Rumours... Pardew wants Gradel, Baggies want Bradley, City recall for Gonzalez?

Gradel

An unusually busy day for rumours in comparison to recent weeks has firstly seen Newcastle relinked with Max Gradel, with Newcastle apparantly interested by a move for United's in form winger in the summer. According to the Sunday Sun - bastion of concrete rumours... Alan Pardew will move for Gradel as part of a larger scheme to recruit from the lower leagues where talent is often available, and at much less of a premium than already top-level personnel. I'd suggest this could have something to do with Max having recently brought in a new agent who seems keen to make a quick buck, as in January - Newcastle were apparantly preparing a £6M bid for Gradel, and secondly apparantly planning to offer Leon Best in a swap deal. The figure touted for Gradel would delight any Leeds fan but its highly unlikely that it is true (pretty obviously). I'll put this rumour down to a busy agent or lazy journalism. 

Simon Grayson has stated the club is in no position to sell our star men and unless a ridiculous offer is recieved he believes we can keep hold of them whichever division we are in next season. 

Johnson

I'm not even going to go in depth about the Johnson to West Brom rumour. I'm sick of hearing Johnson rumours and couldn't really care less who is supposedly after him this week. The Daily Mail reports they chose against a January bid and will wait until his contract is up in the summer to make a move for him on a Bosman. The outcome of these Johnson rumours will no doubt be affected by any possible future talks with Leeds after recent consistent performances, but they won't go away until the end of the season unfortunately. That's West Brom, Wigan, Forest, QPR and a few more. All sparkling destinations for an agent to direct their player.

Gonzalez

Finally in this little round up of what is for the most part utter "who cares? Its obvious speculation" journalism, a story with perhaps more credibility - not that it's really going to affect us at all. On-loan Manchester City goalkeeper, David Gonzalez who was last heard saluting the team spirit in the Leeds camp...

"The atmosphere and team spirit is just great"

"All the lads have taken to me being here as if I`ve been here for months already and I`ve only been here for a few weeks. It feels like we`re all aiming for the same thing."

 ... is apparantly in line for a recall by City boss Roberto Mancini, after an injury worry to backup keeper Shay Given according to the Mirror. Firstly "Shay Given, backup keeper" is frankly an unbelievable phrase many thought they'd never say. I can't believe a keeper of such quality spurned his long-time club to bench warm elsewhere but that's pots of money and modern day football unfortunately. Secondly, this obviously means City would be short on cover should Given indeed be injured. We still have Shane Higgs as acceptable backup and I believe Gonzalez was brought in with a view to a permanent deal in the summer: A) to replace Higgs whom we won't retain and B) to be of sufficient quality to step into Kasper's shoes should we be offered a significant sum for him in the window. It won't have immediate repercussions should he be recalled, but longer term, he was a clever signing - even if he wasn't immediately going to play. He's been impressing in City's reserves and would have been an able aquisition.

Simon confirmed that there's been no contact as of yet, though:

"We`ve had no phone calls in terms of recalling players.
"David`s been working hard in training and he`s pushing hard to get into the squad"