Football: Wenger battles Atletico to sign pounds 3.5m Solano
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Your support makes all the difference.ARSENAL are locked in a pounds 3.5m battle for the Peruvian midfielder Nolberto Solano with the Spanish club, Atletico Madrid.
Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, is prepared to pay a fee of that size to Solano's Argentinian side, Boca Juniors, and has also offered the player a four-year contract at wages of around pounds 16,000 a week.
Solano, who can also play at right-back, will decide on his next move over the weekend and sources in Argentina say Wenger may even fly to South America to clinch the deal in the next 48 hours. Boca Juniors claim that both the Gunners and Atletico Madrid have tabled similar offers and that a decision will be made next week.
Derby County have agreed a club record fee of pounds 2.7m with another Argentinian club, Rosario Central, for the centre-back Horacio Carbonari. The 24- year-old will sign for the Rams today, subject to a medical.
The highly rated 17-year-old Gillingham winger Jim Corbett has signed for Blackburn Rovers for an initial fee of pounds 525,000, which could rise to pounds 1m depending on appearances.
Corbett, who was once a programme seller at the Priestfield stadium, has signed a contract for five years, with an option for a further two years.
Bolton Wanderers are under pressure to sell the in-demand Alan Thompson in the close season - or lose him for a "bargain" pounds 3.2m. He is a target for Everton, Leeds and Aston Villa, but Bolton may have to settle for less than the pounds 5m figure currently being quoted. The midfielder had a price clause put in his contract when he re-signed last year that guarantees he can go for pounds 3.2m if he is not sold during the summer.
Bobby Gould, the Wales manager, has revealed that the Everton winger John Oster was left out of the squad to play friendlies in Malta and Tunisia next month for disciplinary reasons, after being sent off for swearing at the referee in an Under-21 international against Italy in Modena last month. "Young players have to learn that they cannot behave like that when they are representing their country," Gould said.
Italy's coach, Cesare Maldini, left out Chelsea's Gianfranco Zola when he named his World Cup squad yesterday.
Zola, who scored the winner in Chelsea's European CupWinners' Cup final victory over VfB Stuttgart, has lost out to Bologna's Roberto Baggio, whose last game for the Azzurri was as a late substitute against Georgia last September.
The veteran Internazionale defender Giuseppe Bergomi, who played in the 1982 World Cup final, is also included. He last appeared for his country in 1991. Alessandro del Piero's place in the squad is provisional - he picked up a thigh strain playing for Juventus in Wednesday's European Cup final defeat to Real Madrid.
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