Life wouldn't really be complete without a day of Javier Pastore transfer mumblings out of Palermo. We had that fun rumour earlier about him being headed for Chelsea on Tuesday (and for ridiculously cheap, at that), but the quotes it was supposed to have been sourced from are nowhere to be found. Surprise! Now we have some more stuff that is sourced, but since it's sourced from Palermo it's a whole lot of nonsense.
It's very probable that Pastore will go to Chelsea, but I think there are other top-level teams who are after the player. He wants a big club and there are advanced talks with very important teams
-Palermo vice-president Guglielmo Micciche. Source: ESPN Soccernet.
and!
[PSG sporting director] Leonardo is a great man. He called me and told me he was very interested in Pastore. On Tuesday, we have a meeting with his agent. PSG and Chelsea are the two teams in the lead on this issue. There are one or two opportunities in Spain but, either way, he will not stay in Italy.
-Palermo president Maurizio Zamparini. Source: ESPN Soccernet.
That's good old Zamps at it again. Let's try to work this one out. Last week, he said that Pastore was going to Manchester City, Chelsea or Roma, and set a deadline for Tuesday for dealing with the situation. Then, upon realising that there was absolutely no way Pastore would even think about going to Roma and that City are busying trying to pry Sergio Aguero out of Atletico Madrid's hands... he comes up with the idea that Paris Saint-Germain are going to make a play for him
It is, as usual, completely nonsensical. If you're 22 years old and with the potential Pastore does, you might think about taking a step down in terms of league quality if they can offer more wages, the Champions League, and a regular starting position. But that's not really true of PSG - Chelsea can pay more, are a force in the Champions League, and if Pastore signed with the Blues he'd see a lot of playing time as their most advanced playmaker.
This seems like yet another phantom bidder to jack up the price, because the reality of the situation seems to be that Chelsea have no competitors for Pastore at all, and that now Palermo have decided to sell Ron Gourlay and company are just biding their time before their target joins Stamford Bridge.