Manchester Utd. Poised to Sign Phil Jones for $26 Million: Soccer Roundup

The following is a roundup of soccer stories from U.K. newspapers, with clickable links to the Web.

Jones for United?

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson is poised to win the race to sign England under-21 defender Phil Jones, although Blackburn won’t budge on its 16 million-pound ($26 million) price tag, the Daily Mirror reported.

Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham are also interested in Jones, the newspaper said.

United striker Javier Hernandez will reject interest from Real Madrid because of his loyalty to Ferguson, the Sun said.

Young Go-Ahead

Aston Villa has given the go-ahead for Ashley Young to join Manchester United in a 16 million-pound deal, the Sun reported.

Villa owner Randy Lerner also plans to hold talks with ex- England coach Steve McClaren in the next 48 hours about the vacant manager’s job, after the departure of Gerard Houllier, the paper said.

Arsenal Swap?

Shakhtar Donetsk is ready to sell Brazilian midfielder Willian to Arsenal, the Sun reported.

Gunners manager Arsene Wenger is reluctant to pay the 13 million-pound asking price but Shakhtar may take Arsenal’s Denilson in part-exchange plus 4 million pounds, the newspaper added.

Sunderland Targets

Sunderland will step up its interest in Birmingham’s Craig Gardner and Roger Johnson when the sale of Jordan Henderson to Liverpool is completed, the Daily Mirror reported.

Sunderland today said it agreed with Liverpool on a fee for Henderson, without revealing it. The deal is worth 18 million pounds, the Mirror said.

Liverpool is still keen to sign Blackpool’s Charlie Adam, the Guardian reported, and is also in talks with Roma to sign goalkeeper Alexander Doni.

To contact the reporter on this story: Peter-Joseph Hegarty in London at phegarty@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Elser at celser@bloomberg.net.