Oh, Boy! More French Transfer Rumors!

My goal is to not write anything about a certain French Arsenal striker with the initials T.H. for at least several days. But that will have to start tomorrow, because this is about transfer rumors, and Thierry Henry is apparently on the block. Not a huge surprise. Arsenal isn’t doing so hot this year, Henry’s not happy, and there have been rumblings in the British press calling for a high-level sacrifice. And you don’t get much higher than Thierry Henry.

According to Martha at Italy Offside, Inter is in the Henry race. Football Italia says: “The Frenchman has long since been a dream of the Nerazzurri President Massimo Moratti.” (And reading that sentence out of context makes me giggle.) Arsenal may not just be ready to let him go, they may be ready to let him go in a straight swap for the much-younger and recently-injured-and-out-of-form Brazilian, Adriano. (A straight swap! Oh! Ouch! What an ego blow! Can’t you just see that melon énorme deflating as we speak?) And if Inter doesn’t work out, Barcelona is still sniffing around. I’m guessing Titi won’t be a Gunner for too much longer.

And then we have Henry’s (possibly former ) Bestest Best Friend, David Trézéguet. It wasn’t so long ago (maybe, what, two weeks?) that Juventus was saying, “Trezeguet will not leave in January.” So was that a real “will not” or a football “will not”? According to the French site david.trezeguet.over-blog.com, the ultimate source on all things Trézéguet, Didier Deschamps is now saying, “Trézéguet has already done a lot by agreeing to remain in Serie B. We will evaluate the situation at the end of the year. It is impossible to find another player like him.” Sounds decidedly less definite, no? So what do you think? Juventus has moved to the top of the table in Serie B. Will Trézéguet stay or go?

Nothing new showing up for our just-turned-nineteen, think-yourself-French Argentinian, Gonzalo Higuain, since River Plate turned down 10 million Euros from Real Madrid in November, saying they weren’t interested in letting him go till 2007. Which, of course, just means the price wasn’t right. And every team in the universe (or at least those with big bucks) is interested. So stay tuned. And Happy Birthday, Gonzalo! (In case he’s still considering Les Bleus, I want to stay on his good side.)

The Florent Malouda-to-Chelsea rumor seems to have some legs. Yea! From a purely selfish point of view, I love it when my guys go to England because that means I’ll soon have English-language articles to link to. Plus if players get into any trouble (not that Florent would, of course)… Well, the English aren’t so hung up on that annoying, boring privacy thing. Go, Malouda!

Martha also says that Rio Antonio Mavuba has been linked to a possible Juve move. (He’s been at Bordeaux since turning pro in 2003.) I’m not finding that one, but Martha’s always ahead of the curve, so I trust her research.

And finally, I’m seeing nothing about my favorite bad boy, Nicolas Anelka, since Lyon’s denial that they were interested last month. Perhaps our boy Nicolas is finally working through his commitment issues! That would be a good thing.

That’s all I’m seeing today, folks. Which doesn’t mean there aren’t more rumors out there, it just means my attention span is saying I’m done looking for now. So keep checking back!