SPANISH FOOTBALL TRANSFER TALK, RUMOURS & GOSSIP

Lots of transfer news around the Spanish daily´s today, that promise
a week full of movements & news, apart from the gossip that goes along
with the market in order to "stir" things up.

The big news is that REAL MADRID will go after & attempt to shut
in the next 48 hours 3 signnings ROBBEN, BALLACK & DRENTHE.

Here is the rundown. Real Madrid will offer 45M€ ( "according to Maraca")
for both ROBBEN & BALLACK. The latter became viable after he accepted
a salary cut ( around 50%) for a 3 year contract. Ballack has surprised many
due to his age (31yrs) & his 2 ankle operations which has left him out of play
the last 6 months. Being that the case, Real coach Schuster has asked for him
& Robben as soon as possible.

On another front, what seemed a lost opprtunity, now becomes a new reality
after FEYENOORD dropped its main hurdle, payment in cash for its young
star ROYSTON DRENTHE. The Dutch club now accepts Real Madrid´s
condition of yearly payments & Real look favourably at paying the 18M€
Feyenoord asks. Sp. daily "AS" speculate the deal could be shut in the next
days.

The last piece of news is that Real Madrid could finally put its Italian player
CASSANO at another club. English clubs BOLTON & WEST HAM have
shown interest in a loan with a buying option at the end of the season.

English media, in this case "News of The World", re-open the possible
interest of CHELSEA for FC BARCELONA Portugues midfielder DECO
& a "swap" for FRANK LAMPARD. According the media Chelsea would
offer Lampard + 7M€ for Deco. The news gained strengh due to Barça
officials visiting London over the weekend. However, local Barcelona
paper "Sport" cite Barça as saying that the story is totally not true.
Stay tuned for further developments!

Italian club FIORENTINA is said
to have made an offer to ATLETICO

DE MADRID for its new Captain &
Argentine International MAXI
RODRIGUEZ.

Sp. paper "AS" publish that Atletico has
rejected the offer & declared the player
not transferrable.

REAL BETIS were surprised when Portugues club BENFICA responded
to the question of how much is its 31 yaer old forward NUNO GOMES
worth. The answer 10.5M€, a bit much for what Betis had in mind according

to "AS".