Tuesday Transfer Gossip

First off, various English papers are reporting that Argentine defender Gabriel Heinze is close to agreeing a move to Liverpool. Although Manchester United are reluctant to sell the player to a rival club, Heinze seems to favour staying in England rather than moving abroad, which may force United's hand into allowing the move.

There are also reports in various papers that Chelsea are to make a £14million bid for Sevilla's Brazilian fullback Daniel Alves.

We reported last week that Celta Vigo winger Nene has his heart set on a move to England. According to the Daily Mail, it seems that Tottenham Hotspur are going to renew their interest in the player they nearly signed in January. Blackburn and Birmingham are expected to battle it out with the North London club for the signature of the Brazilian.

Marca (Spanish link) report that Maxi Lopez, unwanted by both Barcelona and RCD Mallorca, has sealed a move to Sporting Lisbon for an initial one year loan period. The loan is thought to contain a clause allowing Sporting to purchase the player for between 3-4 million Euros at the end of the season if he is successful in Portugal.

Javier Saviola is expected to seal a move to Real Madrid once he returns from holiday and Bernd Schuster is appointed as their new manager, according to Marca (Spanish link).

Real Madrid have muscled in on Barcelona's attempts to sign Romanian full back Chivu from Roma and are though to be offering a couple of Brazilians as possible part exchanges for the deal. Marca (Spanish link) report that right back Cicinho and attacking midfielder Julio Baptista are the players likely to be offered.

Finally, Everton fans were rejoicing yesterday after their official website announced they had signed Juan Riquelme on a three year deal. It turned out that the club's web designers were just putting up some test data as they tried out a new layout and that there was no truth to the news, which was pulled from the website an hour after posting.