liverpool, who these days are linked with anyone who knows how to kick a ball (thus ruling out a move for Yaya Sanogo).

It's claimed Song favours a move to Manchester, presumably because after spells with Arsenal and Barcelona he feels at home with clubs on the wane. At Camp Nou Song has started only 12 of the club's 43 league this season and Goal.com reports that Barcelona are "willing to cash in on the Cameroonian" just so long as they can recover most of the £15m fee that they paid Arsenal two years ago.

There's more bad news for United after the agent of Bayern Munich midfielder Toni Kroos said that his client would be staying with the German champions. According to the Daily Telegraph, United have been tracking the 24-year-old for months and were plotting to offer him a huge contract to play at Old Trafford next season. But his agent Volker Struth has now squashed the speculation by revealing that the German international will stay at Bayern until the end of his contract next year.

Elsewhere, and Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone has said he won't stand in Diego Costa's way if he really wants to join Chelsea in the summer. Sky Sports is just one of several media outlets that carries the comments of the former Argentine star, comments that will be sweet music to the ears of Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho.

Costa has been in superb form this season for Atletico and asked if the Brazil-born Spain international could be on his way to the Bridge in the summer, Simeone replied: "We understand that Chelsea have huge financial power and if he wants to live off football for the rest of his life, I will have no problem in him going." But the Atletico gaffer was quick to add: "It will depend on him and what he thinks is best for his future... [but] I will support any decision he makes."

Finally, the Daily Star reports that West Ham boss Sam Allardyce was in Germany at the weekend to cast an eye over Josip Drmic. The Swiss striker's Nuremberg side went down to Wolfsburg but that doesn't appear to have dampened the enthusiasm of Big Sam for the 21-year-old frontman. "I was at Nuremberg versus Wolfsburg," admitted Allardyce, whose West Ham side were spanked 3-1 by Arsenal on Tuesday night. "They got beat quite comfortably so in terms of that particular player [Drmic], you wouldn't be able to judge him on that particular game."

Whether the £8m rated Drmic would ever deign to join the Hammers remains to be seen given that a host of clubs are said to be interested, including Everton, Arsenal and, you've guessed it, Liverpool.